There was a time (not quite fourscore and seven years ago) when it seemed like every studio in Hollywood wanted a high-concept movie mash-up. Cowboys & Aliens? Perfect, who doesn’t like both of those? Pride and Prejudice and Zombies? Great, let’s try to attach every director and A-list actress in town! Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter? Pshaw, that concept is so strong that we could probably get away with a huge budget and cast a total unknown as the lead! Well, that was then, and this is now: Cowboys & Aliens underwhelmed at the box office so famously that Universal’s studio chief practically disavowed it, while the once-hot Pride and Prejudice and Zombies cooled so rapidly that it no longer has any talent attached. Still, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter soldiers on, and the fact that its trailer debuted exclusively today on … uh, a Time.com entertainment blog … tells you that there may be a problem selling this movie’s mixed tone. You see, it is called what it is! But it is also being played very serious and expensively? Obviously, Vulture will be first in line for a movie in which our sixteenth president fights vampires in slow motion on horseback, but we’re just warning you: Your parents are going to be so confused.
