Van Helsing
Van Helsing is a 2004 action / horror film directed by Stephen Sommers. The film stars Hugh Jackman and Kate Beckinsale.
Main cast
- Hugh Jackman ... as Van Helsing (The Archangel Gabriel)
- Kate Beckinsale ... as Anna Valerious
- Richard Roxburgh ... as Count Dracula
- David Wenham ... as Carl
- Will Kemp ... as Velkan Valerious/ The Wolfman
- Shuler Hensley ... as Frankensteins Monster
- Elena Anaya ... as Aleera, a bride of Dracula
- Silvia Colloca ... as Verona, a bride of Dracula
- Josie Maran ... as Marishka, a bride of Dracula
- Kevin J. O'Connor ... as Igor
- Samuel West ... as Dr. Victor Frankenstein
- Robbie Coltrane ... as Mr. Edward Hyde (voice)
Plot summary
During the late 19th century Dr. Frankenstein works with Count Dracula to bring the dead back to life. In doing so he creates Frankensteins Monster. Dracula disposes of Frankenstein and the monster goes into hiding.
One year later Van Helsing is sent to Eastern Europe by a secret religious organization with ties to the Vatican in order to vanquish Dracula and save the family of the beautiful Anna from eternal purgatory. Long ago, an ancestor of Anna swore that he and his descendants would not enter Paradise until Dracula was destroyed.
Dracula tries to use Igor (Frankenstein's assistant) and Frankenstein's equipment to animate his offspring, which are born dead. However, without Dr. Frankenstein's expertise these attempts fail.
Van Helsing discovers that Dracula cannot be killed by the 'conventional' methods of disposing of a vampire, and also that Dracula knows of him. With Van Helsing's memory fragmented, he finds this curious.
Meanwhile, Dracula uses Frankenstein's monster as a catalyst to start a chain reaction that successfully animates Dracula's dead children.
It is discovered that in the Van Helsing universe, only a werewolf can kill Dracula. Van Helsing learns this after being bitten by a werewolf, and finally kills Dracula in a showdown during the next full moon.
Anna injects Van Helsing with the antidote to the werewolf curse, which Dracula keeps in his castle to protect himself, and Van Helsing reverts to a human after unwittingly killing Anna. Frankenstein's monster sails off into the sunset. Van Helsing burns Anna's body in a funeral pyre, and sees a vision of her entering Paradise with her ancestors.
Notes
In Bram Stoker's original novel, Dracula, and many subsequent films based on it, it is Dr. Abraham Van Helsing, an elderly anthropology professor from the Netherlands who does the vampire hunting.
Many fans have noted that Dracula refers to Van Helsing, as "Gabriel" several tims during the movie, and therefore believe that van Helsings first name is indeed Gabriel. This is not so. There are lots of hints during the movie (and in fact even Dracula implies it during the final battle) that van Helsing is actually the archangel Gabriel, "the left hand of God", who murdered Dracula four hundred years ago.
The film contains numerous homages to the Universal Studios horror films of the 1930s and 1940s, particularly those featuring Dracula, Frankensteins Monster, and the Wolf Man. A poem/legend specifically written for the The Wolf Man is quoted verbatim in this film.
Kate Beckinsale is becoming an old hand at fighting vampires, as she played a very similar character (albeit a vampire) in 2003's Underworld.
Although this film is an homage to the Universal monster series, it breaks a cardinal rule by referring to Frankensteins Monster directly by the name "Frankenstein", although in the context of this film, The Monster clearly considers himself to be Frankenstein's son.
Fans of the Japanese manga comic, Hellsing, which was published several years before Van Helsing was produced have noted numerous similarities between it and the movie -- for example, both feature Van Helsing/Hellsing as an action hero fighting Dracula -- but it appears the similarities are coincidental.
The actor who plays Frankensteins Monster also provided motion capture reference for the CGI-animated Mr. Hyde in the opening sequence.
Other Media
Sommers continued the story of Van Helsing in a one-off issue comic book format, and in an animated prequel that leads up to Van Helsing's actual opening scene in the film.
Comic:
Van Helsing "From Beneath the Rue Morgue"
Animated Prequel:
Van Helsing: The London Assignment
A spin-off television series, titled Transylvania, was also going to be produced, using the film's village sets, but due to poor US box-office and critical panning the series' status is currently unknown. Sommers wrote the pilot and supervisd six episode scripts.
External links
- Official website (http://www.vanhelsing.net/)
- Van Helsing (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0338526/) at the Internet Movie Database
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