Van Helsing (2004) Review

“This cannot be”

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

When there are a world full of monsters, it can be hard to find enough men to deal with the problem. Sometimes, one can do the trick
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PLOT


2004’s Van Helsing takes place in 1887 and shows Count Vladislaus Dracula use Doctor Victor Frankenstein (Samuel West) reanimate a body via electricity for a personal motive. He kills the doctor when the latter refuses to use the creation furthermore. The monster would then retreat with his father’s body when a mob storms his castle in Transylvania, only to follow him to a windmill where they burn it down intending to destroy him. With the mob retreating upon seeing Dracula with his vampiric brides, they’ve presumed the monster to have died from the fire. A year later, the titular monster hunter Gabriel Van Helsing works for the Knights of the Holy Order eliminating threats such as Mister Hyde, the wicked personality of Henry Jekyll (Stephen Fisher). Gabriel has been part of the order due to being found on a church nearly dead, hoping to regain his memory and earn pardon on past/forgotten sins. When attending headquarters in Vatican City, he is tasked to destroy Dracula and protect the remaining descendants of the ancient Romanian family that have rivaled with the vampire for years, Velkan and Anna Valerious. Their ancestor Velarious the Elder vowed to not enter the afterlife until the grand threat was vanquished and their father King Boris has been missing for the past year. Gabriel goes with a friar named Carl who supplies him with weapons he invented. At Transylvania, they meet the princess who just lost her brother to a werewolf controlled by Dracula, falling into a gorge with the beast as he shot it. She accepts his help only after killing one of Dracula’s vampiric brides Marishka. This saved the princess from being devoured by Aleera & Verona who retreat when sensing their loss. As Van Helsing & Carl stay the night, Anna reunites with Velkan who tries to alert her that Dracula has a true weakness before revealing he has been cursed to a werewolf as the one he killed bit him as they fell. Gabriel joins her in pursuing her brother to the castle that Dracula gave to Frankenstein for the experiments. The intent of the experiment has been to give thousands of undead children Dracula has bred with his wives and let them feast all human life and Velkan is being used as a conduit like his dad before him. As one nest of newborn vampires awaken, Dracula confronts Gabriel himself who claims they are ancient rivals. As he says so, the protagonist discovers firsthand that the eldest vampire is immune to standard vampire weakness such as stakes and crucifixes. He does escape with Anna as she is unable to save her brother and confirms his methods didn’t work for her ancestors either. The nest that hatched would end up dying due to lacking Frankenstein’s original formula. They then stumble into the same ruins of the windmill where Frankenstein’s monster was last seen. They encounter him and presume him to be a threat until he reveals he was made to give life to all Dracula’s brood which he confirms to be thousands of. With Velkan following them and overhearing this, Van Helsing agrees the monster should be removed to Rome to prevent Dracula’s plan to succeed. The carriage trip with Carl doesn’t go as planned due to the Wolfman and the brides ambushing them near Budapest. Van Helsing is able to kill Verona when exposing her to stakes but when he shoots Velkan, the curse passes onto him. Aleera the remaining bride then abducts Anna who offers a trade between her and the monster at a masquerade ball. Not wanting to surrender Dracula’s key, he hides the monster in a crypt. He then rescues Anna from the ball and they retreat with Carl who uses a sunlight grenade to buy them time from other vampires, but they soon discover Igor, Frankenstein’s former assistant, find the monster due to following the protagonist and bring him to the Count, as his loyalty comes from payment. Van Helsing wants to save him as soon as possible, but Carl alerts him that the order will want him dead too for being a monster. When regrouping at Anna’s castle, Carl also shares his discovery that Dracula is the son of Valerious the Elder and when he was killed by the ‘Left Hand of God’, he made a pact with the Devil for immortality. With a ripped piece of an inscription that was given to him by the cardinal, he uses it to complete the doorway that’ll take them to an icy fortress. This has been Dracula’s lair meant to be an act of imprisonment by Valerious the Elder when being unable to kill him. They quickly find the monster be taken to be the key again but as soon as, he reveals there is a werewolf antidote because as Carl deduces from a painting in the castle, a werewolf is what can kill him. So, he demands Igor to take Carl & Anna where the cure is held while he goes to save the monster. Igor does so, only to trap the two against Aleera. Just as Van Helsing frees the key, the brood have already awoken. However, Frankenstein’s Monster inadvertently makes his way to the cellar where the antidote is. Just as Anna & Carl break free with it, the monster saves the latter from Igor. The monster almost falls to his death until Carl saves him in return and once back on his feet, he delays Aleera from attacking Anna. When Dracula confronts the protagonist, he would be in shock seeing him become a werewolf for the first time. As they duel, the vampire reveals Gabriel is the one who killed him in 1462 that led to his vampirism and offers restoring his memories. Van Helsing declines and turns into a wolf again to defeat his old rival and wipe out the brood all at once. Anna reunites with him having the antidote at hand after killing Aleera via stake, but the man's conscience briefly clouded by the monster within him causes him to kill her. Carl almost kills him with a stake, but Van Helsing regains self awareness in time due to Anna successfully injecting it as he lunged towards him. As both men mourn for her via cremation, they both agree to spare Frankenstein's Monster and let him leave town knowing he doesn't need to die. The film ends with both men seeing Anna's spirit join her family in heaven before riding off into the sunset to deal with other monstrous threats.


