Movies That Suck: Van Helsing (2004)

I think I first learned of this from a discarded issue of Entertainment Weekly that somebody left in my high school library. I remember the cover having a close-up of Hugh Jackman, with his long hair and hat, and I do think I looked through it and learned what it was all about. Needless to say, it sounded right up my alley: a modern, action-packed monster mash featuring the classic Universal monsters and with the legendary monster hunter, Van Helsing, at the center of it all. I learned all the more about it, and saw some clips and behind the scenes stuff, when Universal released their Dracula, Frankenstein, and Wolf Man Legacy DVD sets that summer, which came with some featurettes about how each of the classic monsters were realized in the movie. Not only did what I saw look pretty good, with Stephen Sommers showing a lot of passion and love for the classics, but also, despite his not having one of the best track records, since I really liked The Mummy, I figured that, with him at the helm, Van Helsing, at the very least, should be an entertaining flick. When I was on my summer break, I almost went to see it, but at the last minute, I decided not to, and I don't know why; I guess, when the opportunity arose, I just wasn't in the right mood. Ergo, I didn't see it until I got it on DVD as a Christmas present that year (along with a Gameboy Advance game that I played a bit of before watching the movie) and, when I did watch it, I wasn't sure what to think. I did like Hugh Jackman and some of the other actors, the film had plenty of action, and the climax featured a gargoyle-like Dracula and Van Helsing himself as a werewolf fighting to the death, so I should have been raving and cheering; instead, after it was over, I felt empty inside. 

Initially, I couldn't put my finger on what the problem was. Sommers' love for the classic Universal films was apparent in his many homages to them, some of which were overt, such as the set design, imagery, and various tropes, while others were more subtle, intended for diehards. So I couldn't say the movie's heart wasn't in the right place. Also, I, again, did think some of the actors did a good job, and there were other aspects that I did genuinely like and still do. But, despite a handful of re-watches over the years, it never became a movie I loved and I finally had to accept that, like AVP, another personal disappointment from that same year, Van Helsing was a prime example of empty spectacle. Having watched it again for the first time in many years to update this review for October Fest, my opinion hasn't changed whatsoever; in fact, this movie has gotten even worse as the years have passed. Despite what good things are here, this is an overlong, mind-numbing, bad CGI-riddled, hollow shell of a film, with a convoluted plot, far too many characters, creatures, and concepts for its own good, and action sequences that make you feel like you're watching someone's video game playthrough. Also, like he did with his Mummy movies, Sommers tried to infuse it with that same tongue in cheek sense of humor, when I think this movie could've greatly benefited from being darker and more serious, with a harder edge to it.

Transylvania, 1887. As angry villagers storm his castle, Dr. Victor Frankenstein succeeds in bringing to life a creature he's created from body parts stolen from various graves. Realizing what's happening, he plans to run away with his creation, but Count Dracula, who saw to it that he had the location and equipment necessary to complete his experiment, intends to use the Monster for his own purposes. Dracula kills Frankenstein when he refuses to go along with him, but the Monster breaks loose and escapes to a nearby windmill, taking his creator's body with him. The mob sets fire to the windmill and, despite Dracula and his brides' attempt to intervene, the Monster is apparently destroyed along with the building. The following year, in Paris, Gabriel Van Helsing, a monster hunter who serves under the Holy Order, an ancient secret society that protects mankind from evil, hunts down and kills Mr. Hyde after having first encountered him in London. Upon returning to Vatican City, Van Helsing is next tasked with journeying to Transylvania and destroying Dracula in order to preserve the souls of Anna and Velkan Valerious, the descendants of a knight who promised God that his family would never enter heaven until the Count was slain. With their father, Boris, having gone missing the previous year, Anna and Velkan are the only ones left. Van Helsing is also shown a torn piece of paper with Latin writing that was left by Valerious the Elder, and when he sees it has the same insignia as a ring he always wears, he becomes more intrigued, as he has no memory of his past before he was taken in by the Order. After receiving weapons and equipment from Carl, a friar who specializes in devising ways to kill monsters, he and Van Helsing set out for Transylvania. There, while battling Dracula, his brides, and his minions, Van Helsing learns he has some connection with the evil Count, who plans to duplicate Frankenstein's experiments in order to give life to his throngs of undead offspring. And in the end, Van Helsing may have to literally become a monster himself in order to defeat him.

Stephen Sommers said he came up with the idea of Van Helsing while he was on vacation after finishing The Mummy Returns. Being a lifelong fan of the classic Universal horror films, and having already dipped his toe in that world with his two Mummy movies, he decided it would be an interesting idea to take the character of Prof. Van Helsing and turn him into a young, dashing, swashbuckling monster hunter who goes up against the big three of Gothic horror. On paper, that's a really good idea, and could've made for a fun movie. But the problem is Sommers' approach. In late 2004, before I saw it for the first time, I saw a documentary about vampire movies that featured Van Helsing and someone, I believe an effects artist for ILM, said something to the effect of that, when Sommers was a little kid, he would watch the original Universal horror films on Saturday mornings, eating sugar-filled cereals, and his over-energized young mind would fill in what couldn't be shown in them. That's what the movie feels like: a hyper fanboy's daydream, which is what happens when you give someone like Sommers a budget in the $170 million range, with no creative shackles on him whatsoever. And not only does his imagination run overboard but the CGI absolutely overwhelms and swallows the movie. Coupled with it severely underperforming and killing off another potential franchise, I think, in the end, Van Helsing really hurt Sommers' cache in Hollywood. While he was a producer on the third Mummy movie and the first direct-to-video Scorpion King sequel, his next film as director wasn't until 2009, with G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, which did well financially but, as per usual with him, got mostly negative reviews. At this point, his last film as director was 2013's Odd Thomas, which bombed badly.

In his interviews about the film, Sommers made an interesting point about how the character of Prof. Van Helsing is always played by an older man, as per his portrayal in the original Bram Stoker novel of Dracula, and it would make for a fresh take to portray him as a younger, more action-oriented guy, at the beginning of his crusade against evil. And at the time, Hugh Jackman was probably the best man they could've gotten for the role. First of all, on a superficial level, Jackman just has an air of coolness about him that makes him an ideal action-adventure hero. His Gabriel Van Helsing not only looks good, with his long hair, rugged features, leather coat, hat, and boots, but Jackman brings his trademark charisma and wit to the character. He has a good number of memorable moments and lines, such as when he's being admonished for smashing the Rose Window in Notre Dame during his battle with Mr. Hyde and comments, "Well, not to split hairs, but it was Mr. Hyde who did the shattering,"; when he's searching for a werewolf and the undertaker says, "I see the Wolf Man hasn't killed you yet," Van Helsing retorts, "Don't worry. He's getting to it,"; and when Mr. Hyde tells him, "You're a big one. You'll be hard to digest," he retorts, "I'd hate to be such a nuisance." On another level, Jackman is able to get across this idea of Van Helsing as a troubled and conflicted but, overall, good man who, during his mission, does what he can to keep innocent people safe and help Anna Valerious in her battle against Dracula, as well as in dealing with the truth that her brother is now a werewolf and one of Dracula's minions. I especially like how, when they encounter the Frankenstein monster, Van Helsing sees him as very human, despite his origin, and because he knows he's not inherently evil. Even when the Monster says he's the key to giving life to Dracula's children, Van Helsing opts to take him to Rome for protection rather than kill him. Later, when the Monster is captured by Dracula, Van Helsing promises to save him and, during the climax at Castle Dracula, while rescuing him, offers to be his friend.

Van Helsing's personal conflict and inner turmoil come from two areas. One is that, because of the nature of his "job," where he kills these monsters that, as far as everyone else knows, are ordinary, innocent people, and under the orders of a secret society, he's become wanted for murder across Europe. In fact, when Anna asks him if he's a murderer or a holy man, he answers, "It's a bit of both, I think." He also has no memory of his past before the Holy Order discovered him crawling up the steps of their church, nearly dead, seven years

before, save for clues like a ring he's always worn and memories of fighting the Romans at Masada... in the year 73 A.D. When tasked with traveling to Transylvania to battle Dracula, Van Helsing finds more incentive to go when he's shown a piece of paper with Latin writing left behind 400 years before by Valerious the Elder, which is also marked with the symbol on his ring. Sure enough, he does find more clues to his past during his journey, eventually learning he has a connection to Dracula, as the Count knows who he is and hints at a past

history between them. During the climactic battle, Dracula tells Van Helsing that he was the one who originally murdered him in 1462, and also that the ring he wears was originally his own, showing the missing ring finger on his right hand as proof. As Van Helsing's first name is Gabriel, the movie, with all these clues, along with Dracula calling him "The Left Hand of God," which was also mentioned in an ancient rubbing about the Count's earthly death, hints that he may be a human

incarnation of Gabriel the archangel. Whether or not this is the case, there is something of an interesting dichotomy in how, after being called a murderer after killing so many monsters that were also people cursed in some manner, he now has to become a literal monster and use the werewolf curse Velkan inflicts upon him to defeat Dracula. And even though he succeeds in doing so, he kills Anna before he's cured, which devastates him and likely truly makes him feel like a monster. (Unfortunately, this is hurt by a bad visual at the end of the movie, which I'll go into later.)

What I don't like about this portrayal of Van Helsing is how he's basically a a monster-fighting James Bond, sent on missions to destroy monsters by the Holy Order, with the character of Cardinal Jinette acting as M, and Carl the friar as Q. Besides just being corny, I would've liked it so much more if Van Helsing, as he's often portrayed, was someone who fought the forces of darkness of his own accord. In fact, that would've given his lack of memory and conflict about being seen as a murderer more weight if killing these monsters was

a calling he was simply compelled to heed, despite the consequence and not knowing why. As it stands, he's just a glorified exterminator, and doesn't do it because he cares about protecting the innocent but because he's ordered to, with Jinette telling him, "It was clear to all of us that you had been sent to do God's work." Yes, he goes through a journey of self-discovery over the course of the story and does come to genuinely care about those around him, but his main impetus for doing so was

the promise of possibly regaining his memories. And as for those memories? In the end, he opts not to let Dracula restore them, saying, "Some things are better left forgotten," with no reason for him to now feel this way. So by the end, we don't have any real answers. As a result, despite how good Jackman is, Van Helsing is ultimately just another mysterious action hero with no past, something we've seen many, many times. 

To this day, I haven't seen the Underworld films (mainly because their inky visual style doesn't appeal to me), so I knew nothing about Kate Beckinsale when I went into Van Helsing. As Anna Valerious, she and her brother, Velkan, are the last in a family that Dracula has been wiping out for over 400 years; and once Velkan becomes a werewolf and one of his minions, Anna herself is now virtually the last and, if she's killed before Dracula is slain, her family will spend eternity in purgatory. Quite a lot for a character to bear but, unfortunately, Beckinsale isn't really up to the challenge. I will say that, besides being a very beautiful woman, she's definitely tough and a fighter, managing to hold her own in battles against the monsters (though she only kills one of them, and not even with the sword she always carries around). I also like how, even when Dracula has her under his spell at a masquerade ball in Budapest, she, though unable to control her body, has enough free will to remain defiant. And there's no denying her determination to destroy him no matter what because of the torment he's caused her family. But, unfortunately, her acting is rather wooden. Whenever she tries to be emotional, like when she believes her brother is dead, then learns he's now a werewolf under Dracula's control and wants to help him because she's the only family she has left, it never comes across as convincing. Rather, it just sounds like somebody who can't act well trying to have a moment. It also doesn't help that she and Jackman don't have very good chemistry. Predictably, they do try to develop a romance between Van Helsing and Anna but it feels very forced and comes out of nowhere. When he kills her at the end of the movie as a werewolf, while I was surprised they went that route, and despite how well Jackman played the moment, I didn't feel anything for Anna. And then, at the end, Van Helsing sees a vision of her reunited with her family in heaven, which not only hurts what I thought would be a good dramatic sendoff for him, but the visual effects are so bad you can't really tell what you're looking at.

For as much as I initially rolled my eyes at how he's Van Helsing's Q, supplying him with the weapons and gadgets he'll need to complete his mission, I grew to genuinely like Carl (David Wenham), this friar of the Holy Order who's sent with Van Helsing to Transylvania. He's sort of like this movie's take on Jonathan from the Mummy series, as he's primarily meant to be comic relief and is hardly the bravest man in the world. But, unlike Jonathan, rather than come off as cowardly, he feels more like someone who isn't cut out for field work and is in way over his head. Despite not at all wanting to accompany Van Helsing, when they arrive in Transylvania and get into the fray, Carl proves to be quite a loyal friend to him, doing what he can to help when caught up in the monster battles and managing to supply his friends with what they need at the exact moment they need it. In fact, he and Van Helsing become so close that Van Helsing tasks Carl with killing him if he's not cured of his werewolfism before time runs out. Carl is also invaluable due to his intelligence. Through intense research, he's able to help piece together where Castle Dracula is and, despite trying to back out, does take part in the climactic battle, wherein he plays a significant part. But it's not all bad for Carl; he actually gets some sex at one point after he manages to save a barmaid when Dracula's children attack the village. At first, she says he can't do it because he's a "monk," but Carl clarifies, "Actually, I'm a just a friar." That's the second time he uses that as an excuse for unpious behavior; when he curses about going to Transylvania to Van Helsing, he admonishes Carl for it, saying, "You're a monk. You shouldn't curse at all," and Carl retorts, "Actually, I'm still just a friar. I can curse all I want... damn it." No joke, I wouldn't mind seeing a movie centering just around Carl.

