‘Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter’: Seth Grahame-Smith on Its Real-Life Origins

Jun 22, 2012 - The Daily Beast

Despite its crazy premise, some Abraham Lincoln scholars support Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Chris Lee talked to its author, Seth Grahame-Smith, as well as historians.

(Page 1 of 2)

On first blush, the movie’s premise sounds patently absurd: Abraham Lincoln, author of the Emancipation Proclamation, preserver of the Union, deliverer of the Gettysburg Address, axe-wielding killer of undead blood suckers.

And yet, the relentlessly gory 3-D thriller Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, which reaches theaters in wide release Friday, has won the vocal support of some noted Lincoln scholars who praise the film (as well as the book on which it is based) for depicting well-established but all-too-frequently ignored historical facts concerning the 16th president; namely, his Gothic worldview and explosive physicality.

It seems that the gaunt-faced stick figure shown seated and in repose at his Washington, D.C. memorial was much more than just a man of powerful convictions, high ideals, and an even higher stove-pipe hat. By many accounts, before he became commander in chief, Lincoln was a rough and ready outdoorsman, whose rail-splitter’s musculature would have been ideally suited to feats of physical daring-do. Like, say, wholesale vampire slaughter.

“I find the whole throwing of the axe at vampires to have an eerie credibility,” said noted Lincoln scholar Harold Holzer. “He could lift great weight. There was a lot of farm labor [in his upbringing] and there was a proficiency in splitting rails. He made his bones when he moved to New Salem by fighting the local bully in a wrestling match. Abraham Lincoln was a very strong guy who could use an axe.”

Contrary to whatever you may expect upon learning that both the film’s screenplay and source material were written by Seth Grahame-Smith—the “Junk Food Literature” phenom responsible for the surprise bestseller Pride and Prejudice and Zombies—Vampire Hunter stays more or less faithful to depicting the future president’s hardscrabble upbringing.

AP Photo ; Alan Markfield, 20th Century Fox / AP Photo

Full story at The Daily Beast