By now you’ve seen and probably laughed at the trailer or trailers for Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter. You’re probably wondering how anyone could think of such a premise. Abe Lincoln fighting vampires? What the hell has this world come to.

Well, it’s a pretty original idea by Seth Grahame-Smith. And guess what, there are people that are Googling whether the film is true or false. Did Lincoln kill vampires? Hell no, what are you – crazy?

But there are some similarities between the film and the real Lincoln that historians are celebrating. The Daily Beast has the full story.

First, historians love the fact that Lincoln is portrayed as a strong guy wielding an axe in the film. Despite many people thinking Lincoln was some skinny dude, he was actually quite strong.

“I find the whole throwing of the axe at vampires to have an eerie credibility,” Lincoln scholar Harold Holzer told The Daily Beast. “He could lift great weight. There was a lot of farm labor [in his upbringing] and there was a proficiency in splitting rails. He made his bones when he moved to New Salem by fighting the local bully in a wrestling match. Abraham Lincoln was a very strong guy who could use an axe.”

As for the vampire thing? It almost fits in with Lincoln’s mentality. Lincoln was definitely into the Gothic world. He was a Shakespeare fanatic and memorized Edgar Allen Poe’s poems. Stepping into the world of vampires is something some scholars find eerily plausible.

Of course, it’s also amazingly silly. That’s what other scholars are saying. Some are even saying they’re hurting Lincoln by putting him into this world of vampires. Something not lost on the author, which is why the vampires are a metaphor for slave owners.

I’m totally serious, here’s the author talking about it.

“Both steal life blood to enrich themselves. Both are inherently evil. Both use fear as a means of controlling other people. In those ways, vampires are just like slave owners.”

Huh, well when you put it that way Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter sounds a lot more smart that it comes across. If only we could get past that dorky title and could imagine a historical figure in a fantastic setting more readily, people could perhaps enjoy the flick.

And if you’re keeping score at home: the real – Lincoln’s strength and love for the gothic world. The fake: everything else. [The Daily Beast]

abraham lincoln: vampire hunter