This week in Jack-o’-Lantern Press, we’ve been enjoying the Halloween hootenanny. Today, movie reviewer Dan Cook puts a somewhat more recent monster mash-up under his microscope for examination.
Van Helsing (2004)
Having breathed new life into “The Mummy” with his critically panned yet highly profitable action double bill (1999, 2001), director Steven Sommers was then given the chance to resurrect the rest of Universal's most famous movie monsters. Thus was born “Van Helsing,” his 2004 CGI-heavy creature feature that may not have the best performances, visual effects or overall story, but is still a surprisingly entertaining throwback to the monster mash films of the ‘40s and ‘50s.
Beginning with a highly effective black and white sequence depicting the awakening of Frankenstein’s inhuman creation (Shuler Hensley), the movie then gains color to follow Hugh Jackman’s titular antihero who has been tasked by the Vatican to rid the world of evil beings. With the help of a beautiful Romanian princess (Kate Beckinsale), an ingenious yet cowardly friar (David Wenham) and an arsenal of technologically advanced weaponry, Helsing journeys to the foggy climes of Transylvania where he must prevent Richard Roxburgh’s Count Dracula from unleashing a terrible fate on the human population.
Roxburgh is clearly having a great deal of fun here playing the bloodthirsty vampire, and his flamboyant performance is a welcomed contrast to those of Jackman and Beckinsale whose supposed romantic chemistry is almost as unbelievable as their wavering accents. It’s a wonderfully over-the-top turn from the esteemed Australian actor and his melodramatic line delivery, which perfectly fits in with the exaggerated nature of the production design and hyper-realized narrative that attempts to blend elements of action, science fiction and horror with decidedly mixed results.
Unfortunately, however, the talents of Roxburgh, the craft of the set designs and the visual excesses of Sommer’s gothic vision are often undermined by unconvincing computer effects, nonsensical editing, Jackman’s wholly uninteresting central performance and a plethora of two-dimensional archetypes who are given little to no character development or emotional motivation.
The movie is far from perfect. In fact, it’s pretty damn rubbish and it’s not hard to see why. Even after 18 years, it continues to receive negative reviews from both audiences and critics. However, despite its many problems and against my better judgment, I found “Van Helsing” to be an affectionate, if not overlong tribute to the classic monster match-ups of old, and it should definitely appeal to those who, like myself, regularly enjoy the sight of actors such as Lon Chaney Jr. and Glenn Strange battling in the moonlight under many pounds of caustic make-up.
Dan Cook is a movie reviewer on Letterboxd, and he also posts his reviews on Facebook. He’s a self-proclaimed film fanatic, avid reader and retro gamer who lives in Dudley, England, with his wife, Sam, and their two daughters.
