Today our cinemas will be invaded with a curious concoction of dubious historical accuracy and fang-faced bloodshed as Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter unveils itself to the world. But how far will this new parody culture go? Who else is being lined up against the wall of re-imaginiation? And just what the hell is a wall of re-imagination anyway? Let’s find out…
Earlier this year we had John Cusack as Edgar Allan Poe taking on the mantle of a serial killer hunter in The Raven and this fictional historical (or fictorical if you will*) trend was given an unhealthy shot in the face when Seth Grahame-Smith injected Jane Austen’s much loved Pride and Prejudice with a zombie outbreak, throwing the Bennett household into a fury.
More crossovers followed. Sea Monsters found their way into Sense and Sensibility, Queen Victoria was reimagined as a Demon Hunter, Tolstoy got an upgrade when someone came up with the idea of Android Karenina and then there’s Ol’ Abe Lincoln who hunted vampires.
Parody novels and their cinematic cousins will always find a curious crossover audience with the notion that the supernatural can be shoe-horned into any genre, and specifically into well known novels which have fallen into public domain and despite the fact that the long gestating Pride and Prejudice and Zombies adaptation hasn’t made it off the production line just yet it’s a fair bet that we’ll see more of these to come.
With that in mind and Photoshop in hand here are a few examples of the hysterical mess we could see in the next few years if this trend contnues unabated. Click to big them up.
*but I’m hoping you won’t.