As Van Helsing's "M," Cardinal Jinette (Alun Armstrong) is hardly the sympathetic type. When Van Helsing returns from Paris, Jinette admonishes him for destroying Notre Dame's Rose Window, and also tells him that he and the others of the Holy Order aren't pleased that he's attracted so much attention for a secret organization. But he refuses to let Van Helsing quit, as he says he gets results and also because he believes he was meant to do this work, adding, "You already lost your memory as a penance for past sins. If you wish to recover it, I suggest you continue to heed the call." As for Van Helsing's inner conflict over feeling like a murderer for killing these cursed people, Jinette tells him it's all a test of faith. And when he tasks him with going to Transylvania to kill Dracula, he's not only insistent on keeping the Valerious family from ending up in purgatory but he gives Van Helsing further incentive to go by showing him signs that he might recover his memory there.

While trying to find info on the movie, I came across a press junket interview with Stephen Sommers where the interviewer told him that Richard Roxburgh was the best Dracula she had ever seen. If she was sincere and not just being ingratiating, then that woman needs to see a lot more Dracula movies, as Roxburgh's hammy to the nth degree performance is beyond embarrassing. Maybe the guy is actually a good actor and Sommers' direction is to blame but, good God! I couldn't believe what I was seeing and hearing the first time I saw the movie, as this feels more like a parody of Dracula. The best way to describe Roxburgh's performance is like a coked up combination of Bela Lugosi and Gary Oldman in Bram Stoker's Dracula, with a little bit of Tommy Wiseau thrown in as well (yes, I went there, and I'm not apologizing for it, either). There is not one line that he doesn't deliver in an over-the-top manner, and his inflections and basic way of speaking are constantly swinging back and forth from fairly clear to thick and breathy. His mood tends to flip on a dime as well. One moment, he's roaring at his brides, then compelling them to come to him, or he's shrieking in agony when he grabs a crucifix that Van Helsing shoves in his face, then quickly composes himself. I can't do justice to all of this in writing but, if you've seen the movie, you know what I'm talking about. It's kind of funny at first, because it's so bad, but as it goes on and on in a movie that's over two hours long, it really starts to get annoying. And it's not limited to just his speech, as he has these strange mannerisms and tics. When we see him emerge from his coffin, which involves him breaking through a quickly melting coating of ice over it, he stands at the edge of it, melodramatically yells for his recently killed bride while stretching his hands up into the air, as bats circle around him, and then floats down in a very fruity pose. At another point, he actually waltzes by himself. Waltzes! I know Dracula is a cultured guy and all, but it doesn't look right seeing the Prince of Darkness do that. And in his first confrontation with Van Helsing, he talks about how, when he usually stalks someone, he can almost dance to the sound of their rapidly beating heart, all while clapping his hands in a heartbeat rhythm and being as over the top as ever. But what I find very unforgivable is how, save for Dr. Frankenstein in the opening, Dracula doesn't kill a single person. Way to make him come off as even more of a joke.

Even the way Dracula looks is off and doesn't feel right. His hair is long, pulled back and held in place as a ponytail, with some stray strands hanging down in the front, and he wears earrings. His costume is okay, as it's totally black, but I hate that he doesn't have a cape except for a few moments, as Sommers thought going with it and the widow's peak would be too evocative of the old-fashioned Dracula iconography, which he said is now associated with the Count on Sesame Street. Similarly, he felt that Dracula turning into a bat is

no longer considered scary, so he instead had both him and his brides turn into these gargoyle-like, scaly, winged monsters, with bat-like features to the head, fifteen-foot wings, and claws. While we first see the brides' monster forms very early on and throughout the movie, we don't see Dracula's until the climax, mostly during his final battle with the werewolf Van Helsing. It's an interesting idea, this form does give Dracula extra strength and agility, and he can easily shift back and forth

between it, as well as bring it out only partially, as he does in the opening when he kills Dr. Frankenstein. But, unfortunately, the bad CGI pretty much kills its effectiveness. Dracula has other expected abilities, like enough strength to stop somebody with only a couple of fingers, the ability to float, climb and walk along walls, suspend himself upside down, power over another's mind, and the ability to regenerate damage instantaneously. Also, as per tradition, he casts no reflection and rests in a coffin. But he's not nearly as vulnerable as he's often depicted, as Van Helsing stakes him in the heart with one made of silver, and that doesn't kill him; it turns out, only a werewolf can kill him.

Like Francis Ford Coppola, Sommers attempts to make something of a connection between the fictional Count Dracula and the real life Vlad the Impaler, as in this film, he was a tyrannical ruler of Transylvania who was murdered in 1462, only to make a pact with Satan in death and become a vampire. He's also revealed to have been the son of Valerious the Elder, Anna and Valek's ancestor, and Valerious, despite swearing to God that he and his entire lineage would never enter heaven until Dracula was slain, couldn't kill his own son.

Instead, he banished him to an icy fortress, through a door he couldn't come back through, but Dracula, again, found a way to get around that and continue his reign of terror. His ultimate plan is to use Dr. Frankenstein's experiments to give life to the throngs of children he's sired over the years with his three brides, using other living beings as the conduit with which to do so. After Boris Valerious, Anna and Valek's father, and Valek himself prove unsuitable to sustain his children for very long, the

Frankenstein monster proves to be the key to making it work. But his motivation for this comes down to little more than just wanting his kind to overrun the world and wipe out humanity. They seem to try to make him come off as somewhat sympathetic when, after one of his brides is killed, he says, "Why can't they just leave us alone? We never kill more than our fill, and less than our share. Can they say the same?", but then, just seconds later, he declares, "I'm at war with the world, and every living soul in it!"

As bad as his portrayal is, I can't lie and say that Dracula doesn't have some memorable lines and quips. In the prologue, when Dr. Frankenstein realizes the villagers are trying to break into his castle, Dracula comments, "A pity your moment of triumph is being spoiled over a little thing like grave robbery." When Frankenstein then learns of Dracula's plan for the Monster, he says, "I would kill myself before helping in such a task," and Dracula tells him, "Feel free. I don't actually need you anymore, Victor." Similarly, when Velkan tells

him, "I would rather die than help you," Dracula says, "Oh, don't be boring. Everybody who says that dies." While dancing with her at the masquerade ball, Anna notes that Dracula has no heartbeat, to which he says, "Perhaps it just needs to be rekindled," before bearing his fangs and preparing to bite her. And going back to Dr. Frankenstein, when he pulls a sword on him, Dracula says, "You can't kill me, Victor," then pushes himself onto it until it's halfway through him and adds, "I'm already dead." Finally, I like how, when Van Helsing becomes a werewolf in front of him, Dracula goes from horrified to laughing delightedly at the sight of it.

As is often the case, Dracula has three brides: Marishka (Josie Maran), Verona (Silvia Colloca), and Aleera (Elena Anaya). While all three of them are quite beautiful (in their human forms, at least), they don't have the strongest personalities, as they all equally love and yet fear Dracula, with Verona and Aleera, at one point, coming off as shocked with how little he regards them when he talks about finding someone else to replace the recently destroyed Marishka. Another thing they have in common is how much they love terrorizing and

preying on humans. Fortunately, they all look distinct enough from each other and have different hair colors (Marishka is blonde, Aleera brown, and Verona black) to where I always know who's who. It also doesn't hurt that Marishka is killed early on, when Van Helsing intervenes when the brides attack the village, and Verona dies around the halfway point, while trying to keep the Frankenstein monster from dying. While they both have an almost lesbian interest in feeding on Anna,

Aleera, in particular, loves taunting her and backing her into a corner before going in for the kill. This ends up getting her killed, as it gives Anna the opportunity to stake her through the heart. The brides have basically the same powers of Dracula himself, though their monster forms are a bit different, as they have a chalk-white color to them, and retain more of their human look, whereas Dracula looks completely monstrous. Also, if it's overcast, they're able to come out in the daytime and hide when there's a break in the clouds in order to avoid direct sunlight.

In his first scene, Anna's brother, Velkan (Will Kemp), acts as bait to lure out a werewolf under Dracula's control so he, his sister, and some others can kill him. But, while trying to save Anna, Velkan seemingly dies when he and the werewolf go over a cliff and fall into a river below. Velkan returns shortly after Van Helsing arrives and attempts to warn her of Dracula's plans, but is revealed to now be a werewolf himself when he transforms after the full moon emerges from behind some clouds. Though Van Helsing chases and tries to kill Velkan, Anna stops him, not wanting to lose her last living relative. Meanwhile, Velkan goes to Castle Frankenstein, where Dracula attempts to give his children life using him as a conduit. Returning to normal, Velkan acts defiant towards Dracula, and then becomes enraged when he learns his and Anna's missing father was used in the experiment previously. However, he's no match for Dracula's power, and the Count uses in the experiment, him hoping that, as a werewolf, he will be able to generate enough energy to sustain his children. Though it proves unsuccessful, after midnight strikes, Velkan falls completely under Dracula's control, and later informs him that Van Helsing and Anna have found Frankenstein's monster. Along with Aleera and Verona, Velkan, in his werewolf form, takes part in the attempt to abduct the Monster, and while Van Helsing kills him, he curses him by biting him across the chest. Before Velkan dies, he and Anna have one last moment together, as he asks for her forgiveness, and she tells him that they'll see each other again. While he's not amazing, I think Kemp did a decent job, first in portraying Velkan's courage and skill, and his torment over now being a werewolf and a potential danger to his sister and others.

Since he wasn't able to be in The Mummy Returns, Sommers made sure to get Kevin J. O'Connor in here, casting him as Igor, Dr. Frankenstein's former assistant who betrays him and becomes Dracula's assistant because the Count pays him. He's basically a deformed version of Beni: a treacherous coward who you can tell would betray Dracula if a better opportunity came along, as he's seen complaining about working for him late in the film. Also, the moment where Van Helsing threatens Igor into showing Anna and Carl where Dracula's werewolf antidote is comes off rather similar to Rick beating information out of Beni. And just like Beni, when he gets the chance, Igor tricks the two of them and locks them up. He proves to be quite sadistic as well, as he's seen tormenting Velkan's werewolf form with a cattle prod and, during the climactic battle, delights in chasing after Carl with it. Igor's makeup is a bit uninspired to me, looking like a generic ghoul, with long, stringy hair, but his seemingly broken neck and costume, especially his first one, is a testament to Sommers' knowledge of the Universal classics, as they hearken back to the Bela Lugosi character in Son of Frankenstein.

Much to my surprise, my favorite character in the film is actually Frankenstein's monster (Shuler Hensley). It's hardly the most subtle portrayal of the character, both in performance and design, but I thought Sommers did a surprisingly good job of combing the iconic Boris Karloff portrayal with his depiction in the original Mary Shelley novel. While the Monster's look and origin are definitely based in the classic Universal movies, he's able to speak and express his emotions from the moment he's created. Right after Dracula kills Dr. Frankenstein, the Monster breaks loose, sends Dracula into the nearby fireplace, and drags Frankenstein's body to a windmill. Not only does he poignantly call Frankenstein "father," but he sadly yells, "Why?!", to all those who want him dead even though he's done nothing to deserve it. After the opening, the Monster doesn't reappear until over an hour in, when Van Helsing and Anna find him in a cavern beneath the windmill's remains. He's been living there for the past year, and has managed to become quite cultured, even faithful, as Van Helsing finds he's been reading the Bible. He then attacks both of them, snarling at Anna when she calls him a monster, "Monster! Who's the monster here?! I have done nothing wrong, and yet you and your kind all wish me dead!" During the skirmish, Anna asks him what he wants and he simply answers, "To exist." Van Helsing then tranquilizes him, but before he loses consciousness, he warns them that he's the key to bringing Dracula's children to life, and that he has thousands more in addition to the enormous swarm he revived the night before. Anna then goes to kill him but Van Helsing stops her, telling her, "My life, my job, is to vanquish evil. I can sense evil. This thing... man... whatever it is... evil may have created it, may have left its mark on it, but evil does not rule it. So I cannot kill it." Anna, again, goes to shoot the Monster but Van Helsing, again, stops her, telling her, "Not while I'm here." He then plans to take the Monster back to Rome to protect him from Dracula.

