You can’t get a better encapsulation of a film’s entire premise from its title than “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.” This is, indeed, a movie in which the 16th United States President moonlights as a vampire slayer, cutting down the undead with his trusty axe and eventually leading the country to victory in the Civil War (which also features vampires). That’s pretty much all you need to know about this 2012 action-horror flick, which has been resurrected by HBO Max subscribers in 2025 following a less than stellar theatrical debut more than a decade earlier.
The movie was co-produced by Tim Burton and directed by Timur Bekmambetov, the Russian-Kazakh filmmaker who’s worked on some solid stuff, helming 2008’s “Wanted” and producing 2018’s “Searching.” Unfortunately, he’s also one of the chief culprits responsible for one of the worst sci-fi movie in recent history: the Ice Cube-led “War of the Worlds.” At least Bekmambetov only produced that modern blunder, which somewhat excuses him (though nobody should be grated a reprieve for the worst movie product placement in history). Now, HBO Max users have decided to grant a reprieve to “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter,” which, according to streaming viewership tracker FlixPatrol, broke into the U.S. Top 10 movie charts in the wake of the 2025 spooky season.
“Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” hit number 10 on the charts on November 3, 2025, suggesting people aren’t entirely ready to move on from Halloween just yet. Whether the film can make any more headway on the platform in the coming days remains to be seen, but it will have to slay some tough competition in order to maintain its newfound streaming success.
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Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is getting a second chance after a rough debut
Benjamin Walker as Abraham Lincoln is covered in blood in closeup in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter – 20th Century Studios
“Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” is based on Seth Grahame-Smith’s novel of the same name and showcases a fictionalized history in which the eponymous president ventures out on his down-time to do battle with a caste of vampire plantation owners. More specifically, we see an alternate version of Lincoln’s past in which his mother was killed by a vampire, prompting the future prez to begin hunting down the evil creatures and learning the ways of his mentor, Henry Sturges (Dominic Cooper). There’s even a counterfactual take on the Civil War in which the vampire big bad, Adam (Rufus Sewell), deploys his forces to the front lines, prompting Lincoln to order an arsenal of silver weapons to unleash on the vampire hordes.
Unfortunately, the movie wasn’t successful upon its release, making $137.5 million at the worldwide box office against a budget of $67.5 million. Meanwhile, critics drove a stake through the film’s heart (see: its 34% rating on Rotten Tomatoes), with Nigel Andrews of the Financial Times declaring, “It is the best title of the year and will almost certainly be the worst movie.” The New York Times’ Manohla Dargis echoed her British counterpart, writing, “‘Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter’ is such a smashing title it’s too bad someone had to spoil things by making a movie to go with it.” Still, Roger Ebert found it “more entertaining” than he “remotely expected.”
Now, HBO Max users have given the film their seal of approval. All it has to do to move higher is take down classics like “The Shining,” modern hits such as “The Substance,” and Zach Cregger’s twisted suburban nightmare “Weapons.” That might be too much for even a super-powered Abraham Lincoln, but we’ll find out soon enough.
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Read the original article on SlashFilm.
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