Summary

• Despite Hugh Jackman starring in successful movies, 2004's Van Helsing remains a missed opportunity for Dracula films.
• Many of Jackman's roles outside the X-Men franchise have been both critically acclaimed and commercially successful.
• Van Helsing had potential due to Jackman's fame and director Stephen Sommers' track record, but the movie failed to impress critics.

Despite starring in many successful movies over the years, Hugh Jackman has also appeared in his fair share of duds, with a horror movie from 2004 remaining the biggest missed opportunity in the history of Dracula movies. Jackman first rose to fame playing the role of Logan/Wolverine in Fox's X-Men movies, beginning with 2000's X-Men. Since then, the actor has played numerous roles across a variety of genres. While Hugh Jackman's best movies have been both critically and commercially successful, his worst films have been panned by reviewers and have performed poorly at the box office.

Outside of the X-Men franchise, Jackman is known for starring as the lead in hits such as The Greatest Showman, The Prestige, Australia, and Prisoners. However, to date, the actor has only ever appeared in one horror movie. While there have been dozens of Dracula movies over the years, Jackman's own attempt from 2004 stands out as the biggest wasted opportunity in the history of the character.

Van Helsing Could Have Been The Most Epic Dracula/Universal Monsters Even We've Seen

The Movie Had So Much Potential

Written and directed by Stephen Sommers, Van Helsing sees Hugh Jackman playing the titular monster hunter who first appeared in Bram Stoker's original Dracula novel. The premise of the movie involves Van Helsing traveling to Transylvania to bring down Count Dracula. Along the way, he is aided by a young woman named Anna Valerious (Kate Beckinsale), who is the last of an ancient Romanian family. As well as Dracula, Van Helsing also features appearances by other iconic characters from classic literature, such as Victor Frankenstein, Frankenstein's monster, Igor, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Van Helsing came at a time when Jackman was at the height of his fame. He had just done X2: X-Men United, which proved to be a highly successful follow-up to the first X-Men film. The star was, therefore, very much in demand. Furthermore, when the movie was released, Sommers himself was coming off back-to-back blockbuster wins in the form of The Mummy and The Mummy Returns, and Van Helsing's budget of $160 million demonstrates how much faith Universal Studios had in the two men delivering a hit.

A reboot of Van Helsing is said to be in development with Julius Avery, the man behind The Pope's Exorcist, set to direct.

On paper, Van Helsing is the perfect action horror movie. The pairing of Jackman and Sommers, the film's fresh take on the Dracula story, and the use of well-known horror properties should've resulted in one of the best horror movies of the twenty-first century. It also had the chance to lead to more crossovers and a shared cinematic universe years before the MCU. Yet, that didn't prove to be the case.

What Went Wrong With 2004's Van Helsing

It Struggled To Win Over Critics

Van Helsing could have been a wild and badass "creature feature" that united some of the best horror characters onscreen for the first time, but it squandered its potential.

Financially, Van Helsing was a moderate success, making just over $300 million at the worldwide box office on a $160 million budget (via Box Office Mojo). With marketing and distribution costs taken into account, it's likely that the movie only just about made a profit. Ultimately, this prevented a sequel from being made. The box office wasn't where Van Helsing's biggest problems lay, however; the film had far bigger issues when it came to quality. The film currently holds a Rotten Tomatoes score of just 24%, rendering it "Rotten."

Upon its release, the general consensus among reviewers was that Van Helsing failed to deliver on its epic premise. Much of the criticism focused on the movie's over-reliance on CGI, chaotic plot, and tendency to take itself far too seriously. The film's lack of scares was also criticized. Overall, Van Helsing could have been a wild and badass "creature feature" that united some of the best horror characters onscreen for the first time, but it squandered its potential.

Dracula Movies Have Struggled A Lot Since Van Helsing

There Hasn't Been A Truly Good One In A While

It's no secret among cinephiles that the last twenty years have been void of a properly good Dracula movie. The 1950s and 60s were brimming with Dracula films, thanks largely to Hammer Horror and Christopher Lee. Prior to this, 1922's Nosferatu and 1931's Dracula, starring Bela Lugosi, established the character as a cinematic icon. Even as late as 1992, Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula was winning over critics and audiences. The twenty-first century, on the other hand, has failed to deliver a Dracula movie of equal stature.

2014's Dracula Untold, which starred Luke Evans, acted as an origin story for the character and was initially intended to be the first installment in Universal's Dark Universe monster franchise. Ultimately, the movie underperformed at the box office and was panned by critics. Similarly, 2023's Renfield, which saw Nicolas Cage playing Dracula, failed to make anywhere near its production budget. Additionally, it garnered a mixed response from reviewers. Meanwhile, the less said about André Øvredal's The Last Voyage of the Demeter, the better.

Of course, it would be harsh to blame Van Helsing for the failures of its predecessors. After all, it's likely just a coincidence that cinema hasn't produced a single decent Dracula movie since Van Helsing was released in theaters. Nevertheless, it is interesting to think that if Van Helsing had been a success, the chances of a monster-themed shared universe would've been high. So much so that, if that were the case, it's possible that horror would've been the prominent blockbuster genre of the twenty-first century rather than superhero movies.

Source: Box Office Mojo, Rotten Tomatoes