[HorrorScience] Van Helsing (2004)

Reading time: 7 minutes

Qualification

Van Helsing

Year

2004

Duration

136 minutes

Director

Stephen Sommers

Distribution

Hugh Jackman, Kate Beckinsale, David Wenham, Richard Roxburgh, Samuel West, Shuler Hensley, Elena Anaya, Josie Maran, Kevin J. O'Connor, Silvia Colloca, Will Kemp

Script

Stephen Sommers

Nowadays it is fashionable to bring a shared cinematographic universe to the cinema, thanks to superhero movies. To be successful in that endeavor you just have to be a little patient, respect your characters, don't treat the audience like idiots, and invest money in one or two stars who will attract audiences who wouldn't normally go to see those movies. Obviously the formula tends to wear out and products of varying quality end up coming out due to the desire to produce more material at a faster speed, but if you can afford to do that, it means that you have already achieved what you intended.

Universal Pictures was a pioneer in crossovers, since in 1943 they created Frankenstein Meets the Wolf-Man, which is possibly the first film of its kind. The good reception led to some more films of this type being released, thus giving rise to the first shared cinematographic universe.

In recent times, the famous studio has tried to bring back its monsters without much luck. Today I will comment Van Helsing, which turned out to be one of those failed attempts.

The film begins by showing us the famous Dr. Frankenstein, who after managing to give life to his monster is cornered by some townspeople who are looking for him to pay for his crimes. The doctor's main partner is Dracula, who is apparently interested in the experiments for his own interests.

[HorrorScience] Van Helsing (2004) — Frankenstein's monster

From here we move forward many years, where we will meet the protagonist, Van Helsing, a man of action dressed in a hat and trench coat who is dedicated to hunting supernatural creatures. This time it was Dr Jekyll's turn who is in his monstrous form, Mr Hyde. The confrontation between the two introduces us to Van Helsing's cool personality and resources.

From this moment on we will learn a little more about the protagonist, his allies and his motivations for doing what he does. Of course, it doesn't take long for him to be assigned a new mission, which will take him to a remote part of the world where helpless townspeople coexist with vampires and other creatures common in this type of stories.

Van Helsing was Universal Pictures' attempt to bring back to film the classic horror characters that were so important to the company during the 1930s and 1940s in a crossover style. house of frankenstein and House of Dracula.

On this occasion the common thread is the character Van Helsing, a character from Dracula by Bram Stoker and which both Universal and Hammer Productions turned into the vampire's rival. Only this time Van Helsing is not a thoughtful, intelligent and studious man, but a tough guy, with bad-ass looks and more gadgets than Batman.

Van Helsing's metamorphosis is not accidental, since it simply draws on what was being done at that time (where the saga also comes from. Underworld) so it is worth keeping in mind that when they made this film they were thinking of making something similar to adventure and superhero films, with humor and clichés for the enjoyment of teenagers, which is why They were more concerned with “witty” lines and attractive actors than anything else..

So we do not have a horror film, not even in the classic sense, because although a large part of the Universal Pictures “bestiary” appears, the movie is focused on over-the-top action scenes, bad jokes, sexual tension between the boy and the girl, forced romance and forced duality between the protagonist and the antagonist.

The monsters and the sets are there to remind you that it is a film supposedly focused on them, but it seems that the desire was left only in the designs (which I quite like in general terms). The representation of the monsters could be somewhat improved but it doesn't seem bad to me and at least this time they interact with each other.

I admit that Dracula is somewhat picturesque and although in the first scenes he is quite sinister, He gradually becomes a somewhat buffoonish villain. (for the benefit of the protagonist, of course) however it does not seem like a bad representation to me considering the film we are talking about. Furthermore, except for one specific scene, this Dracula moves away from the romantic vampires that I like so little and that have made it to the movies so many times. Frankenstein's monster once again plays the role of good-natured despite his appearance, something that seems very acceptable to me, the werewolves are used as attack dogs and little else and I like some secondary characters more than the main ones, specifically Ygor and Mr Hyde.

However, it is undeniable that in the two hours of film, everything goes from more to less. My favorite part is the beginning, where we see Doctor Frankenstein giving life to his creature and negotiating with Dracula at the same time that a mob of armed townspeople want to kill the doctor for stealing corpses for his experiments. That whole scene is very good and the fact of filming it in black and white seems like a success to me, since it is the little that can transport us to the years in which Universal cared about these characters.

From there, let the action begin, the superhero movies, the adrenaline and the jokes and clichés, which teenagers or children will love, but which have been seen a hundred times in many other films and which end up getting boring as the film progresses.

In short, we are faced with a film that, although it has some successes (perhaps unintentional, who knows), is quite forgettable and suffers from being extremely topical. Also, despite the large number of action scenes it includes, I find it quite boring, especially because of its protagonists who I consider harmful in every possible way and whose charisma seems nonexistent to me.

I have to say that I really disliked this movie at the time., but in a second viewing it has very slightly improved the opinion I have of it, although I think it has not done so by itself, but rather that this is due to the fact that in this film Universal put all the meat on the grill, while in recent years, despite wanting to bring back the classic monsters and create a joint universe, they have only released isolated films that are nothing to write home about either.

Curiosities about the film:

There is an animated movie called Van Helsing: The London Assignment which is a prequel to this one.
Dark Horse Comics published a comic book based on this film.
Video games and board games based on this film were released.