During the journey to get him to Rome, during which they're attacked by Verona, Aleera, and werewolf Velkan, the Monster, as much as he despises being chained up, offers to help in the battle if Carl unchains him and keeps his promise. But in the aftermath, when Dracula abducts Anna and Aleera offers to trade her for the Monster, he becomes enraged when Van Helsing appears to agree to it. Angrily pushing him, he reveals that he's been bitten by a werewolf, telling him, "Now you will become that which you have hunted so

passionately... May others be as passionate in their hunting of you." Unbeknownst to him, Van Helsing doesn't plan on trading him, and locks him up in a crypt, while he and Carl go to the masquerade ball to save Anna. But, it turns out that Dracula has servants everywhere, including in that very cemetery, and they capture the Monster and take him back to Castle Dracula to make use of him. Van Helsing promises to save him and intends on keeping it, despite Carl telling him that the Holy Order has ordered that the Monster be killed along

with Dracula. When they find the Monster at Castle Dracula, just as he's being hoisted up to be used in the procedure, he confirms to Van Helsing that Dracula has a cure for werewolfism and tells him to find it and escape. Much to the Monster's surprise, Van Helsing later appears to free him, telling him his friends are getting the cure for him. The Monster comments, "Friends," and Van Helsing responds, "Yes. You want one?" He's then forced to pull out the bolts that have him bound to

the table, telling the Monster it's going to hurt, to which he says, "I am accustomed to pain." Though he manages to free the Monster, they're unable to stop Dracula's children from being born. Still, the Monster attempts to help in the battle in any way he can, at one point holding Aleera back and telling Anna to go help Van Helsing. There's also a poignant moment before that when Carl goes against the Order's declaration that the Monster is to die and helps him when he's in danger of falling to his death and declares, "I want to live!" At the end of the movie, he heads off into the sea on a raft.

While I like the performance, the look they went with for Frankenstein's monster is very hit and miss. He has the expected attributes: the flat head, the bolts in the neck, the stitches, as he was, again, pieced together from various body parts, and big, heavy boots. And as was hinted at it in those black-and-white movies, the Monster's flesh is a dead pale, gray color. But like everything else with Sommers, his design is heightened. For one, the Monster is absolutely enormous, around eight-feet tall, well over 300 pounds, and has green, see-

through parts of the top and back of his head, and on his chest, where you can see electricity surging inside him. There's also a moment in his first real scene where he gets shoved up against a wall and the top of his head and the left side of his face come loose. And when Van Helsing grabs him while he's like this, he gets electrocuted and blown back. I can appreciate that his look is created largely through makeup, with only a few elements and instances like that being done through CGI,

and the makeup was created by Greg Cannom, who's great at what he does, but like so much else here, it feels overdone. It looks like the Karloff monster turned into an action figure, with the over-sized musculature and those glowing, electric parts, and I just couldn't take it seriously. I do kind of like the old tattered coat and hood he wears for much of the movie, and it reminds me of Robert De Niro's outfit in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

Dr. Victor Frankenstein (Samuel West) doesn't last long in the prologue before he's killed by Dracula, but he does speak the movie's first lines, doing a melodramatic imitation of Colin Clive and the iconic, "It's alive! It's alive!" when he succeeds in bringing his creation to life. He then realizes that the villagers are storming his castle and plans to flee with the Monster, when Dracula, his benefactor, tells him that he intends to take control and use the Monster for his own purposes. Since, rather than come off as shocked that Dracula is a vampire, Frankenstein is utterly horrified by his plan and refuses to have any part of it, that says to me that he knew of his true nature all along, which makes me wonder why he would trust him. He honestly didn't think the Prince of Darkness had ulterior motives for backing his experiments? In any case, Frankenstein also learns too late that his assistant, Igor, has turned on him and is now working for Dracula. He tries to stop the Count himself, only for Dracula to show that stabbing him with a sword is pointless, given his undead nature, and then tear his neck out.

The most memorable resident of the Transylvanian village is this weird-looking undertaker, referred to only as Top Hat (Tom Fisher), who looks about as ghoulish as some of the monsters, with his weird face, long, white hair, and entirely black clothes. He's actually the very first character we see, as in the prologue, he leads the villagers in storming Castle Frankenstein and then burning down the windmill to kill the Monster, and is among those who "greet" Van Helsing and Carl when they first arrive. He's always prepared for his job, immediately measuring Carl for a coffin, and seems quite happy when he tells them that Van Helsing's slaying Marishka will lead the other vampires to kill for revenge, meaning he's going to get more business. When Van Helsing is hunting Velkan as a werewolf in the village, he comes upon Top Hat as he's digging graves. When questioned about why he's doing it so late at night, he simply says it's never too late for it, adding, "You never know when you'll need a fresh one." He actually goes to whack Van Helsing with his shovel, but is promptly stopped and gets a gun pointed at him; he apologizes, saying, "It's just... my nature." Immediately afterward, he gets killed when Velkan leaps at both of them, sending him into one of his own graves.

As if we didn't already have enough monsters in one movie, Van Helsing's introductory scene has him tracking down Mr. Hyde (voiced by Robbie Coltrane) in Paris, after having already crossed paths with him in London. Though, I have to say that, while I'm not big on the design of Hyde as a hulking, almost ape-like, shirtless brute, and the CGI is, yet again, not great at all (it makes him look like a Shrek reject), he does prove to be an entertaining character, thanks to Coltrane, who also did the motion capture for his facial expressions. When you first see him, he hangs upside down from the rafters in Notre Dame, growling at Van Helsing, who's unfazed, and as Van Helsing recites the murders he's wanted for, Hyde interrupts him twice, first to clarify that he's not Dr. Jekyll and then to finish the list of murders himself with, "Four children, three goats, and a rather nasty massacre of poultry!" When Van Helsing calls him a "deranged psychopath," Hyde, who's been smoking a big cigar this whole time, puffs a smoke ring at him, then extinguishes the cigar with his tongue and eats it. He jumps behind him, takes his hat, and puts it on as he keeps talking, and when they fight, he proves to be formidable due to his strength and surprising amount of agility. He attempts to throw Van Helsing off the top of the cathedral, only for him to impale him through his midsection with his grappling gun. And when Hyde tries to take advantage of this and play around with him, he ends up killing himself by tripping off the roof, which sends him flying back through the church and out the Rose Window, finally turning back into Dr. Jekyll (Stephen Fisher) before falling to his death.

I haven't seen the movies he's made since but, even so, Van Helsing is, for me, the culmination of Stephen Sommers' bad habit of going overboard and throwing everything, including the kitchen sink, into these big-budget, action-adventure, fantasy movies. We started to see a little bit of it in The Mummy Returns, with the more overly complex and contrived story, and the heavier reliance on CGI, when compared to the first film, but here, with the biggest budget he'd had yet and

likely complete control, he doubled and even tripled down on it. The story, as we've already seen, is all over the place: an MI6-like section of the Vatican for which Van Helsing is a monster hunter, an entire lineage of a family that won't enter heaven if the last members die before Dracula is slain, Dracula needing Dr. Frankenstein's work on animating the dead to give life to his throngs of children and, for some reason, the Monster is the only conduit that works, some confusing rules

regarding the werewolf curse (I'll get into those shortly), and a hidden, mystical mirror in Castle Valerious that leads to Castle Dracula, which is on an icy mountaintop, and which was created because that's where Valerious the Elder banished Dracula (I have no clue how he managed to create such a portal, as there's no hint of him being some kind of sorcerer or anything of the kind). Oh, yeah, and Valerious did that rather than kill Dracula because he was his son, but left clues so someone else could, someday, figure out where the door was

and kill Dracula for him. He could've just flat-out said where the door was before he died but no, he decided it was better to leave behind a bunch of vague clues. There are also the hints that Van Helsing is actually Gabriel the Archangel in human form, as he seems to have lived for thousands of years, and one of his main motives is to regain his lost memory, but he actually turns it down when the offer is given to him, for no real reason. Yeah, it was Dracula who extended the offer, but still. Finally, a werewolf is the only thing that can kill

Dracula, which Carl eventually deduces from some random, hidden painting he finds in the castle study that starts moving and depicts two battling figures turning into a vampire and a werewolf. And Dracula has used werewolves as minions for centuries, despite this, but just happens to have an antidote for the curse in case one actually has the will to stand up to him. Head smoking yet? Don't worry: it'll get worse.

I also think that Sommers went overboard in terms of the sheer amount of monsters he put in the movie. Obviously, you expect Dracula and vampires with Van Helsing, but to also put in werewolves, Frankenstein's monster, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and even the living dead, is far beyond overkill. I've even read that the Gill-Man was originally supposed to appear in the cavern below the burned windmill but they dropped the idea before filming (I like to think it was because the

Gill-Man is just too cool to be in this clusterfuck). It makes me wonder where Sommers planned to take the sequels that would've been made if the movie had been successful. I know this was his way of paying homage to all the classic Universal Horrors, including the monster mash flicks of the 40's, but those were done when the studio had run out of ideas for their big franchises; by putting so many in your first movie, you're virtually blowing it all before you've even gotten started, when you could've easily just had it be all about Van Helsing

first encountering his legendary foe of Dracula. I don't even know why you'd want to bring Mr. Hyde in here anyway, given how, even though that 1913 film is basically the core of Universal Horror in general, the most well-known Jekyll and Hyde films from the Golden Age were all produced by other studios.

The look of Mr. Hyde here is very similar to the way he's depicted in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, which came out the previous year and which Van Helsing is often compared to, since they're both overblown, CGI-filled action flicks featuring many popular characters of literature, and also because they both squandered really good ideas. For me personally, I would've liked this movie better if it hadn't gone for that same steampunk approach as LEG. I know this is meant

to be a fantasy action film, so I should suspend my disbelief, and yeah, the Universal classics were very vague about their time periods and settings. But, as old-fashioned as this may make me, I wanted to see Van Helsing slaying monsters in the late 1800's with stuff he would've realistically had to work with, like revolvers with silver bullets, crossbows with silver tips, and stakes. When I first saw the movie and watched him using stuff like those automatic, whirling blades, that Batman-like grappling gun, and especially that high-powered

crossbow, not to mention a sort of instant death-ray weapon, I knew right then and there that this was not what I thought I was getting and wasn't happy. Maybe it's my fault for not paying more attention to the marketing or getting a clue from the images on the DVD cover and back.

I'm also not a fan of the tone the movie goes for. Again, it's my fault for not realizing what I was getting into, as knowing it was from the same guy who made The Mummy should've clued me in, but I wish this movie was so much darker and either R-rated or, at the very least, more harder-edged. Sommers has said he doesn't know how to make a dark, violent horror film, and doesn't care for that approach anyway, but when you have a movie featuring both werewolves and vampires and

there's very little blood, it comes off as tame. As for the humor, while there are some genuinely funny moments, mostly thanks to Carl, I don't think it fits for a movie that's trying to reference those old Gothic horror films since they were almost never intentionally tongue in cheek. It worked well in The Mummy because that film, despite a number of references to its ancestors, was a completely different film, and the actors in both it and The Mummy Returns were better at the humor than many of the people here. And some of the humor

here is rather lowbrow and even eye-rolling, like seeing Mr. Hyde's butt-crack before he pulls his shorts up and when, during the vampire attack on the village, Anna lands in a sitting position on top of Van Helsing, with her crotch right in his face.

The movie is certainly well-made on a technical level and there are scenes and shots that are visually stunning. Its opening is shot in gorgeous black-and-white, with shadowy lighting and some Expressionistic angles meant to evoke the classics (though that aesthetic makes the CGI effects feel very out of place), and Sommers also gets to make use of a visual motif he'd intended for The Mummy, where the Universal logo would turn into a shot of the bright, desert sun, only here, it shifts to black-

and-white and becomes the close-up of a torch wielded by Top Hat. When, following the prologue, the movie switches to color for the duration, it's just as stunning, with lots of deep blues for the many nighttime exteriors and dark interiors, as well as icy whites for the many scenes, both day and nighttime, set in a cold, snowy, overcast environment, both in the Transylvanian village and Castle Dracula. By contrast, many of the interiors are shot in warm, golden-brown colors. Also, like in the Mummy movies, Sommers

creates some beautiful shots of landscapes, cityscapes, and horizons through a combination of real locations and visual effects work, like the shots of 19th century Paris in the opening, Vatican City when Van Helsing returns from Paris, the shot of him heading into a brewing storm when he travels to Transylvania via ship, and the many foggy, overcast, but beautiful shots of the Transylvanian countryside.

