Van Helsing (film)
Van Helsing is a 2004 action / horror film directed by Stephen Sommers. The film stars Hugh Jackman and Kate Beckinsale.
Brief cast
- Hugh Jackman ... as Gabriel Van Helsing
- Kate Beckinsale ... as Anna Valerious
- Richard Roxburgh ... as Count Dracula
- David Wenham ... as Carl
- Will Kemp ... as Velkan Valerious/ The Wolfman
- Shuler Hensley ... as Frankenstein's monster
- Elena Anaya ... as a bride of Dracula
- Silvia Colloca ... as a bride of Dracula
- Josie Maran ... as a bride of Dracula
- Kevin J. O'Connor ... as Igor
- Samuel West ... as Dr. Victor Frankenstein
- Robbie Coltrane ... as Mr. Edward Hyde (voice)
Plot summary
During the late 19th century Dr. Frankenstein works with Count Dracula to bring the dead back to life. In doing so he creates Frankenstein's monster. Dracula disposes of Frankenstein and the monster goes into hiding.
One year later Gabriel Van Helsing is sent to Eastern Europe by a secret religious organization with ties to the Vatican in order to vanquish Dracula and save the family of the beautiful Anna from eternal purgatory. Long ago, an ancestor of Anna swore that he and his descendants would not enter Paradise until Dracula was destroyed.
Dracula tries to use Igor (Frankenstein's assistant) and Frankenstein's equipment to animate his offspring, which are born dead. However, without Dr. Frankenstein's expertise these attempts fail.
Van Helsing discovers that Dracula cannot be killed by the 'conventional' methods of disposing of a vampire, and also that Dracula knows of him. With Van Helsing's memory fragmented, he finds this curious.
Meanwhile, Dracula uses Frankenstein's monster as a catalyst to start a chain reaction that successfully animates Dracula's dead children.
It is discovered that the only way to kill Dracula in the Van Helsing universe is to become a werewolf. Van Helsing does so by being bitten and finally kills Dracula in a show down.
Anna injects Van Helsing with the antidote to the werewolf curse and Van Helsing reverts to a human after unwittingly killing Anna. Frankenstein's monster sails off into the sunset.
Note
In Bram Stoker's original novel, Dracula, and many subsequent films based on it, it is Dr. Abraham Van Helsing, an elderly anthropology professor from the Netherlands who does the vampire hunting.