--Count Dracula, Van Helsing
"What are you complaining about? This is why you were made! To prove that God is not the only one who can create life!"
--Dracula, Van Helsing
Universal has not enjoyed a perfect success rate with its horror/monster films in recent years, with its 2017 Mummy reboot, supposed to launch its MCU-style "Dark Universe" of horror projects, failing to secure the foundation for its follow-ups. Almost two decades ago, though, Universal released an ensemble monster movie called Van Helsing that put the threads of different stories together. Van Helsing is an homage to earlier horror movies and honors some of the most culturally impactful fictional creatures/characters from film and literature, including Mr. Hyde, Dracula, and Frankenstein's monster. The basic premise and the weaving together of horror icons are brilliant, but the rest is decimated by what seems to be intentionally unnatural acting and pointless humor. Brendan fraser's Mummy trilogy, also by Universal, has a somewhat lighthearted, silly tone that was executed splendidly, but the same is not true of Van Helsing. Its execution is more comparable to that of Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters, not exactly the greatest of films. A film that brings different monsters from across fiction into one unified narrative had more potential than Van Helsing actually utilizes, yet falling short of this promise does not stop it from having flashes of that promise. A story where different legendary figures have actual narrative justification for appearing together with Dracula hoping to defy God could have been a masterpiece of atmosphere, acting, and sensuality instead of what it ended up becoming.
Production Values
Glimmers of creativity still seep through, like in how the introductory scene set in 1887 Transylvania is in black and white. A flash of light reveal Count Dracula's vampire face for a moment, and the lack of a full range of colors imitates how some of the older Universal horror movies--though Van Helsing itself barely dips its toes into actual horror. It is more of a fantasy drama. The creature effects, though, show their age, as modern as they might have been back in 2004. In spite of the sometimes very obvious CGI in his transformations, Richard Roxburgh still stands out as a Dracula that rises above most of the other characters for his flair and relative sincerity in the role, playing a Dracula that seems to genuinely relish his anti-theistic schemes. Hugh Jackman is far from the prime performance that he exhibits in something like Logan despite the titular character of Van Helsing having lots of potential for a story like this. All the faults of the script are not his own, and he makes as much of his character and his infinity ammunition crossbow as the tone allows. Kate Beckinsale, though, is right at home in this kind of movie in the sense that she is associated with horror fantasy and yet is not the best actress, or at least has not had any great roles that I have seen. Elena Anaya, Silvia Colloca, and Josie Maran seem to put more in their performances, but holy hell are their performances quite cheesy. David Wenham is also over the top, much unlike his persona in Lord of the Rings and 300.
Story
Some spoilers are below.
Transylvania is stormed in 1887 just as Victor Frankenstein brings a corpse experiment to life using electrical stimulation under Dracula's oversight. When Dr. Frankenstein refuses to hand his now-living creation over to Dracula to use to spite God, the reanimated corpse (made of parts from multiple corpses) carries Frankenstein away to a windmill, asking why the peasants hate it so much, yet they have already thrown their torches at the structure. A year later, a servant of the Vatican, Van Helsing, hunts creatures like Dracula, initiating an investigation that brings him into contact with the descendant of a family that swore to kill Dracula and with the vampire himself--and his three vampire wives.
Intellectual Content
Van Helsing is rather wild in a distinctly gratuitous, hindering sort of way, but its story does touch upon some very philosophical issues. They are just utilized as storytelling points moreso than anything else. Starting in the opening scene, the subject of humans or inhuman creatures creating life without God's direct aid is established as a major part of the film. Frankenstein's monster is called a triumph of science over God by Dracula, who it turns out hopes to use the electrical stimulation of Dr. Frankenstein to bring his dead children (his vampire children are born dead) to life specifically to relish that God is not the sole being that can create living things. Dracula and his companions actually do succeed in bringing his offspring to life, albeit using electrical stimulation methods discovered by the more benevolent and seeming theist Dr. Frankenstein, but he cannot sustain that life until he harnesses Frankenstein's monster. Up to that point, the reanimated corpse was the only thing brought to life by scientific means, though the unchanging distinction between living matter and an immaterial consciousness inhabiting that body is not addressed either way.
Conclusion
As pointlessly silly as the tone can be, Van Helsing had some great ideas that shine through in the finished film. Tone and execution can hold back even a movie with a brilliant general plot, a charismatic villain, and a central thematic concept that is at a minimum somewhat unique among horror and fantasy films. Long before some of the biggest franchises of today reached their enormous sizes, Van Helsing built upon the crossovers of older cinematic stories from Universal and reintroduced some of the industry's longtime archetypes and creatures. Again, this could have been a masterpiece, but even as it foreshadowed the sharp upcoming turn towards the shared cinematic universes of the 10 to 15 years, it also foreshadowed the unfortunate turn towards cheap silliness, which in this case is tied to some unnaturally exaggerated performances.
Content:
1. Violence: Mr. Hyde's arm is cut off in an early scene, fully in view of the camera. Though other characters get impaled or shot, there is no gore, just sometimes blood.
2. Profanity: Occasionally, something like "damn" is said.
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