The Strangest Companion Piece to Netflix’s ‘Death by Lightning’ Slays Streaming Competition

As the new historical drama series Death by Lightning continues to resonate with audiences, especially stateside, a movie set only some years prior to the show’s events is also surging on the streaming charts. In Death by Lightning, President James Garfield fondly remembers the values Abraham Lincoln stood by, but there’s little chance that he was referring to what we saw in the 2012 movie Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Directed by AI-aficionado Timur Bekmambetov before he could’ve robbed hard-working visual effects artists of their jobs, the movie opened to poor reviews and disappointing box office results. However, it continues to be a carnival-like attraction on home video.

According to FlixPatrol, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter was among the 10 most-watched titles on the domestic HBO Max charts earlier this week, competing against the likes of It: Welcome to Derry, The Chair Company, and Weapons. The movie was headlined by Benjamin Walker (The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power), and based on a novel and script by Seth Grahame-Smith, who also wrote the source material for Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Produced on a budget that has been reported to be as high as $99 million, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Huntergrossed only around $115 million worldwide, less than half of what Steven Spielberg‘s Lincolngrossed that same year. Unlike that film, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter received poor reviews, and is now sitting at a 34% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, where the critics’ consensus reads, “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter has visual style to spare, but its overly serious tone doesn’t jibe with its decidedly silly central premise, leaving filmgoers with an unfulfilling blend of clashing ingredients.”

‘Death by Lightning’ Opened to Positive Reviews

Bekmambetov, who’d broken into Hollywood with the smash-hit comic book adaptation Wanted, went on to direct the box office bomb Ben-Hur. After having devoted himself to “screenlife” films for years, he’s now planning a Hollywood comeback with a thriller starring Chris Pratt and Rebecca Ferguson. Meanwhile, Death by Lightning opened to critical acclaim a couple of weeks ago. The four-episode limited series, which traces the events leading up to Garfield’s assassination, leans more on progressive ideology than wooden stakes to the heart. Starring Michael Shannon and Matthew Macfadyen, Death by Lightning is still among Netflix’s top 10 most-watched titles domestically, with a “certified fresh” 90% score on Rotten Tomatoes.

You can watch both titles at home, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.