I get my period drama, he gets his action scenes, we both get vampires, everybody wins.
The writing is legit smart and well done, with some beautiful lines and some delightful craft
>!(eg the foreshadowing with the cane gun).!< So many history references (Tudyk as Douglass was wonderful, for example). Really just awesome fun for a history nerd!
There are some absurd scenes, but part of the fun of this movie is that it knows what it is. It's B-level schlock, it's schlock with a decent budget and self awareness of its own genre, but also with a desire to be truly good at what it is...so we get silly, well-measured amounts of fan service in action scenes (of course he'd kill a guy that way, yeah, now do it in slow mo!) coupled with genuine attention to story, scene and character.
The first time we meet Henry, for example, I got this weird feeling he was >!a vampire because of all the clues we were given. The red drink was a bit too thick to have been wine, he skirted around shards of smashed decantors (hunger rage?) on the floor, the room had heavy floor to ceiling curtains. He always wore sunglasses. Etc. The reveal felt earned because there were clues laid out clearly in scene and costume.!< There was true care put into details such as set design, constume and dialog and that really elevated this movie to something special.
The movie didn't handhold and expected an audience of people smart enough to understand the subtext and see clues but dumb enough to appreciate the absurd action scenes (wild horse stampede parkour ftw). If you are the right level of baked, this movie is a masterpiece.
I honestly do not understand why it has such a bad imdb rating. It was fun AF!
Is there a movie version? I'm planning on reading both books, although I was never a big Jane Austen fan. I seemed to have selected scifi and fantasy during that section of the character creation process.
3
lightblade13Mar 26, 2026
+4
There is
4
Temp89Mar 26, 2026
+3
The film is awesome and definitely worth it.
3
PawneewafflesarelifeMar 26, 2026
+1
Gonna find it!
1
socolime22202Mar 26, 2026
+2
Yasssss with Lily James, Suki Waterhouse, Lena Headey, and some other actors/actresses I forget.
2
PawneewafflesarelifeMar 26, 2026
+2
Lol this explains why my husband kept assuring me Cirsei would appear at some point in that film. He's clearly already seen both and conflated them and I'm impressed at his nerdpulation because here I am asking about a vibe sequel without even knowing one existed....
He was like hey babe, how about we watch this random movie I just found that seems to get our vibe!...
Consider me delightfully tricked into loving something!
2
socolime22202Mar 26, 2026
+2
i love this
2
cluckodoomMar 26, 2026
+3
I read the book first. This movie was a giant let down for me
3
PawneewafflesarelifeMar 26, 2026
+2
Sounds like the book is going to be a delightful followup, then!
2
larsvonawesomeMar 26, 2026
+3
Years ago, I was in a short indie film called "The Transient," about a super hero bum (basically Batman if he was a homeless guy) and his sidekick, Social Worker Steve, who fought 80s style punks that were led by the evil vampire, Abraham Lincoln. We were a bunch of goofy just-out-of-college kids and so it was no-budget and you can argue if it was terrible on purpose or just terrible. Lots of fun though.
Anyway, about a year after we made it the book ALVH was announced -- and the book trailer used the same Abe Lincoln reenactor as our silly little movie. We all were tickled by this. We even got to go to a Chicago comic convention as film guests, and it just so happened that Seth Grahame-Smith was also a guest there. We cornered him and gave him a shirt. He was cool and we hung out at the convention a bit with him.
Anyway, book is pretty good, author was cool, movie was silly fun.
3
PawneewafflesarelifeMar 26, 2026
+2
What a fun story, thank you so much for sharing it!
2
socolime22202Mar 26, 2026
+2
I loved this film. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is another grossly underrated film that I truly enjoy rewatching every year.
2
Seagoon_MemoirsMar 26, 2026
+2
agree
it's such a fun movie
2
DigitalBoy05Mar 26, 2026
+2
I got laid when I showed that to a okcupid date back in day
2
Independent-Story883Mar 27, 2026
+1
I agree it was a fun take on history, reimagining a story
Almost on the level of Hook for Peter Pan .
Some have no imagination. Namely part of my family that hated it
But well done. I enjoy creative plots and story telling should be rewarded more often
1
Level-Tangerine-3877Mar 28, 2026
+1
A Serbian Film - kicks in right away for a nerd date
1
DirtfloorcustomsMar 26, 2026
I wasn’t a fan of the movie but I expected too much from it ..
It wasn’t terrible
But it also wasn’t very good either
20 Comments