Worst of all, the inspiring biopic and the bloody 3D spectacle seem to occupy parallel historical time zones. Parents need to know that Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is based on a history-twisting novel by Seth Grahame-Smith.

And two CGI-tastic action scenes have been added, a chase through a stampede of horses and a runaway train headed for a burning bridge. Two new characters have been introduced, bored leader of the undead Adam (Rufus Sewell) and Abe’s (ahem) black best friend from boyhood, Will (Anthony Mackie). While Abraham Lincoln is widely lauded for saving a Union and freeing millions of slaves, his valiant fight against the forces of the undead has remained in the shadows for hundreds of years. The storyline is faithful to neither fiction nor reality. Gifted with his legendary height, strength, and skill with an ax, Abe sets out on a path of vengeance that will lead him all the way to the White House. He still finds time to court Mary Todd, campaign against slavery and carve out a political career, but faces disaster during the Civil War, when the vampires are drafted into service by the Confederate South. A skilled rail-splitter, axe-wielding ‘Honest Abe’ moonlights as a slayer of bloodsuckers, one of whom, at the behest of loathsome slave-trader Jack Barts (Marton Csokas), killed his beloved mother.

Based on the American president’s secret journals, as imagined by scriptwriter Seth Grahame-Smith (adapting his own novel), this cod-historical horror movie from ‘Nightwatch’ director Timur Bekmambetov is long on speculation, emancipation and decapitation, but in the end is essentially a lot of balls.

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