Van Helsing is a 2004 American horror action film directed by Stephen Sommers. It stars Hugh Jackman as vigilante monster hunter Van Helsing, and Kate Beckinsale as Anna Valerious. The film is an homage and tribute to the Universal Horror Monster films from the 1930s and 1940s (also produced by Universal Studios which were in turn based on novels by Bram Stoker and Mary Shelley), of which Sommers is a fan.
The titular character was inspired by the Dutch vampire hunter Abraham Van Helsing from Irish author Bram Stoker's novel Dracula. Distributed by Universal Pictures, the film includes a number of monsters such as Count Dracula, Frankenstein's monster and werewolves in a way similar to the multi-monster movies that Universal produced in the 1940s, such as Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man and House of Dracula.
Despite mostly negative reviews, the film grossed over $300 million worldwide and did well with the general public, becoming one of the biggest blockbusters released in 2004.
Plot
In 1887 Transylvania, an angry mob lays siege on the castle of Doctor Victor Frankenstein, who uses his technology to bring his monster to life, much to the elation of Dracula who has a use for Victor's technology. After his assistant Igor betrays him, the doctor is killed by Dracula. The monster attacks Dracula and flees with Frankenstein, making his way to a windmill that the pursuing mob then sets ablaze, apparently killing the monster as well, to the disappointment of Dracula and his three brides; Marishna, Verona and Aleera.
One year later, after a battle with Jekyll and Hyde leaves him a wanted murderer; an amnesiac monster hunter named Van Helsing is sent by the Knights of the Holy Order to Transylvania to aid the Valerious family; descendants of Dracula who have vowed that they will never enter heaven unless they have destroyed his evil, and for nine generations have failed. He takes with him Carl, a friar who creates and provides the weapons Van Helsing uses, he is given part of an inscription and a ring as his only clues to his identity and to the mystery. Meanwhile, the last two members of the family; Anna and Velkan arrange a trap for a werewolf that ambushes them and apparently kills Velkan by falling with him over a cliff. When Van Helsing arrives, he saves Anna from Dracula's brides, killing Marishna which briefly turns the townsfolk against him, who fear retaliation, but Anna comes to his defense. Upon her insistence on taking the fight to Dracula, Van Helsing knocks her out, but she awakens in the night and discovers her brother Velkan; still alive, but now a werewolf himself. Van Helsing drives him off, and the two track him to Frakenstien's castle where they discover he is attempting to use the werewolf to replicate Doctor Frankenstein's experiment and bring his undead children to life, Dracula makes reference to Van Helsing being the "Left Hand of God" who had killed him once. Anna tries to save her brother, but he transforms and attacks her, she and Van Helsing escape, realizing that midnight of the full moon had driven her brother completely into Dracula's thrall.
At the burned down mill, Van Helsing and Anna fall into the ruins and discover Frankenstein's monster, still alive. But as he is not evil, Van Helsing cannot allow himself or Anna to kill him, the werewolf Velkan spots this and escapes, and fearing that Dracula will use him to bring his children to life, the monster begs Van Helsing to kill him. Instead, they escape by carriage to Budapest where they are attacked by Verona and Aleera, but using a trapped duplicate carriage, Verona is killed when it is destroyed, sending stakes through her heart and immolating her. Van Helsing's carriage is attacked by Velkan and in the ensuing battle, he manages to kill him with a silver bullet, but not before being bitten himself. Anna is then captured by Aleera who offers a trade; Anna for the monster. Taking him to Rome, they hide the monster in a mausoleum while Carl is sent to the Vatican to update them of the mission. Van Helsing goes to a costume ball to save Anna, but finds it is a trap when all the guests are vampires as well. Using a device Carl created, they destroy all the vampires and escape, but the monster is captured by Dracula.
During their investigations, they realize that Dracula's true palace was where his father banished him when he didn't have the heart to kill his own son. But he made a deal with the Devil who gave him wings in order to escape. After the Left Hand of God killed him, he was granted an immortal life as a vampire. Carl discovers the only thing that can kill Dracula is a werewolf, which allows Van Helsing until the stroke of midnight before he becomes Dracula's servant. Using the parchment, they find the passage to Dracula's icy fortress. Realizing there is a cure to his lycanthropy, Anna and Carl go after it while Van Helsing tries to save the monster. After Aleera attacks them, Carl narrowly manages to get the cure to Anna, who then kills a gloating Aleera. Meanwhile, Van Helsing and Dracula battle and he becomes a werewolf. Killing him at the last second, he turns on Anna who injects him with the cure, but he kills her.