That leads us into the art direction and set design, which are also top notch. Not only does the prologue's look evoke the feel of the classic Universal Horrors, but so do the sets, with the barren forest done on the backlot reminding me of the one set in Bride of Frankenstein, and the exteriors of Castle Frankenstein, with its big gate leading into an inner courtyard, the enormous main door, and the towers. The castle interiors are also classic, with Dr. Frankenstein's lab filled with all

the sparking and zapping electrical equipment you'd expect and the Monster strapped to a gurney, as well as walkways and scaffolding around what appears to be a huge generator powering the whole thing, and big tubes full of a green liquid. It also seems to occupy the same space as his study, as there's a desk filled with books and an enormous fireplace, which Dracula gets thrown into by the Monster when he awakens. An even more classic setting is the windmill near the castle, where the

Monster attempts to escape with his creator's dead body, only to get caught up in the fire the villagers set, which is fed by many bottles of absinthe housed inside. We revisit both environments a year later, during the main story. Castle Frankenstein is seemingly abandoned, but Dracula, Igor, and his minions, the Dwerge, repair the laboratory to attempt to bring his brood to life. Like in the classic Frankenstein movies, the person meant to be the conduit for this is strapped to the gurney and hoisted up to the roof, where certain equipment

attracts the lightning. In a lower, cobweb-infested chamber in the castle, Van Helsing and Anna find the green, slimy egg-sacs housing the vampire children, many more of which are at Castle Dracula itself. After escaping the castle, Van Helsing and Anna come upon the burnt husk of the windmill, and fall through the ground, into a small cave with water running through it, where they encounter the Monster.

The opening scene in Paris has a nice, sweeping shot of the city, panning from Notre Dame, across the Seine, and ending on a shot of the streetlamp-lit street, where Van Helsing finds Mr. Hyde's latest victim. His confrontation with Hyde takes place up in Notre Dame's dark belfry, which is filled with cobwebs, gargoyle statues, and wooden crates, and has overhead beams that Hyde swings across during their battle. And their battle concludes up on the rooftop, with Hyde getting flung through the

cathedral's interior before he's finally killed. In the following scene, when Van Helsing returns to Vatican City, we not only get a lovely view of it but also inside the Vatican, where he speaks with Cardinal Jinette in a confessional, which Jinette can use to trap him when he tries to quit the Holy Order. The back of the confessional also opens up to a stairway that leads down into the Order's main headquarters, where Van Helsing is both briefed on his next mission and, in the back, where the weapons and gadgets are developed and tested.

The Transylvanian countryside is depicted as a place dotted with eerie, misty forests, large canyons with rivers running through them, and snow-covered peaks, while the small village where a good chunk of the first act is set is depicted as a small, poor place, where the villagers live in constant fear due to Dracula and his brides and are very suspicious of strangers. The actual village set, which was built in the Czech Republic, was based on the look of German Expressionism, especially

when it comes to the houses, whose roofs are very canted, and there's a large well at the center of the place, as well as a church overlooking the houses. Speaking of the church, its small graveyard and the dark alleyways around it are the setting for when Van Helsing hunts Velkan in his werewolf form. And since it's a tiny peasant village, there are no cobblestones or any type of pavement; the ground is basically just mud, especially since it's often either snowing or raining there. Overlooking the village is Castle Valerious, the interiors of which

are made up of large, beautifully-designed hallways and rooms, some filled with lots of weapons and suits of armor. The most significant rooms are Boris Valerious' large study, which houses a hidden painting activated by a lever that reveals a painting which hints that Dracula can only be killed by a werewolf, and another with a large map on the wall that turns out to be hiding the portal leading to Castle Dracula.

We see a bit of Budapest following the carriage chase scene, right before Van Helsing and Carl hide Frankenstein's monster in a nearby graveyard. The most noteworthy setting here, though, is most definitely the enormous ballroom in this castle where the Halloween night masquerade ball is held. The size and design of the place just looks stunning, as do all of the nicely-costumed dancers and acrobats performing their stunts up near the ceiling and the balconies. Speaking of which, this

scene has an air of Cirque du Soleil about it, as you have performers such as guys twirling ribbons in the air, guys on stilts, a waiter on a unicycle, fire-eaters, jugglers, a dancer atop a table, and even a guy playing the violin while balancing himself atop a large ball on a table. And as well-decorated as the place is, with marble statues, a black-and-white tiled floor, and huge, multi-leveled candelabras, the most amazing part of it is a simple, huge mirror that, in one shot, shows only Anna's reflection and outs all the others as vampires (something I totally

missed the first time I saw the movie). We see a little bit more of this castle when Van Helsing, Anna, and Carl escape, jumping through a stained glass window, but we actually get the most out of the moat, which they fall into and where, after being cut off by a gate and promising the Frankenstein monster that he'll save him, Van Helsing begins to show effects of his werewolfism.

Finally, there's Castle Dracula, which you get a glimpse of during the first act after Marishka is killed, but don't see in its entirety until the third act. Found on a snowy mountaintop that's accessed by the mirror portal in Boris Valerious' study, it's the biggest dwelling in the entire film, created by combining already enormous sets with a ton of visual effects, miniatures, and blue screen work. It's so big that, in the establishing wide-shot, you can't even see the top of the towers, as they

disappear up into the clouds. When Van Helsing, Anna, and Carl approach the gigantic main door after coming through the portal, they're on a snowy bluff dotted with skewered skeletons, and once they're inside, they find they're in an enormous foyer, with a seemingly endless line of giant torchieres extending down it, as thousands of the egg-sacs housing Dracula's offspring hang from the ceiling. Among the rooms seen are Dracula's aforementioned coffin room, a room in one tower which houses the cure for werewolfism in a

viscous fluid that turns out to be acidic, and across from that is the tower where Dr. Frankenstein's laboratory equipment is installed in a huge room meant to simulate the good doctor's lab, only on steroids, right down to a table where the Monster is strapped and hoisted up to the roof so the lightning can strike him. Said room is also where the climactic battle between Van Helsing and Dracula takes place. And connecting both towers is a gigantic bridge lined with torchieres which both Carl and the Monster very nearly fall off, and which is where Igor meets his end. There are numerous other details to this place, as there's a third tower that's never used and is mainly there just for show, but those are the ones that come into play.

Even though they often look and feel like video game cutscenes, like with the Mummy movies, I can't deny that Sommers does know how to shoot the action scenes. Not only does he film and then edit them in a way to where you can tell what's going on, but he often gets rather creative in the camerawork, often shooting them from wide angles that make them come off as dynamic and even downright epic, like the circling shots in the scene where Velkan lures out the werewolf and when the

carriage jumps across the destroyed bridge in the chase sequence. Most impressively, for the sequence where Dracula's brides attack the village, they created flying POVs and shots for the brides by building this enormous rig, which Hugh Jackman said was the length of two football fields and the width of a single field, and using it to fly a special camera, called a "CableCam," through the set, at speeds of up to 50 mph. It's kind of similar to the way Sam Raimi shot the city swinging scenes in his Spider-Man movies, with Spider-Man

2, which made use of a more elaborate camera and rig than had been used before, coming out the same summer. I must say, it's really cool knowing that they went that extra mile to make it work, and the behind-the-scenes footage of how they operated this thing is impressive.

While many of the traditional vampire tropes are applied here, one new addition is what you get when two undead creatures like them mate. The result are thousands of green, slimy egg-sacs (they remind me of the cocoons the Gremlins come out of) from which, when they're given life via Dr. Frankenstein equipment, emerge these miniature versions of their parents' gargoyle-like, monster forms, which are much more bat-like in the face, but with long, rat-like tails and a pale fuchsia sort

of color to them. Unfortunately, nothing but the Frankenstein monster's energy is able to sustain them, as when anything else is used, they eventually explode into green goo; they also die off after Dracula is killed at the end of the movie. Dracula also has these small, dwarf-like creatures called Dwerge that serve him, and despite their small size, they're very ferocious and relentless when they attack, armed with some serious teeth.

Many of the familiar werewolf tropes are employed here as well, like silver bullets and the full moon, though they add this little caveat to the latter where, when the full moon goes behind a cloud, the werewolf changes back to his human form until it comes out again. (It's really just can excuse to show off the transformation more than once in a given scene.) Also, as has been depicted before, being a werewolf gives the person amazing strength and agility, as Van Helsing experiences the

closer he gets to his first full-on transformation. And, in another nod to the classics, when Carl discovers the hidden painting in the study, it comes with a familiar poem: "Even a man who is pure in heart and says his prayers by night/may become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms/ and the moon is shining bright." Not only does Sommers, like those before him, augment that last line from the way it was originally written in The Wolf Man, but he also adds another line all his own: "Or crave another's

blood when the sun goes down, and his body takes to flight." But some of the rules as to the werewolves here are kind of confusing. For one, it seems like Dracula has control over all werewolves, but only one at a time as, according to him, they're hard to control on the night of their first full moon. This is clear when Velkan is running all over the place and disobeying his strict orders when he goes to Castle Valerious and, rather than learn Van Helsing's identity, stops to talk with Anna when he become temporarily human again.

Anna also says that werewolves shed fur on the night of their first full moon, before the curse has completely overtaken them. And after the stroke of midnight, they become fully loyal to Dracula and, apparently, remain in their wolf form even during the day. 

But when Van Helsing is cursed, Carl tells him that he not only won't transform until the full moon rises but that, until the final stroke of midnight, he'll be able to resist falling under Dracula's control. Specifically, it's only when the clock strikes twelve that he transforms, and then, he and Dracula battle in their monster forms. But, even though Dracula couldn't control him, why was Velkan transforming before midnight during his first full moon? Did he just not have the will to

resist it like Van Helsing? Also, the idea that the entire climactic battle him and Dracula, as well as what's going on with the others, all take place during the twelve strokes of midnight, is really hard to buy, even more so than in Dragon Ball Z, where Goku and Frieza's very long battle is meant to take place over the course of five minutes before the planet Namek explodes. There's another big time issue when it comes to the rising of Van Helsing's full moon, as we don't have any inkling of how much time has passed since Velkan's first

but the carriage sequence, where he's killed and curses Van Helsing, appears to happen only a few days later, rather than a month. And even then, Van Helsing hides the bite mark until Frankenstein's monster outs him, after which Carl tells him he has two days before his first full moon. The timeline is mind-boggling, to say the least. And, again, I find it hilarious that Dracula uses werewolves as minions, even though they're the only thing that can kill him, and he has a cure for the curse just in case one has enough will to turn on him... which he keeps in a separate tower from the rest of his castle.

Though, in the end, they still look fake as all get-out, I do kind of like the actual design for the werewolves, which is a look you've seen in many movies: a big, humanoid wolf that can stand on its hind legs, but can also take off on all fours should the need arise. They're also able to climb along walls and pillars using their claws (what is it with Stephen Sommers and wall-climbing monsters?) and are ferociously agile. Also, their blood is green, as seen when the first werewolf is shot with

normal bullets. One thing I especially appreciate is that they gave each werewolf in the movie its own design. The first one, which Velkan lures out, is a silver-colored one meant to resemble the werewolf in An American Werewolf in London; Velkan himself becomes a brown-colored one; and Van Helsing becomes a hulking, black one, with a bit of white fur on his chest that seems to be in the shape of the cross. As for the transformations, Sommers decided the traditional hair-growing approach had

been done too many times and, instead, came up with an idea where the victim literally rips his skin and body apart, revealing the werewolf as it forms underneath, and then doing it again when he changes back. An interesting way of doing it, but it has been done before, in movies like Paul Schrader's Cat People and The Company of Wolves (and it looked better in those, thanks to the great practical effects). Even then, they cheat a bit; when Van Helsing briefly turns back into a human during his battle with Dracula, he just simply shifts back

rather than tear his werewolf form off. And since it's a PG-13 movie, they have a convenient loincloth when they turn back to normal, with moments of apparent full nudity obscured, like when Velkan is found dead after the chase scene. They actually shot Hugh Jackman completely naked when he changes back at the end, holding Anna dead in his arms, but added a digital loincloth, as they figured it would distract from the emotion of the scene.

I know I've been constantly grumbling about the visual effects but, like with the Mummy movies, they're not all bad. There are some great miniatures for some of the buildings, with the enormous one they created for shots of Castle Dracula looking especially cool and detailed, the digital matte paintings used to add more to the environments are as spectacular as those in the Mummy movies, and the compositing of the actors into these environments is often quite seamless. There are

also some shifts between the CGI creatures and the real actors that are quite well-done. The most impressive instance comes during the battle with Dracula's brides, where Marishka flies in, removing Van Helsing's arrows from her body, lands on a railing, and walks across it, slowly turning back into her human form, and you see the digital effect transition back to Josie Maran, with the wounds on her body instantly healing, all in one shot. Moreover, while they still don't look great, the brides' monster forms come off better than Dracula's because it's a combination of the actual actors in partial makeup and wearing motion capture suits.