THOUGHTS


If there is something we can respect from Stephen Sommers is his way to blend action & horror so well. It worked when directing the first two Mummy movies of the trilogy that starred Brendan Fraser, so of course it does well here. It makes sense for this atmosphere to occur in the world of Universal Monsters because with so much distinguishable characters, it made sense for it to be hectic in an exciting manner. You already know the production/costume/makeup design is gonna cook when it's produced by Universal Studios as you digest how grim things can get, but boy were the visual effects beneficial at the time to get creative with how each monster would look. I mean it was so cool that Mr Hyde was much like a vicious Hulk which is fitting since Stan Lee said the Marvel Comics character was inspired by Jekyll & Hyde. Each werewolf we saw was far more realistic than past iterations which is so logical because we had to see how far gone they go from humanity and like their intense transformations, it ain’t their choice to be so. It was even creative to see the vampires to have their own monstrous appearance just to fly and then the fear factor piles up when seeing the brood because a vampire baby is not what anyone would dream of due to how they’re far from controllable. The editing & cinematography work out pretty well too because they made each action sequence pay off in more ways than one. Whether it was the carriage chase or the Transylvania standoff, I had the right chills throughout because you’re still frightened of the creatures yet excited on how it turns out. Over 20 years later, I still get a kick out of it because it’s rightfully on the nose in terms of telling us to not consumed by darkness maintain humanity when it comes to fighting evil so constantly. If you’re still true to yourself after all that comes your way, then all you’ve done would have been worth it. This is the case when following a familiar protagonist who is in a much different predicament. Due to previously playing the Wolverine in X-Men, Hugh Jackman knew exactly what kind of badass facade to bring towards Gabriel Van Helsing. He’s not an arrogant man, but just lonely and wants to find content with his life that he couldn’t remember. And being a monster hunter was his way to do right by the world which would only be ironic since he was a guardian angel in his past life. Before he even remembers that, he’s also able to understand being different does not immediately mean equal, which was possible when seeing the purity of innocence. Shuler Hensley brought as Frankenstein’s Monster, as his only request was to exist thus being spared. He then found common ground with Carl because David Wenham shows him as one who is capable in putting his brain to good use despite his hesitance in field work. He may be the only one to act most cautious, but each moment he goes through helps him come around, hence being a good ally. With nothing but action coming his way, it’d be a surprise to see him Van Helsing had time to feel affection and that’s what happened when it came to meeting Anna. He fell for her overtime due to seeing Kate Beckinsale depict her being strong willed & determined in her own manner because she was all about trying what you know first before considering last resort decisions. That was the case when it came to what happened to her brother because she didn’t want to give up so quickly on the only family she had left. You can’t blame her for this since Will Kemp showed Velkan to be a selfless one the way she was to him before becoming a berserker of a beast that he wasn’t able to control. His death was a bummer due to it being inevitable at that point and not knowing yet of an antidote, but it wasn’t in vein since he and their bloodline still earned their way into the afterlife after centuries of heroism. Anna ended up liking Gabriel in return for his fearlessness in doing the absolute. Once they got to confess their feelings to one another with a kiss, that too made her death tragic because her intent to save him cost her her life. Nor did she die in vein due to  giving Van Helsing another chance in continuing to fight evil which he’ll appreciate with every choice he makes. The examples of such evil are not misunderstood like Frankenstein’s Monster but intentionally sadistic the way Robbie Coltrane made Mr. Hyde. There have been many portrayals of Dracula since Nosferatu and almost a century later at that point, we get performances of the vampire that are astounding to witness. What Richard Roxbury does differently compared to his predecessors is embracing his confidence as he is cunning. When there are setbacks, he waits it out to try again because he’s sure things will come to his liking. His immortality has made him basically emotionless because he only cares about himself since his goal has always been about being forever powerful. And because he’s so powerful, he gets followers off of greed alone. Kevin J O’Connor made a gigantic traitor out of Igor due to wanting to be financially compensated which is the easiest way to be greedy. He is soulless in his own right due watching Victor die and do nothing, which makes it ironic his monster set up his demise. As for the brides, Elena Anaya, Silvia Colloca & Josie Marian each made their characters so stunning to behold because their viciousness comes from the greed to remain beautiful, thus sticking with the Count throughout. Had any of these villains knew better greed would get them killed, their downfalls would’ve not been so mighty. With such a setting acknowledging there are more monstrous threats, Van Helsing vanquishing the grandest of all monsters proves that angels of good will always find their way to do the absolute no matter what. This was a blast to watch when I was a kid, but rewatching it as an adult had me pick up on things that didn’t make much sense. Like from the top, why didn’t Dracula dig through the remains of the windmill to look for the monster. If he is the key, he would’ve at least tried. It’s even weird that his goons called the dwergers were not present when Victor made his creation because any of them could’ve taken notes on how to replicate the formula. And howcome only Anna & Velkan carry silver bullets? If their people know the werewolf weakness, more should have it on them to better their odds. Also, if Gabriel had Dracula’s insignia the whole time, he should’ve been sent to Transylvania much sooner. Carl even messes up in announcing to Van Helsing in front of Marishka on where to get holy water for his weapon. I mean that is a huge rookie mistake and that bothered me more than the order not telling him of the inscription. It even confuses me that Anna did not recognize she was walking into the ruins of the windmill. If it is so close to the castle and it’s been a year since it got burnt down by the mob, she should’ve noticed. Lastly, how did the monster know about the antidote? If Aleera was gloating like she was with Anna before dying, then that is stupid because a precautious one like Dracula would not let that slide. Ignore this, then you’ll still have a blast like I did. In short, Van Helsing is an entertaining action horror flick for giving a modern shakeup that the nostalgic franchise much needed at the time. If action & horror are your favorite genres, I assure you that you’ll enjoy this combo.