The monster leaves Transylvania by raft while a cured Van Helsing and Carl light a pyre over Anna's body. He looks up and sees Anna with her family in heaven, and realizes his mission was a success before he and Carl depart on horseback into the sunset.
Cast
- Hugh Jackman as Van Helsing, a legendary hunter of monsters.
- Kate Beckinsale as Anna Valerious, the last descendant of an ancient Romani family.
- Richard Roxburgh as Count Vladislaus Dracula, the ruler of Transylvania,
- David Wenham as Carl, a friar of the Holy Order
- Shuler Hensley as Frankenstein's monster
- Kevin J. O'Connor as Igor, a former servant of Frankenstein's, now working for Dracula.
- Will Kemp as Velkan Valerious, Anna's brother, who is turned into a werewolf.
- Elena Anaya as Aleera, Dracula's youngest and most sadistic concubine.
- Alun Armstrong as Cardinal Jinette, Van Helsing's superior in the Holy Order.
- Silvia Colloca as Verona, Dracula's consort and the leader of the Brides.
- Josie Maran as Marishka, Dracula's concubine.
- Tom Fisher as Top Hat, a Transylvanian grave digger.
- Samuel West as Dr. Victor Frankenstein
- Stephen Fisher as Dr. Jekyll
- Robbie Coltrane as the voice of Mr. Hyde
Box office
The film opened at #1 in the weekend of May 7â€"9, 2004. The film grossed US$300,257,475 worldwide of which US$120,177,084 was from the US.
Critical reception
Van Helsing received mostly negative by critics. Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports that 23% of 165 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating was 4.2/10. The site's consensus reads: "A hollow creature feature that suffers from CGI overload." Metacritic rated it 35/100 based on 38 reviews. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times gave the film 3 stars out of 4 stating that "At the outset, we may fear Sommers is simply going for f/x overkill, but by the end, he has somehow succeeded in assembling all his monsters and plot threads into a high-voltage climax. Van Helsing is silly, spectacular and fun."
Soundtrack
The film's original soundtrack was composed by Alan Silvestri.
Merchandise
Board games
Van Helsing appears in a board game designed by Fréderic Moyersoen the creator of numerous successful board games such as Saboteur. The board game was released by Mayfair Games in 2010.
Video games
Vivendi Universal Games published a Van Helsing video game for PlayStation 2, Xbox, PC and Game Boy Advance. The game follows a similar plot to the movie, has gameplay similar to Devil May Cry and the PS2 and Xbox versions feature the voice talent of many of the actors including Hugh Jackman.
Slot games
Van Helsing also features in a slot game produced by International Game Technology. The game is available in real world casinos and online, though users in Argentina, Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Russia, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey and USA are excluded from playing the online games.
Spin-offs
Sommers expanded the story of Van Helsing in two direct spin-offs:
- The animated prequel titled Van Helsing: The London Assignment takes place before the main events of the film, focusing on Van Helsing's mission to try to stop Jack the Ripper, who turns out to actually be Mr. Hyde, from terrorizing London.
- There is also a one-issue comic book titled Van Helsing: From Beneath the Rue Morgue, that follows Van Helsing on a self-contained adventure that occurs during the events of the film, just after the death of Jekyll/Hyde in Paris but before Van Helsing returned to Rome. In the adventure, Van Helsing deals with Doctor Moreau and his hybrid mutants.
Reboot
In May 2012, Universal Pictures announced that they are rebooting the film with Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci as a two-year deal to produce a modern reimagining and Tom Cruise to star as the title character and also produce the film. Rupert Sanders is in talks to direct the film. Orci spoken to IGN that he has hinted that both The Mummy and Van Helsing reboots will have a shared universe.
See also
- Vampire film
- List of films featuring Frankenstein's monster
References
External links
- Official website
- Van Helsing at the Internet Movie Database
- Van Helsing at AllMovie
- Van Helsing at Rotten Tomatoes
- Van Helsing at Metacritic
- Van Helsing at Box Office Mojo
- Dark Horse Comics' Van Helsing one-shot comic book