But, as per usual, the overabundance of CGI, especially when it comes to the monsters, is where the movie falls on its face, and this time, Sommers doesn't have the other elements that worked in the Mummy movies to fall back on. This was most definitely made during that awkward period following the first handful of groundbreaking, big budget movies to use CGI, where it was now being used for just about everything, even when it shouldn't have. As you've seen from a lot of the

screenshots, the digital monsters don't look at all real, and they could have easily mixed and matched the CG with makeup, like with the brides and the Frankenstein monster, or animatronics; instead, during so many of the action scenes, you have fully computer generated monsters flying or jumping every which way, and in some cases, they use digital doubles for what would've been impossible or unsafe stunts. As I've said too many times already, it feels like you're watching a cinematic from a video game and doesn't come

across as organic at all. Finally, at the end of the movie, after Anna has died and her body is burned on a pyre by the seaside (likely because she once told Van Helsing that she'd never seen it before), her spirit appears to emerge from it. Van Helsing, sensing it, turns around and looks up at the clouds to see, what I think, is a vision of her being reunited with her brother and family in heaven. I get that it's supposed to be ethereal, but the effect is so vague that I can just barely make it out, even when it's just a vision of her smiling face. And I'm not showing a low-quality image to prove my point; these were taken from a full HD, 1080p stream.

While I said earlier that the movie starts with the Universal Pictures logo turning black-and-white and then shifting into the flame of a torch, it actually bursts into flames before transitioning into the torch. We then see the angry, torch- and blade-wielding villagers storm through the woods, and then use a huge log as a battering ram to smash open the gate leading onto the grounds of Castle Frankenstein. Inside, Victor Frankenstein has just brought his creation life, and excitedly declares, "It's alive! It's alive!", when he hears the

commotion outside. He runs to the window and sees the villagers battering down the castle's main door; among them, Top Hat looks up and sees him, then tells the others to hit the door again. Frankenstein backs away from the window and is startled by Count Dracula, who comments on the situation. Frankenstein runs back to prepare to flee, while Dracula asks him where he's going to run to, noting how his experiments have made him a rather unpopular man in many countries (after he speaks, a flash of lightning briefly reveals his

monstrous form's face). Frankenstein says he'll take his creation somewhere nobody will find him, but Dracula tells him, "Oh, no, Victor. The time has come for me to take command of him." Frankenstein doesn't understand and Dracula, suddenly appearing on the other side of the trunk he's packing, slams the lid down and yells, "Why do you think I brought you here?! Gave you this castle?! Equipped your laboratory?!" Frankenstein answers, "You said... you... you said you believed

in my work," and Dracula says, "And I do. But, now that it is, as you yourself have said, 'A triumph of science over God!'", when he shouts that last bit, a bit of the lab equipment suddenly sparks and explodes, and then, he relaxes again, finishing, "It must now serve my purpose." Frankenstein asks what that is, and after a cutaway where the villagers manage to break down the door and flood the castle, he's been told and is horrified by it. He tells Dracula that he would never allow his creation

to be used in such a manner, and the Count then threatens him. Frankenstein yells for Igor, but when his assistant appears, he reveals that he now works for Dracula because he pays him. Cornered, Frankenstein grabs a sword on the wall but Dracula impales himself on it, showing him that it's pointless. He grabs Frankenstein, bears his monstrous fangs, and, as Igor watches, rips his throat out. However, the Monster breaks free from his straps on the table and, after Dracula has finished his creator, he picks up a generator and throws it at the Count, flinging him into the fireplace. The Monster then scoops Frankenstein's body up into his arms.

Igor flees the castle, followed by the Monster, who carries Frankenstein's corpse towards the nearby windmill. Igor deliberately gets the villagers' attention by yelling, "Dr. Frankenstein!", and they chase the Monster to the mill, while Igor runs off into the countryside. Inside the lab, Dracula flings the generator out of the fireplace and emerges from it, burning and charred. He easily extinguished the flames and the damage to his body heals instantly. He then transforms into his monstrous, winged form, though we only see this in shadow.

Meanwhile, the Monster manages to reach the windmill ahead of the mob, and closes and bars the door in front of them. He climbs the stairs to the top of the mill, knocking over and breaking a number of the many bottles of absinthe inside. Outside, Top Hat prompts the villagers to burn the mill down, and they throw their torches at it. One manages to fly through the building's base, and the fire quickly spreads through the wood and straw. It also causes a massive explosion when it reaches the absinthe. Emerging on the platform atop the

mill, the Monster, still carrying his creator's body, shouts an anguished, "Why?!" This unexpected moment stops the mob in their tracks, and as the flames spread around him, the Monster asks the same question again. The realization that he can speak causes one woman to faint, but just seconds later, the villagers have more things to worry about; Dracula emerges from Castle Frankenstein and is joined in the air by his three brides, who appear over a rise. The villagers flee from the 

burning mill, while the Monster, looking down at Frankenstein and sadly saying, "Father," lets out one last yell before the platform gives way beneath him. He falls and is engulfed in the flames, as the windmill promptly collapses. Dracula and his brides arrive at this very moment and, while the brides are anguished by this, Dracula stares sternly at the burning wreckage.

Switching to a year later, and to color, we first meet Van Helsing when he's in Paris. He rips a WANTED poster with his image off the wall, then hears a woman shriek, and the sound of maniacal laughter. He heads down into the city and, walking along the Seine, finds a recently murdered woman on the ground. Making the sign of the cross for her, he then finds a still smoking cigar lying near her, and looks back over at Notre Dame to see someone climb up the face of the building and disappear onto its roof, while laughing evilly. In the next

scene, Van Helsing has entered the building and headed up into the belfry, where he finds a chair sitting in the middle of it. He doesn't get far in before Mr. Hyde hangs down in front of him, growling loudly. Van Helsing is only slightly startled by this, as Hyde hops down onto the floor and stands up, revealing just how huge he is. The two of them have a bit of banter between them, Van Helsing telling Hyde, "Now, my superiors would like for me to take you alive, so that they might extricate your better half... Personally, I'd

rather just kill you and call it a day. But let's make it your decision, shall we?" Hyde, after leaping behind Van Helsing, removing his hat, and putting it on himself, pretends to think, commenting, "Hmm, do let's." He then backhands Van Helsing, sending him flying through some planks behind him, but he manages to whip out a pair of revolvers and fire at Hyde, who runs off into the dark depths of the belfry. Van Helsing walks into the center of the room and sees Hyde coming at him, swinging

along the bars up near the ceiling. He whips out a pair of automatic blades and activates them, as Hyde hops down and charges at him. He manages to slice Hyde along the torso, and Hyde slams face-first into the bell. As it rings, and he yells about it dizzily, Van Helsing runs at him, only for Hyde to tear the bell free and bring it down on top of him. Retrieving the hat from the floor, Hyde puts it back on and laughs triumphantly, when he hears sawing sounds beneath the bell. He lifts it up and sees that

Van Helsing sawed a hole in the floor... however, he didn't go down it. Instead, he's hiding up in the bell, and after reclaiming his hat, he slices Hyde's left arm off, causing him to drop the bell. Hyde whines as he sees his severed arm turn back to normal, then runs at and grabs Van Helsing, swings him around, and throws him up through the ceiling.

Van Helsing lands on the roof of Notre Dame, and Hyde jumps up through the ceiling and joins him. He picks him up and carries him over to the edge, saying, "I think you'll find the view over here rather spectacular." He then tells him, "It's been a pleasure knowing ya. Au revoir!", and tosses him off the roof. As Van Helsing plummets, he pulls out his grappling gun and fires. The hook goes right through Hyde's center and out his back, where it clamps onto him and nearly causes him to fall. Van Helsing swings right above the street and lands at

the cathedral's base, then attempts to pull Hyde over the edge. It almost works, but Hyde retains his balance, then grabs the line and runs back while holding it, dragging Van Helsing up the front of the building. But Hyde isn't watching what he's doing and falls over the edge on the roof on the other side. He falls through a glass ceiling, swings right through the chapel, and smashes through the Rose Window. He falls to the ground and turns back into Dr. Jekyll before he hits, ensuring that it's fatal.

Van Helsing, who's now back on Notre Dame's roof, looks down, quickly says, "Requiescat in pace," and crosses himself. Down below, the authorities come along and find Jekyll's body, when one of the officers looks up and sees Van Helsing. Recognizing him, he yells, "Van Helsing, you murderer!" Van Helsing merely puts his hat back on and then rides off, heading back to Vatican City.

After being briefed about his next assignment by Cardinal Jinette, Van Helsing visits Carl, as he works on some new equipment. He walks Van Helsing over to get him some equipment, when he notices him looking at a rack of swords. Carl comments, "Oh, any idiot can make a sword," only to be confronted by a large monk who just finished forging his own sword. Carl apologizes for what he said and then equips Van Helsing with some rings of garlic, a bottle of holy water, a silver stake, and a crucifix. Suddenly, someone fires off a Gatling

gun behind them, and Van Helsing asks why he can't have something like that. Carl comments, "You've never gone after vampires before, have you?", to which Van Helsing retorts, "Vampires, gargoyles, warlocks, they're all the same: best when cooked well." Telling him he's very wrong in that assessment, Carl demonstrates the explosive properties of some glycerine-48 by dripping a dab on his finger and flicking it, causing a sudden blast that has those nearby yelling at Carl, questioning

his mindset. He next shows Van Helsing his newest invention, an automatic, gas-propelled crossbow, when Van Helsing is drawn to a sphere on a heater containing some green liquid. Carl, trying to take the object back from him, tells him it's compressed magma from Mount Vesuvius, mixed with pure alkaline from the Gobi desert. He admits he's been working on it for twelve years but doesn't know what it's for, exactly. He does know that it creates a light source with the intensity of the sun and packs it with the other stuff... and that's when he learns that Jinette has ordered him to accompany Van Helsing.

Cut to Transylvania, where Velkan Valerious is introduced while he's tied by his wrists to a large pole in the middle of a misty forest. He scans the area around him, waiting for something to strike, and it's clear from the lurking POV shots within the brush and the growling that something is stalking him. Gripping his ropes, he says, "Come on. Dracula unleashed you for a reason." Then, an enormous werewolf emerges from the tree branches, lands on the ground in front of him, and charges at him. Using his impressive agility and

strength, Velkan manages to swing himself up to the top of the pole, then grabs a rope hanging above him. A nearby villager hoists him up using a pulley, only for the rope to get snagged. Dodging the werewolf, as he climbs up and jumps from the pole and swipes at him, Velkan yells for the man to pull him up. Hearing the commotion, his sister, Anna, makes her appearance, wielding her sword, and running to the pole, despite the danger. Seeing her coming, Velkan tells the man to cut the rope, when the werewolf turns and spots Anna. As she

runs at him, he jumps down, only to fall through a covered ditch around the pole. The villager cuts the rope and the pulley hoists up a large cage hidden down below. Velkan pulls out a handgun and prepares to shoot, but the cage comes up too fast and he gets knocked on top of it, dropping his gun to the ground. Velkan jumps off the cage and onto a nearby tree branch, as the villagers down below fire on the werewolf. Anna tells them they need Velkan's gun, as it's armed with silver bullets, when

their shooting hits the rope hoisting the cage up. Anna spots Velkan's gun and runs for it, but the cage breaks loose and hits the ground right in front of her. The werewolf bursts out, swipes at Anna, and chases her through the forest. She runs until she comes to the edge of a cliff overlooking a large canyon. The werewolf jumps out of the brush and flies at her, but at the last moment, Velkan comes in, pushes her aside, and fires his gun. Both he and the werewolf go over the edge and fall into the water below. Getting to her feet and realizing what happened, Anna looks down at the ripples in the water and, mourning her brother, says, "God, help us."

