Abraham Lincoln vs. Zombies

Alright, whether or not "Abraham Lincoln vs. Zombies" is The Asylum's attempt to cash in on the (what looks to become a major picture) "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" or not, well I have no idea about that. But it does seem a bit strange that just prior to the major Hollywood production release of the latter movie, The Asylum decided to put this on the market. That being said, then it seems awfully a lot like what happened with "I am Omega" and the major Hollywood picture "I am Legend" incident.

Regardless of the reasons for why "Abraham Lincoln vs. Zombies" came into existence, then I have now seen it, not because I am American (which I am not), nor because it was with historically important American president Abraham Lincoln, no, but simply because it was something with zombies.

Taking place during the American Civil War, Abraham Lincoln and a selection of twelve secret service agents find themselves facing a threat of the living dead as they attempt to take over a ford. However, the living dead is not the only enemy the Union people are facing.

The story, oddly enough, was actually rather captivating and it managed to keep me interested right up to the very end. The storyline is a bit out there, when you think about it, but then again, isn't anything with zombies that? But that is not what I mean. What I meant was taking a historically important figure like Abraham Lincoln and have him battle zombies with a scythe? (And then later on this year, he will be battling vampires!) But oddly enough, in a comical sense, then the movie actually worked out quite nicely.

Having seen a bunch of previous works from The Asylum, then I can honestly say that they went all in this time, guns blazing and digging deep into their pockets. This movie is such a major step up the ladder, production-wise, for The Asylum, and just looking at the movie on the screen is a testament to them suiting up and stepping up to join the major league of movie production. The cinematography was great, the effects were great, and the people they had cast did great jobs. So it was really a refreshing touch to The Asylum's production value.

As for the zombies in "Abraham Lincoln vs. Zombies", well, then they actually looked alright, though there wasn't any major decay going on in them, as I assume they were to be recently deceased, and that worked out okay. The gore in the movie was alright as well, it just enough to keep a gorehound like me interested. And again, it was nice to see The Asylum step up and use better effects and CGIs for a change. However, one thing did puzzle me about the zombies. They opted to stray from the mainstream zombie, and had them standing about in a deathlike-slumbering trance when they weren't agitated by sound. That I found odd, why would they only be attracted to sound? So they had all lost the sense of sight? But again, it is a matter of personal preference I suppose. Some like Romero-style zombies, some like the fast and agile zombies as those seen in "28 Days Later", and some like something else entirely.

I found "Abraham Lincoln vs. Zombies" to actually be good entertainment value. There wasn't any scares or real shock scenes in the movie, which would have been nice. But still, if you like zombie movies and wouldn't mind seeing a somewhat comical approach to the take on Abraham Lincoln, then "Abraham Lincoln vs. Zombies" is definitely worth checking out.

As for the ending of the movie, well I am not revealing anything here, but there is a twist there in wait. I, personally, didn't really like it, but it was a nice turn of events nonetheless.

OK- So having read the previews of a pretty good Abraham Lincoln zombie movie a little while ago, I was surprised to see it available on my local DVD kiosk. Perhaps it went straight to DVD? No-turns out there were TWO Abe Lincoln Zombie movies released recently. This was NOT the goo done. This is not a bad movie if you can suffer through some bad acting and some badly thought out writing. The actor playing Lincoln was OK (reminded me of Lloyd Bridges a little). The actors playing Mary Owens and Garret the reb soldier were good as well. The rest of the cast was b-movie material. The overall premise was promising, but the plot suffered faults from the start. You would think that with all the zombie movies that have been made, the writers would have taken into account some basic things that the audience knows and the characters should recognize pretty quickly (granted this movie introduces the earliest origination of zombies, but don't they all?). The characters make dumb mistakes in their plans and in executing them which kind of kill the movie.The camera work is pretty good (but the editor could have done a better job editing some of the early scenes- ie too much walking) and made it a little brisker. Overall, it wasn't a waste of time, and was enjoyable despite its faults.

During the American Civil War, Abraham Lincoln (Bill Oberst Jr.) realizes that there are zombies in the Confederate army and he organizes a small group of agents from the Secret Service to take over a fort in Savannah from the enemy to fight against the undead. He has to face not only the walking dead, but also Confederate soldiers, a traitor and his former love Mary Owens (Baby Norman).

I saw the IMDb rating of "Abraham Lincoln vs. Zombies" and decided to watch this flick; therefore that is my fault. I was expecting to see a funny trash, but I found an awfully boring movie with no story, dreadful acting and cheap CGI. The lead actor is terrible and it might be sad and offensive for the American viewers to see the use the name of American personalities in such lame movie. My vote is two.

Title (Brazil): Not Available

It's pretty obvious that "Abraham Lincoln vs. Zombies" was made to cash in on the publicity generated by the big budget major Hollywood studio movie "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter". And it's pretty obvious that this movie, being a production from the low budget movie studio The Asylum, is not going to be very good even before you start watching it. Still, there's a little praise I can give this production. For was was a REAL low budget, the movie doesn't look that bad - it's obvious that the filmmakers managed to squeeze every last penny out of their limited funds. Also, some of the actors in the movie do seem to be trying hard despite the threadbare conditions. There are also no real boring bits, and there is a lot of blood and gore shed. But despite merit such as what I've described, the movie doesn't work in the end. The biggest problem with the movie is its tone - though there are plenty of flesh- eating zombies on the prowl, the movie doesn't manage to make them scary or feel like a real threat. The tone of the movie is instead sedate and casual, wrong for a horror movie such as this, even one that clearly isn't taking everything seriously. While the movie doesn't work in the end, I will freely admit I've seen worse horror movies both from and not from The Asylum.

The film had a very indy, unpolished look. From a cinematography standpoint, the film could have used a better audio mixer or even balanced it. With about another week in the editing room, those things could have been smoothed out.

On the plus side, there were terrific costumes, the camera boxing by the DP was fantastic and the acting was good overall, but Bill Oberst Jr. was ABSOLUTELY excellent. Loved the story and the way the writers worked in historical lines in the name of butt whoopin, "emancipate this!" They had fun creating it and it showed.

I think The Asylum films bring a MUCH needed levity to an industry that takes itself WAY too seriously. Every release from the big studios are on such a grand scale that the trailers themselves look like they cost a $million plus. The blockbusters are so reliant on "wow" cgi, that character development/creativity and story lines are somewhere in the trunk under the spare tire and jack!

This isn't a masterpiece, but it is fun and I laughed a lot. Well done!