Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter doesn’t exactly pop out as your typical summer blockbuster. To broadly compare it to this season’s offerings: it’s not based on a comic book, isn’t adapted from a toy line, and isn’t a reboot or sequel. All in all, pretty distinct, and I didn’t even mention that the film features one of our greatest Presidents kicking vampire ass. To further add onto that pile, Timur Bekmambetov’s adaption of Seth Grahame-Smith’s book is a hard-R summer movie.
If you’ve read Smith’s book, then you know it has its fare share of violence. If you haven’t read the book, here’s a good example: it features a vampire slaughtering a baby. Today I spoke with author/screenwriter Grahame-Smith as a part of our summer preview, wherein we briefly discussed how far the film pushes the book’s violence and what type of R-rated material to expect.
Here’s what Smith had to say about the film’s violence:
“We don’t kill a baby in the film, but we are an R-rated film. There are creatures getting their heads cut off, naked women interacting with vampires, limbs flying, and blood splatters. You know, there’s a dark, gory violence to the movie. We certainly don’t shy away from that.”
So, for those of you who were worried this was going to be another safe, PG-13 action movie, worry no more.
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter opens in theaters on June 22.
Make sure to check back next week for our full interview with Seth Grahame-Smith.