Van Helsing and Carl arrive in Transylvania and find their way to the village near Castle Valerious, where they receive a hostile reception from the villagers, as well as from Anna. Just as she orders them to be killed when they refuse to be disarmed, Van Helsing pulls out his automatic crossbow, seemingly to threaten Anna. But when she ducks, it's revealed that Dracula's three brides have arrived. Van Helsing fires numerous arrows at them as they swoop in, while Anna yells for the villagers to take cover in their homes. As he continues

targeting them, both Van Helsing and Anna get knocked to the ground by one of them, and then, Aleera swoops in and tries to fly off with her. Before she can be carried off, Van Helsing runs after and grabs Anna's legs. The extra weight forces Aleera to drop them, and after they land, Van Helsing tells Anna to stay put, but she refuses, saying she's the one they're after. She runs for it, while Van Helsing goes for his crossbow; seeing this from above, Verona orders Marishka to kill him. She swoops down at him, while Anna runs

through the village, attempting to dodge Verona and Aleera. Van Helsing fires more arrows, when he runs out. He tells Carl that it's not working and Carl, tossing him a new pack, tells him to aim for their hearts. Running and catching the arrows, Van Helsing then has to dodge Marishka when she comes down at him; instead, she grabs a cow and flings him through a house in front of him. Seeing that the others are still chasing Anna, he fires on them in rapid succession. She dodges the arrows herself, then jumps, dodging the vampires; Verona

takes the opportunity to grab a hapless man, fly up with him, and bite into his neck. Suddenly, there's a break in the cloud cover and the sun comes out, illuminating the village. Things get eerily quiet, as the vampires take cover to avoid the sunlight. Knowing what's going on, Van Helsing scans the village, as the people nervously emerge from their homes and wander back into the center of town. Hearing something inside it, both he and Anna, armed with a sickle, approach the well at the center

of, and quickly glance down into it. However, it's so dark that they can't see anything. Up above, the clouds cover the sun again, and, sure enough, Aleera comes screeching out of the well. She grabs Anna, as Van Helsing points his crossbow but can't get a clear shot. Anna takes out a blade and slices at Aleera's foot, forcing her to drop her, only for Verona to catch her in midair. Just as she's about to fly off with her, Van Helsing aims and fires, hitting

Verona in one of her wings. She drops Anna, who slides down along the roof of a house and grabs onto the edge of it. While Marishka chases Van Helsing, Anna swings herself away from the roof, only to hit a tree's trunk. She tries to right herself and jump down, but instead tumbles down the branches. She does manage to land on her feet, though.

Marishka gets shot full of holes by the arrows when she reaches Van Helsing and smashes through the roof of a nearby house. Anna runs for cover in another house, only to run into Aleera, who, after hanging upside down, runs across the ceiling and jumps down, reverting to her human form. Outside, Van Helsing cautiously approaches the house Marishka crashed into, hearing her inside, only for her to explode through the wall and knock him to the ground, causing him to lose his crossbow. She lands on another house's porch

railing, removing the arrows from her body, healing her wounds, and reverting to her human form as she does. While Anna tries to escape Aleera without much success, and gets backhanded hard enough to be flung out the window and back outside, where she runs for cover again, Marishka dares Van Helsing to go for his nearby crossbow. Carl pulls out a bottle of holy water and tosses it to Van Helsing, only for Verona to catch it and throw it in the well. She then orders Marishka to finish him off, when Carl points Van Helsing to the

nearby church, where there is water collecting. After they both look at it, Marishka smiles at Van Helsing, bearing her fangs and turning her eyes an inhuman yellow color. Inside an inn, Anna, again, runs into Aleera, who's about to drink a cup of a dead man's blood, commenting, "Thirty years old... perfectly aged." Anna then turns around to be faced with Verona in her own human form. The two vampires approach her menacingly, cornering her, while outside, Van Helsing runs for the crossbow,

as Marishka takes to the air again. She brutally slams into him, then flings him into the side of a cart and then the side of a house. She flies up into the sky high above the village, laughing evilly, only to then realize that she knocked Van Helsing right next to his crossbow. Inside, Verona and Aleera prepare to feed on Anna, while Van Helsing grabs his crossbow and runs towards the church, as Marishka comes down at him. He runs as fast as he can, makes it to the church, dips the tip of his

loaded arrow into the water, swings around, and opens fire, hitting and pinning Marishka to the steeple. Verona and Aleera sense this and let Anna go, before letting out shrieks and flying out of the building and off into the horizon. Van Helsing looks and watches Marishka disintegrate from the effects of the holy water, after which he makes the symbol of the cross.

He sits down on the steps to catch his breath, while Carl brings him his hat, which he lost in the battle. He's then surprised when the villagers suddenly rise up and approach him angrily, shouting about his killing a vampire; Top Hat explains that now, instead of killing for nourishment, the vampires will do so out of revenge. Anna manages to smooth things over when she tells the villagers that this man is Van Helsing, adding, "He's the first one to kill a vampire in over a hundred years. I'd say that's earned him a drink." Meanwhile, at Castle Dracula,

Dracula emerges from his coffin, enraged over the loss of Marishka, but his mood changes quickly, as he becomes interested in learning the identity of the stranger his brides encountered. It's also clear that he has another werewolf under his control, as the creature's silhouette can be seen behind a drape, and Igor is tormenting it with a cattle prod. Dracula also becomes enraged when his brides protest another "experiment," but then embraces them, saying they shouldn't fear him. While he goes off with them, he orders Igor and the Dwerge to get to Castle Frankenstein.

That night, at Castle Valerious, Van Helsing sprays Anna with some knockout gas when she refuses to allow him to help her. Later, she awakens in her bedroom and, remembering what happened, storms out to confront him about it. Hearing a clatter in a nearby armory, she walks in and calls for Van Helsing, but doesn't get a response. Grabbing a lantern, she cautiously enters the armory, grabbing a nearby weapon. She creeps down the length of the room and jumps around a corner, expecting to see an intruder. All she finds is a window that's

open, as it rains outside. She goes and closes the shutters, then looks at the floor and see why it was open: wet, paw-like footprints leading into the next room. She's also being watched, and hears the sound of her stalker making his way to another vantage point. She grabs a nearby handgun and turns around, heading in the other direction, as she's watched from up above. Water begins dripping on the floor behind her from up above, and when she walks into a doorway, she turns and feels one of the drops hit her. A POV shot shows

the creature is right above her, and she turns to see a large, brown werewolf snarling at her while holding onto the side of the doorway. She quickly fires on him and runs; outside, a cloud covers over the full moon. Anna runs back into the armory, only to be surprised to see Velkan. Ecstatic to see that he's still alive, Velkan, after sharing a brief moment of tenderness with her, tells her that he only has a moment. He attempts to tell her what Dracula's secret is, when he suddenly stops talking,

and begins groaning, seemingly in horrible pain. He stumbles away from her, and then begins snarling and flailing around, flipping over a large table. Anna realizes what's happening and cries in horror and despair, as he begins climbing up the side of the wall. Seeing the moon emerge from behind the clouds outside, he yells for Anna to run, his voice turning into a roar, and then rips his body apart, revealing himself to be the werewolf. Once he's fully transformed, Van Helsing comes running

in. Before he can shoot Velkan, he escapes through the nearby window. After checking on Anna, only to find her in shock, Van Helsing runs to the window and looks out to see Velkan cross the river separating the castle from the village and run off into it. Carl then runs in, asking, "Why does it smell like wet dog in here?" Van Helsing tells him it's a werewolf and, as he runs out, Carl tosses him a pack of silver bullets.

Down in the village, Van Helsing, after loading up his revolver, walks the cold, misty streets, searching for Velkan. As he stands in the street, a figure walks behind him and he turns and points his gun. When nothing happens, and he scans the darkness, he asks, "Who's hunting who?" He hides around a corner, then comes across Top Hat, as he stands in an upright coffin. He tells him, "This is a bit tight for me. But for you... it's a perfect fit. What a coincidence." He goes back to digging graves in the churchyard, then makes the mistake

of attempting to whack Van Helsing with his shovel when his back is turned. Following a moment of levity, as Top Hat apologizes for it, he then gasps when he looks behind Van Helsing. Van Helsing quickly moves out of the way when Velkan comes charging in, grabs Top Hat, and crashes into some nearby headstones, sending him into one of his freshly dug graves, while his hat flies up and lands on top of the shovel's handle. Van Helsing gets to his feet and, seeing Velkan, aims to shoot,

only for Anna to run in and knock his arm up, causing him to miss. Velkan takes the opportunity to escape, despite Van Helsing chasing him. Enraged, he grabs Anna and slams her against a wall, choking her. He then lets her go, and they argue about him killing her brother. Anna, having heard of Dracula's supposed cure, is intent on going after it. When she tells Van Helsing that Velkan is the only family she has left, he sympathizes with her and agrees to help her find him.

At Castle Frankenstein, Igor and the Dwerge get the laboratory equipment up and running, as Dracula oversees it. Outside, Velkan's trail leads Van Helsing and Anna to the castle, and they see the lights on inside it, even though the place should be abandoned. Back in the lab, Velkan lands on the floor near Dracula and reverts back to his human form, which Dracula pays little attention to. He's similarly apathetic towards Velkan's defiance about helping him, when the Dwerge remove a charred corpse from the machine. Seeing the crucifix

around the neck, Velkan realizes it's the corpse of his missing father and attempts to attack Dracula, but the Count easily stops him. He tells Velkan, "He proved useless. But I'm hoping, with werewolf venom running through your veins, you will be of greater benefit!", and the Dwerge begin connecting him to the machine. Velkan remains defiant, telling him that Anna will succeed in killing him; again, Dracula pays him no mind. In the castle's foyer, Van Helsing and Anna hide from some Dwerge, as Anna explains to him, "Dracula's servants.

Industrious, but extremely vicious. If you get the chance to kill one, do it, because they'll do worse to you." Overhearing them speaking in their native language, Anna says they've mentioned Velkan being used in an experiment but Van Helsing tells her the harsh truth that there's no hope for her brother, and that they must kill Dracula. While Dracula and his minions prepare to begin, Van Helsing and Anna wander into a huge chamber filled with the green egg sacs housing Dracula's offspring, and note the wires connected to them.

They push their way through them, while up above, a bolt of lightning hits the equipment installed on the roof, conducting it down to where Velkan is. On Dracula's command, Igor throws a switch and sends the energy down through the wires and into the egg sacs. The sacs begin pulsating after being energized and Van Helsing, curious to see just what exactly is inside them, takes off one of his gloves and rips into one of them. A bunch of slime and gunk pour out, and after he removes layers of the

membrane, he sees the creature within. Unbeknownst to Anna, the sac behind her is hatching, the creature sticking its hand through. Suddenly, the one inside Van Helsing's sac springs to life, at the same time the one's hand touches Anna's shoulder. They both jump back, when another lightning bolt and a surge of energy is sent down to the sacs. They all hatch simultaneously, and while Van Helsing and Anna run for it, the baby vampires fly up to where Dracula, Aleera, and Verona are standing on a balcony. They turn out to be very happy parents, and Dracula sends his brides to teach their young how to feed. As they fly off, Dracula shouts, "And beg the devil... that, this time, they stay alive."

As the horde of vampires fly out of the castle, Van Helsing whips out a shotgun and begins picking them off in midair. Hearing this, Dracula looks and sees him destroy one of the offspring right in front of him; Van Helsing comments, "Now that I have your attention." Enraged, Dracula leaps down and takes his flight in his monster form, as the gust of wind from his wings blows over electrical equipment around Van Helsing as he tries to run for it. Anna goes to help her brother, while Van Helsing finds himself trapped in the chamber when

the door is blown shut, as Dracula continues flying overhead, causing havoc. Back in the village, Carl is in the castle study, doing research, when the sound of wind outside draws him to the window. He sees the vampires flying past, with one of the young ones slamming into the glass, and he runs to warn the villagers. While Dracula stalks Van Helsing, Anna enters the lab, where Igor and the Dwerge attempt to keep the energy up. However, Igor finds that Velkan is insufficient and that they're losing power; Anna looks up to the roof,

where energy is still coursing through Velkan and down through the wires. Elsewhere, the vampires descend upon the village, grabbing onto people to feed on them and carrying others to their doom. Verona even picks up one poor man and tosses him into the air so that her young can catch and feed on him, as she yells, "Feed, my darlings! Feed!" At the castle, Van Helsing leaps down and impales Dracula through the heart with his silver stake. The Count groans as Van Helsing drives and twists it 

further in, but to his shock, not only does this not kill him, but Dracula just smiles and says, "Hello, Gabriel." In the lab, on the walkways running through it, Anna is spotted by several Dwerge and jumps on one of the ropes extending down from the ceiling. One Dwerge jumps onto the spot above her, but she grabs his leg and flings him down into a vat of boiling liquid below. The two others jump below her and try to drag her down, but she uses her sword to cut the rope and send them falling into

the vat as well. She then climbs her way up to the roof, while Igor shouts, "We must not lose the master's progeny!" Back with Van Helsing, he watches Dracula remove the silver stake and toss it aside. Dracula then talks about a past history between them which Van Helsing doesn't remember, and he becomes interested to know just how he knows him. Up on the roof, Anna tries to free Velkan, ignoring him telling her not to, when he begins transforming into the werewolf again.

Dracula asks Van Helsing, "So, would you like me to refresh your memory? Hmm? A few details from you sordid pasts?" Van Helsing whips out a large crucifix and Dracula grabs it, only for it to burst into flames. He lets go of it and it melts in Dracula's hand, after which he quickly regains his composure and drops what's left of it. He then says, "Perhaps that is a conversation for another time. Allow me to reintroduce myself." While bowing, he goes on, "I am Count Vladislaus Dracula. Born 1422. Murdered 1462."

