[ABRAHAM LINCOLN VS. ZOMBIES
is now available on home video.]
Review
by Bob Ignizio
Practice may not always make perfect,
but if you do something often enough, chances are you'll at least
improve. That seems to be the case with straight to video specialists
The Asylum. The company carved out a niche for themselves as
producers of what many dismissively refer to as “mockbusters”,
cheap rip-offs of big budget Hollywood epics. Their early efforts
were pretty awful, but the recently released ABRAHAM LINCOLN VS.
ZOMBIES, clearly meant to ride
on the coat tails of the recent historical action/horror hybrid
ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER,
is actually more enjoyable than its inspiration.
The
plot synopsis is contained in the title, but for those who need more,
here's the skinny: A Union force sent to capture a Confederate
outpost is massacred by zombies, the sole survivor returning to tell
the tale before joining the ranks of the walking dead himself.
President Lincoln (Bill Oberst Jr.) is familiar with zombies, having
encountered them as a child when they killed his parents and puts
together a special team that he himself will lead to wipe out the
undead menace. Various other historical personages show up, including
Stonewall Jackson (Don McGraw), Pat Garrett (Christopher Marrone), a
young Teddy Roosevelt (Canon Kuipers), and a certain actor named John
(Jason Vail). Our 16th President also gets a fictional “lost love”
turned prostitute named Mary Owens (Baby Norman) who joins the fight
against the walking dead along with her daughter Sophia (Hannah
Bryan).
The
special effects, makeup, costumes, and sets may be a little
threadbare, but director Richard Schenkman (who also made the
worthwhile sci-fi sleeper THE MAN FROM EARTH
and a few Playboy
videos) does a good
job keeping viewers from noticing his film's shortcomings with
plentiful action and a light tone. Having a fairly solid cast doesn't
hurt, either. No one is going to win an Oscar for their performance
here but everyone is at least competent, with Oberst in particular
standing out in the lead role. Adding to the fun are some clever
twists both in regards to American history and undead mythology (the
zombies in this film “sleep” until someone makes noise or
directly disturbs them). It's by no means great, but everyone
involved does the best they can with what they have to work with,
neither taking themselves too seriously nor descending into self
parody. If you want a movie where Abe Lincoln kicks living dead ass,
this is the one to watch. 2 1/2 out of 4 stars.
are you a F**kin PSYCHO........ ur a stupid SOB... this is border line porno knock off stupid........ a Red Box fooled me into buying this "Horse Sh*t" movie...the only reason I rented this movie was because it was a super bright sunset to the west and my local Red Box was to the east, I was squinting to find "Abraham Lincoln vampire Slayer" and accidentally rented this worthless knock-off.. dumbest movie I've ever seen..horse-sh*t acting I actually went back and bought 15 copies for like $21 so no-one will ever see this movie in my area ever again.....worst movie EVER...ur stupid
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