Van Helsing is a 2004 action gothic horror-like film written and directed by Stephen Sommers.
Overivew[]
It stars Hugh Jackman as monster hunter Gabriel Van Helsing, and Kate Beckinsale as Anna Valerious. The film is a homage and tribute to the Universal Horror Monster films from the 1930s and 1940s (also produced by Universal Studios which were in turn partially based on novels by Bram Stoker and Mary Shelley), of which Sommers is a fan.
The eponymous character was inspired by the Dutch vampire hunter Abraham Van Helsing from Irish author Bram Stoker's novel Dracula. Distributed by Universal Pictures, the film includes a number of monsters such as Count Dracula (and other vampires), Frankenstein's monster, Mr. Hyde and werewolves.
Plot[]
In 1887 Transylvania, Dr. Victor Frankenstein, aided by his assistant, Igor, and Dracula, creates a monster. Dracula kills Frankenstein, and as an angry, torch-bearing mob storms the Castle, the monster flees to a windmill with his dead creator cradled in his arms. The windmill burns down, apparently destroying the floor underneath the monster.
One year later, monster hunter Van Helsing kills Mr. Hyde after a brawl in Notre-Dame de Paris. Van Helsing pursues evil on behalf of the Holy Order, which has protected mankind "from time immemorial". Van Helsing, who remembers nothing before he was found crawling up the steps of a church, hopes to earn pardon for his forgotten sins and thereby regain his memory.
At the Order's Vatican City headquarters, Cardinal Jinette gives Van Helsing a mission: Go to Transylvania, destroy Dracula and protect the two survivors of an ancient Romanian family, the Valerious. Their ancestor vowed that his descendants would kill Dracula, or spend eternity in Purgatory. He gives Van Helsing the corner of a Medieval painting that reads "In the name of God, open this door" and bears the same insignia as Van Helsing's ring.
In the Order's laboratory, men of every faith create devices to battle evil. Carl, an eccentric friar and inventor, equips Van Helsing and joins him. Meanwhile, In Transylvania, Anna and Velkan Valerious attempt to kill a werewolf controlled by Dracula, but it falls with Velkan into a deep river gorge.
A month later, Van Helsing and Carl arrive in the village and join Anna's fight with Dracula's brides – Verona, Marishka, and Aleera. Van Helsing slays Marishka. That night, Velkan, now a werewolf, visits Anna. When clouds cover the moon, he reveals that Dracula has a secret, but the moon emerges before he can finish. He flees to Castle Frankenstein, pursued by Anna and Van Helsing.
Dracula is duplicating Frankenstein's experiments to give life to his thousands of undead children, using Velkan as a conduit. He greets Van Helsing as an old acquaintance, "Gabriel".
Velkan succumbs to his curse. Dracula's children disintegrate. Van Helsing and Anna escape. In Anna's castle, Carl discovers a hidden painting of two knights fighting by moonlight. He reads the inscription aloud. It comes to life, and the knights transform into a vampire and a werewolf, at each other's throats.
Van Helsing and Anna find Frankenstein's monster in a cave. He is the key to Dracula's plans. En route to Rome, they are ambushed by the brides and Velkan, near Budapest. Verona and Velkan are killed, but Van Helsing is bitten. Aleera kidnaps Anna and offers to trade her for the monster at a masquerade ball. Van Helsing locks the monster in a crypt, but the undead retrieves him for Dracula. The masquerade ball is a vampires-only affair, but Van Helsing and Carl rescue Anna, destroying the vampires with Carl's light-emitting bomb.
At Anna's castle, Carl explains that Dracula is the son of Valerious the elder. When he was killed in 1462 by “the left hand of God”, Dracula made a covenant with the Devil and lived again. Valerious was told to kill Dracula and gain salvation for his entire family. Unable to kill his son, he imprisoned him in an icy fortress. The fragment the Cardinal gave Van Helsing reveals the way.
The captured monster tells them that Dracula possesses a cure for lycanthropy—because only a werewolf can kill him. Van Helsing, fighting the curse, sends Igor, Anna, and Carl to retrieve the cure, while he frees the monster. Unfortunately, the monster is struck by lightning, bringing Dracula's children to life. Dracula, spotting Van Helsing, transforms into a demonic form, fighting Van Helsing in werewolf form. Dracula tells Van Helsing “It was you that murdered me!”. Van Helsing rejects his offer to restore his memories and bites Dracula, destroying him and his children. Anna injects the cure as Van Helsing kills her, howling in grief as he reverts to human.
Van Helsing and Carl burn Anna's body on a cliff overlooking the sea. The monster departs by raft, and Van Helsing sees Anna's spirit reuniting with her family in Heaven. She smiles at him. Van Helsing and Carl ride off into the sunset.
Trivia[]
- This movie was in a way similar to the multi-monster movies that Universal produced in the 1940s, such as Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, House of Frankenstein and House of Dracula.
- The film received mostly negative reviews but has grossed $300 million worldwide.