The vampires continue their assault on the village, carrying off a woman who jumps out a window, and attempting to make off with a barmaid who's hanging onto her tavern's sign. Seeing this, Carl runs and throws something, hitting the young vampire and forcing it to let go of the woman's legs. She drops and Carl catches her in his arms. They watch as the young vampires continue their attack, with the one Carl hit swooping down at them, only for it to stop in midair, convulse, swell, and explode. The others begin doing so, much to

the misfortune of one woman whom they were trying to carry off, as she falls to her death. Aleera and Verona see this and scream in anguish, before flying back to the castle. There, when Dracula is distracted by their cries, Van Helsing makes his escape, using a dumbwaiter to quickly reach the rooftop. He meets back up with Anna and fires his grappling gun, extending a line from the castle to the nearby forest across a huge chasm. Velkan frees himself and completely transforms, as Van Helsing and Anna slide across the line. A bolt of lightning

strikes and destroys the equipment, and Velkan jumps onto the line. His extra weight causes it to snap and Van Helsing and Anna swing across and into the forest, while Velkan falls into the river below. Afterward, with calm having returned to the village, the monsters gather atop the castle, Igor saying, "I am sorry, Master. We try and we try but, I fear we are not so smart as Dr. Frankenstein." Dracula concurs, "Truly. It would appear that the good doctor took the key to life to his grave."

Velkan climbs up and joins them, shaking the water off; Dracula orders him, "Hunt them down. Kill them both." Meanwhile, Van Helsing and Anna make their way to the burned husk of the old windmill. They attempt to partake in some of the remaining absinthe there, when the floor underneath them gives way and they fall beneath the mill.

The next morning, Carl, after having had a nice night with the barmaid, finds the hidden painting, and, after reading the Latin inscription, is startled when it comes to life, with the two figures becoming a werewolf and a vampire monster, and battle. He stumbles backwards and falls over the couch behind him, along with the barmaid. Elsewhere, Anna awakens in the cavern beneath the windmill. She pushes away the debris lying near her and gets to her feet, when Van Helsing shushes her, telling her, "There's something down

here." Anna pulls out her sword, as Van Helsing goes on to say, "It's carnivorous." He finds a Bible near the edge of the pool of water there and adds, "And whatever it is, it appears to be... human." Following a trail of footprints up a slope, he says, "I'd say he's a size 17, about 360 pounds, 8 and-a-half to 9 feet tall. He has a bad gimp in his right leg and, uh... three copper teeth." Anna asks, "How do you know he has copper teeth?", and Van Helsing, grabbing his revolver, answers, "Because he's standing right behind you. Move!" He pushes

her out of the way but, before he can fire, the enormous, hooded figure knocks his gun away and tosses him into the pool. Anna then realizes it's the Frankenstein monster, and he, in turn, grabs her and slams against the wall, yelling about how mankind wants him dead for no reason. Van Helsing comes up behind him and punches him in the back, causing him to slam face-first into the wall and knock the top of his head loose, as well as much of the left part of his face, with electricity

surging within him. Van Helsing grabs him but gets a shock strong enough to blow him back into the water. The Monster reattaches his loose parts and chases after Anna, as she crawls up the slope. But when he momentarily stops, Van Helsing shoots him in the back with several blowdarts, causing him to fall to his knees. Anna runs and grabs Van Helsing's gun but he stops her from shooting the Monster. Before he loses consciousness, he tells them that he is the key to giving life to Dracula's

children, and that he has thousands more elsewhere. Despite this, Van Helsing still prevents Anna from killing him, as he's not evil, and also because he may be able to help them kill Dracula. But then, they hear a sound and look to see Velkan watching them. He quickly escapes, dodging Anna's shots, and they know he'll tell Dracula of this. However, Van Helsing is confident that they can protect the Monster back in Rome.

Picking up Carl, and forcing him to ride in a carriage with the Monster, Van Helsing departs for Rome. They travel through the Carpathian Mountains and make their way to Budapest, an Indiana Jones-like travel montage showing their path. Near there, as it becomes overcast and he travels through an eerie, foggy forest, he can sense that he's being followed, which some swooping POVs above the trees confirm. He looks behind him and sees nothing, then ties the horses' reins to the seat and gets out his crossbow. Immediately,

Verona swoops in and grabs him, lifting him up into the air. But he grabs and pulls on her left wing, causing her to lose her balance and drop him. He lands atop one of the horses in the front, then sees that they're heading for a destroyed bridge. He hops back along the horses to the carriage, only for Aleera to swoop in and knock him between the two rear horses, forcing him to hang onto the railing for dear life. However, both of the brides see that the carriage is heading for the bridge, and watch as the horses, as well as Van Helsing, make the jump, but

the carriage itself gets caught on the broken edge and falls down the chasm. Knowing they can't let the Monster die, they fly down after the carriage. While Aleera is unable to land on the carriage's side as it falls, Verona is. She rips the door off but looks inside to find it empty; back up top, Van Helsing, riding on the horses, sees Anna driving the actual carriage housing Carl and the Monster on a path parallel to his. Verona does see some stakes bundled up with dynamite in the decoy and 

quickly flies up away from it. When the carriage hits bottom, the dynamite explodes, sending the stakes flying in various directions, including straight up. Three of them impale Verona's torso, including through her heart, and she falls back down towards the flames, disintegrating.

Van Helsing hops from the horses onto Anna's carriage, joining her in the driver's seat. But there's no time for them to rest, as Velkan comes running at them and leaps across the horses. Both of them jump and hang onto the sides of the carriage's roof, while Velkan slides along the roof and knocks off one of the oil lanterns, starting a fire atop it. Though Van Helsing is dragged along the ground, Anna is worse off, as on her side, the carriage is riding along the edge of a cliff. She yells for Carl's help and he opens the door and tries what he can,

while the part of the carriage Van Helsing is holding onto begins to give way, inching him towards one of the wheels. Now he bangs on the side of the carriage, yelling for Carl's help. The Monster offers to assist if he'll unchain him and Carl asks, "You won't kill me?", to which he answers, "Only if you don't hurry." With that, just when Van Helsing loses his grip and slides towards the wheel, he's grabbed by the Monster, who pulls him up and uses his strength to toss him onto the

driver's seat. Carl is then able to help Anna climb to safety and the carriage finally makes it past the cliff and heads back into the forest. However, Velkan catches back up to them and climbs up onto the roof, the fire being the only thing separating him from Van Helsing and Anna. He flails at the flames, slicing a hole in the roof, and causing the fire to threaten Carl and the Monster. Van Helsing yells for them to jump and they do, Anna first, while Carl and the Monster hop out and tumble

along the ground. He himself then jumps off, swinging around and firing upon Velkan, as he jumps through the fire and tackles him to the ground. The burning carriage breaks loose from the horses and is overturned, exploding into a fireball as it crashes.

In the aftermath, Anna finds Velkan lying by a large rock, dying from being shot by silver bullets. He has just enough strength left to ask her for forgiveness, then passes away. Anna tells him, "I will see you again," and kisses his forehead. When she turns and sees Van Helsing, she angrily grabs and slams against a tree, as he solemnly says, "Now you know why they call me a murderer." She then looks and sees a bite mark on the left side of his chest. She backs away from him, when Aleera appears to her left when she passes by a tree. She

hits her, knocking her against a rock and causing her to lose consciousness. By the time Van Helsing sees this, Aleera has already taken flight with Anna. He chases after them, but comes to the edge of a cliff and watches as Aleera flies off. Carl and the Monster join him and see Aleera flying off into the distance, near the city of Budapest. Arriving there, the trio is confronted by Aleera, who tells them of Dracula's offer to trade Anna for the Monster. After Van Helsing appears to agree to

make the trade, and Aleera tells him of the Halloween masquerade ball taking place the following night, the Monster, in his anger, outs Van Helsing as having been bitten to Carl. Van Helsing apologizes to the Monster, before, again, incapacitating him with his blowdarts. He and Carl hide him in a cemetery crypt and, dressed in costumes, head for the ball. Van Helsing assures Carl that the Monster won't escape, "Without some help from the dead," just before a pale hand emerges from a nearby coffin.

Come the night of the masquerade ball, thousands of people are there, including Dracula and Anna. Due to Dracula's influence, Anna has no choice but to dance with him and let him kiss her; as they dance, he tells her that he has no intention of trading her, and doesn't believe Van Helsing plans to do so, either. From his and Carl's vantage point on one of the balconies overlooking the dance floor, Van Helsing, noting the fire-blower on the floor and the acrobats doing their stunts up near the

ceiling, comes up with a plan. As Dracula dips her in front of a large mirror, revealing that she's the only human in the room, and tells her that he intends to make her his new bride, Van Helsing knocks out and takes the place of one of the acrobats. He swings over the dance floor, while Carl gets in position behind the fire-blower. Dracula bares his fangs, preparing to bite Anna, when Van Helsing cuts the rope he's swinging on, and Carl shoves the fire-blower, causing him to set

the Count's back aflame. While he's distracted and angrily throws the man aside, Van Helsing swings in, grabs Anna, and swings back up to the balcony with her, snapping her out of her trance. Dracula then calls to him, walks to the center of the floor, and tells him, "Welcome to my summer palace." Even worse, Igor enters, along with some henchmen, carrying along the Frankenstein monster, who angrily shouts and curses at them. Once he's out of sight, Dracula presents Van Helsing to everyone else in the room, as they all

reveal themselves to be vampires, baring their fangs and snarling. Van Helsing and Anna run for it, as the throngs of vampires converge on them. They run into a room and shut the door behind them, when Carl suddenly appears with the one invention he's been working on for years. He excitedly says that he knows what it's for, when the others run at and grab him. They jump through a stained glass window behind them, causing him to drop the sphere. The vampires run in, when the weapon activates, sending out a powerful blast of light that illuminates the castle's whole interior and instantly reduces them to bones.

Van Helsing, Carl, and Anna land in the moat outside, Van Helsing praising Carl for his genius. They then see Igor and some henchmen rowing away on a small boat with the Monster. Van Helsing swims after them but is unable to beat a gate that comes down, as they head towards a large ship nearby. Van Helsing shouts to the despondent Monster, "I'll find you! I'll get you back and set you free! I swear to God!" But when Carl and Anna join him, Carl breaks the news that the Order

said they must kill the Monster as well to prevent him from ever being used by another fiend like Dracula, as well as because they say he isn't human. Becoming angry, Van Helsing growls, "And what of me? Did you tell them what I'm to become?" He grabs Carl by the throat, lifts him up and pins him against the gate with one arm, shouting, "Did they tell you how to kill me?! The correct angle of the stake as it enters my heart?! The exact measure of silver in each bullet?! Huh?!" Anna tries to stop Van Helsing, while Carl, barely

able to breathe, says he didn't mention him. Van Helsing, whose eyes have turned an inhuman yellow, lets him go and slams his back up against the gate, letting out a monstrous roar, then growls and snarls, managing to fight back the curse, for the moment. Once he's regained his senses, he apologizes to Carl, who nods in understanding, then says, "It's starting." 

In the next scene, they head back to Castle Frankenstein (they managed to make it back from Budapest within a day), only to find the laboratory empty. Though Van Helsing is frustrated, since they don't know where Castle Dracula is, and grabs and throws a large piece of machinery, Carl reveals that he has an idea. Back at Castle Valerious, he shows them everything he's learned about Dracula's connection to the Valerious family, and that his castle is hidden behind a door from which

there's no return. Remembering the writing on the piece of paper Cardinal Jinette showed him, Van Helsing leads them to the large map on the wall in the one room, saying he believes the map itself is actually the door. They spot a Latin inscription on the map's left side, as well as a missing section at the bottom. Van Helsing takes out the paper and Carl puts it to the missing section. He speaks the incantation, "In the name of God, open this door," and with that, the map disappears, replaced by a

large mirror. Though they're initially perplexed by what it means, since Dracula has no reflection, Van Helsing walks up to it and touches it. His hand goes through it and the surrounding glass turns to ice; he comments that it's cold, then pulls his hand back out to reveal some snow on it. Grabbing a torch, he walks completely through and emerges on a snowy clifftop on the other side. Anna follows him and they find themselves looking at the enormous main gate of Castle Dracula. After they head on, Carl emerges from the portal, but when he

sees some skeletons impaled on a barren tree, he attempts to go back through, only to slam into the mirror and fall to the ground. He follows the others, and when they get to the gate, Van Helsing grabs both of them and uses his werewolf agility to hop up it and enter an opening above it, leading into the foyer. It's clear that Van Helsing's transformation is drawing closer and they decide they need to hurry.

They come upon Igor, and Van Helsing pins him to the wall with a blade before he can escape. Hearing someone yelling, they run to a nearby window and look to see the Frankenstein monster, encased in ice, save for his head, being hoisted up by a chain. A loud shriek then echoes through the castle, to which Igor says, "My master has awakened." Van Helsing uses his strength to pull open the bars in the window, but the Monster tells him that Dracula does have a cure, and implores him to find it and

save himself. Carl then deduces that the reason Dracula has a curse for werewolfism is because a werewolf is the only thing that can kill him, which is what the painting meant. Van Helsing then orders Igor to lead Carl and Anna to the cure, while Carl tells him that, when it strikes midnight, he'll be able to kill Dracula, and that they need to inject him with the cure before the twelth stroke. Van Helsing takes a wicked set of pliers from Igor and gives them to Anna, telling her to clip off a finger

if he tries to trick them; Anna retorts, "I'll clip off something." Then, getting Igor to say where the reassembled laboratory is, Van Helsing passes him over to his friends. He tells Carl to kill him with a silver stake if he's not cured in time, then tells Anna, "If you're late, run like hell." He adds, "Don't be late," and the two of them kiss before she goes off. Meanwhile, in the lab, Dracula walks in, smiling as he watches the Dwerge work, preparing for the task at hand. Seeing the Monster yelling and protesting, he stomps over to him and tells him,

"What are you complaining about? This is why you were made! To prove that God is not the only one who can create life. And now, you must give that life to my children." The Monster is raised up to the castle's roof and into the midst of the storm brewing above. While Van Helsing makes his way up to the lab, climbing a long chain in a shaft, Igor leads Anna and Carl to the room in the opposite tower where the syringe containing the cure sits in a clear container filled with some sort of liquid. Not trusting Igor, Anna opts to go first, but when

she reaches the middle of the room, Igor kicks Carl in and brings down a gate, trapping them inside. Van Helsing then enters the lab and uses his werewolf agility to bound his way up. At one point, he's spotted by a Dwerge, but he attacks and throws him out a window before he can warn the others.

Carl and Anna debate about who should grab the syringe, when Aleera hangs down from the ceiling behind them and snarls. She hops down and, when Carl denies being scared, Aleera quips that she should try harder. Anna takes the opportunity to push over the syringe's container and the liquid inside rushes to Aleera, proving itself to be a type of acid when it burns her. While she clutches her face, Carl grabs the syringe and Anna uses a shattered piece of the container to scoop up some

of the acid and throws it on the gate. It instantly burns a gigantic hole through it and she and Carl scramble to get out, only for Aleera, with the right side of her face badly burned, to grab Anna. Carl goes on without her, while Aleera's scarring instantly heals up and she tosses Anna across the room. As she approaches, Anna gets to her feet, runs up a nearby pillar, grabs the torch, and bounds off it. She shoves it at Aleera, but she simply blows the flame out with one breath, then whirls around

and extinguishes all the other torches as well. After she blows out the last one, she disappears within a flash of lightning. Outside, Carl runs across a bridge connecting the towers, only to stop dead when he sees lightning crashing everywhere up ahead. It blasts right in front of him, knocking him off his feet, and then, Igor comes running at him with his cattle-prod, zapping at him and attempting to send him over the edge. Meanwhile, Van Helsing reaches the Monster and begins

unstrapping him from the table, only for a bolt of lightning to strike him. Van Helsing is blown back, while the energy surges down through the lab and to the foyer, electrifying the numerous egg sacs hanging from the ceiling there. They begin to pulsate, needing one more bolt to come to life. But just when he thinks he's triumphant, Dracula looks up to the roof and sees Van Helsing trying to free the Monster. He turns into his own beast form and flies up and out a window. Van Helsing almost has the Monster freed, when Dracula flies in and

knocks him through the opening in the roof, causing him to crash through some equipment and set at least one Dwerge on fire. The Monster tries to free himself, but his left foot is still chained to the table. Another bolt of lightning hits him, giving Dracula's young the energy they need to hatch and take to the air. The energy coursing through the Monster then blows him loose from his one restraint, sending him sliding down the side of the castle and falling down farther, grabbing at multiple lines as he tries to save himself. He finally

manages to grab onto a chain hanging from one line, and sees Igor chasing after Carl on the bridge below. The line comes loose and the Monster falls down towards the bridge. He swings down below the side of it, while the line itself goes straight across it, knocking off many of the torchieres lining its sides. Carl ducks down below the line but it hits Igor, knocking him off the walkway and sending him falling to his death.

Back in the one tower, Aleera stalks Anna in the darkness, using her ability to see in it. She toys with her, running behind her whenever she has her back turned, and then, appears next to her and backhands her hard enough to fling her across the room. Outside, Carl finds the Monster hanging off the side of the bridge by the snapped line. The Monster begs him for help and Carl, despite the Holy Order's decree that he must die, decides to help when he tearfully says, "I want to live."

While, in the tower, Aleera transforms, grabs Anna by the neck, and hovers above the floor, holding her and licking her face with her long tongue, Carl pushes over the torchiere on the bridge that the Monster's line is snagged on to swing him loose. When he does, the Monster swings downward and then back up with a lot of momentum. He crashes through the tower's window, knocking over Aleera just as she's about to bite Anna. In the lab, Van Helsing stumbles among the sparking and burning

equipment, when he's faced with Dracula, who declares himself triumphant now that his children have been brought to life. Knowing he now has no choice but to kill Dracula himself, Van Helsing throws his coat off and turns and looks to see the enormous clock on the wall strike twelve. He yells in pain and throws off the tattered remains of his shirt beneath the coat, revealing that his skin is bulging and bubbling from underneath. As Dracula watches, Van Helsing turns into a massive, black-furred werewolf, much to his initial terror and then

amusement. Backing away from Van Helsing, Dracula tells him, "We are both part of the same great game, Gabriel! But we need not find ourselves on opposite sides of the board." However, it's clear Van Helsing is in no mood for talk and roars at him. Dracula, in turn, changes into his monster form and they begin battling, with Van Helsing slamming him into some equipment, while Dracula retaliates by smacking and clawing at his face, then pounding him to the floor. The two of them grab each other and tumble through the air,

Dracula slamming Van Helsing into a generator, then throwing him to the floor, punching him in the back, tossing him across it, and kicking him in the face, before flying up. Van Helsing bounds up at him and grabs his legs, dragging him back down and smashing apart the walkway. The two of them smash into either sides of the room, destroying more of the equipment.

Getting to her feet after the crash, Anna is nearly attacked again by Aleera, but the Monster grabs her legs in midair and pulls her back. After Anna punches her back, the Monster yells for her to go help Van Helsing, as he flings Aleera aside. Thanking the Monster, Anna prepares to swing from the smashed window, when down below, a bolt of lightning destroys a huge chunk of the bridge in front of Carl. Looking across from him at the tower, he yells for Anna to help him. Anna,

seeing the Monster continuing to battle Aleera behind her, swings using one half of the line he was on earlier, then jumps across and grabs the other half. She swings past Carl and yells for him to throw the syringe with the werewolf cure to her. He does and she manages to catch it, but Aleera flies in and knocks her off the line and onto the side of the opposite tower. She knocks back and forth between two pillars on the wall, falls on a line, and nearly falls to her death, but manages to

grab the side of a ledge below. Carl tries to come to her aid but has to carefully make his way across the edge of the destroyed section of bridge. Back in the lab, Dracula, in his human form, emerges from the wreckage, and again tries to convince Van Helsing to join him, but the werewolf, once he gets his wits about him, prepares to attack once more. Dracula quickly transforms and takes flight, but Van Helsing runs and bounds after him. The two of them fling and bound across the lab, Van Helsing managing to injure Dracula, before slamming him

down on the floor. Dracula gets up and flies, only to get caught up in the electricity arcing from a nearby machine, which flings him up onto a walkway. He reverts back to his human form and looks at Van Helsing, who draws his claws across the wall behind him and displays them in a menacing fashion. Outside, Anna pulls herself up onto the ledge, when Aleera lands in front of her and turns human again. She approaches her, boasting, "Anna, my love. It is your blood that shall keep me beautiful. What do you think of

that?" Anna then catches a silver stake that Carl tosses to her from offscreen and stabs Aleera through the heart. In an obvious nod to The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, she tells her, "I think if you're going to kill somebody, kill them! Don't stand around talking about it!" She lets go of the stake and watches as Aleera instantly decays and then explodes, flinging the stake at Carl, sticking in the wall next to him. They then give each other knowing nods and go to find Van Helsing.

On the lab walkway, Van Helsing confronts Dracula, who backs away, saying, "Don't you understand? We could be friends! Partners!" He swipes at Van Helsing, then adds, "Brothers-in-arms!" He transforms and tries to fly, but Van Helsing catches him and grabs him by the neck. For the moment, it looks as though he has him, but then, the full moon slips behind a cloud and he becomes human again. Losing his strength, he jumps down to the floor, while Dracula turns

human again as well. Dracula reveals more of their past history, saying he was the one who murdered him centuries ago and that the ring he wears is his own. After refusing to have his memories returned, the full moon comes out from behind the clouds and Van Helsing begins to change back into a werewolf. He leaps at Dracula, transforming in midair, as Dracula changes as well. But Van Helsing manages to pin him against a machine and rip his throat out. Fatally injured, Dracula bleeds

out and disintegrates into a skeleton, and at that moment, his offspring all die off as well. Anna enters the lab, armed with the cure, and runs at Van Helsing. However, he spots her, jumps at her, and slams her down on a nearby sofa. Carl then enters and, seeing that Van Helsing is still a werewolf, grabs his silver stake. Saying, "God forgive me," he rushes at him with it. Van Helsing swings around and grabs his arm, roaring at him. But when it looks as though he's going to attack, he quickly calms, as they both see that Anna injected him in

the torso. He removes the syringe and drops it to the floor, and then they both see Anna lying on the sofa, lifeless. Carl backs away, murmuring, "She's dead," and, as his humanity returns, Van Helsing has a sad expression on his face. He picks up Anna's body and lets out a mournful howl, which, as he turns human again permanently, transitions into him mournfully yelling, "No!" Carl stands aside, saddened as well, while Van Helsing cries over having killed Anna.

In the final scene, on a cliffside overlooking the sea, Van Helsing and Carl lay Anna to rest on a pyre, the latter reading a prayer; at the same time, the Frankenstein monster wades off on a small raft, pausing once to look back before going on his way (somehow, they all managed to make it back through the door from which there was supposedly no return). As her body is burned, Van Helsing first senses and then sees Anna's spirit, as well as a vision of her being reunited with her brother and

father in heaven. This, coupled with a vision of her face, appearing to thank him (again, it's all so vague, it's hard to make out), moves Van Helsing to tears. Carl comforts him, unaware of what he's seen, and Van Helsing sadly smiles. The movie then ends with the two of them riding off into the distance, as the sun sets.

As was the case with his score for The Mummy Returns, Alan Silvestri's music is definitely a highlight. He manages to come up with some truly rousing action themes, such as a big, epic leitmotif for Van Helsing himself, made up of a strumming guitar, strong percussion, and voices chanting in another language, which you hear when he's first introduced in Paris and several times afterward throughout the movie, including at the very end. There's another one that's really adventurous and heroic and makes you cheer, especially when you hear it in its full glory during the carriage chase sequence and during the credits when the title comes up (it's my personal favorite part of the score). In addition, Silvestri comes up with a memorably romantic, yet poignant, motif for Anna, often heard during the sad moments involving her and her family, and some brassy, monstrous music for sequences like the opening and whenever Dracula's plan shifts into high gear. Finally, there's a rather eerie theme involving vocalizing female voices that hints at some mystery in scenes like when Van Helsing is shown the piece of paper with Latin writing and when Carl finds the painting in the castle study.

Yeah, this was one installment of Movies That Suck where I had quite a lot of good things to say about the subject in question. Indeed, despite its faults, Van Helsing does have some stuff to offer, such as some good actors, particularly Hugh Jackman in the title role, David Wenham as Carl, and Shuler Hensley as Frankenstein's monster; some very nice visuals when it comes to the cinematography, the way in which the environments and landscapes are both shot and augmented, the art direction, and miniature work; a rousing music score; and a sense of love and enthusiasm for the classic Universal movies. However, that doesn't change the fact that the movie is a mess. The story is complicated and confusing, as is some of the mythology revolving around the monsters; the character of Van Helsing isn't utilized or characterized as effectively as he could, while Kate Beckinsale isn't the best leading lady and Richard Roxburgh is an embarrassingly over-the-top Dracula; the movie could've benefitted from a less tongue-in-cheek approach; and the CGI is overabundant and horribly fake-looking, often making it feel more like you're watching something from a video game. In the end, it's a great concept that was poorly executed, and not a movie I ever see myself revisiting.