VAN HELSING

VAN HELSING. Stephen Sommers, dir., script, prod. (with Bob Ducsay). USA: Carpathian Pictures, Universal, Stillking Films, The Sommers Company, prod. / Universal, UIP, et al., dist., 2004 (see IMDb for complex distribution). Allan Cameron, prod. design

Very slickly done po-mo pastiche somewhat in the manner of pre-postmodern horror mishmashes, but with more elements, including James Bond and a hint of the mystic. VH brings together again Van Helsing (here named Dr. Gabriel Van Helsing) and Dracula and his Brides—plus a Dracula-hunting family (the Valerious clan), Dr. Victor Frankenstein, Frankenstein's Creature (here called Monster), and the/a Wolfman (also Mr. Hyde and Dr. Jekyll, for an opening cameo in a Paris in which the Eiffel Tower has been begun but not finished: so 1888). Significant for Clockworks 2 for Dracula's suborning of Victor Frankenstein and, more so, Igor in order to get the Monster for the vivification—so to speak—of the Dracula offspring (who are otherwise stored in gestation sacks such as one might get from crossing delusional male bats with the Alien Queen from ALIENS). In the opening sequence, the Transylvanian townspeople from the climax of the 1931 James Whale FRANKENSTEIN destroy Dr. Frankenstein (and the windmill), but the others escape, for Dracula and Igor to try another day. The attempts involve the superimposition of Frankenstein's revivification equipment on, first, the last remaining Valerious brother and then the Monster. The equipment is a slightly updated version of that in the Whale movie, while the Monster is both definitely fleshly and somewhat roboticized: mostly monster, but with a hint of cyborg, with the neck-bolts replaced with understated but visible green lights in the brain. The vivification of the vampire children recalls the production of Robot Maria from Human Maria in F. Lang's METROPOLIS, but with more sophisticated SpFx. The James Bond motif includes a scene in a religiously-diverse laboratory at the Vatican, and some Bondian weapons supplied by an Q-like Friar/scientist, who accompanies Van Helsing on his monster-quelling. Aside from the slight possibility that Gabriel Van Helsing is a manifestation of the Archangel Gabriel—one who fought against the Romans at Masada—the mystic portions include the apotheosis of Anna Valerious (and the rest of her family), when Dracula is finally dead; cf. and slightly contrast the returned dead Jedi at the end of RETURN OF THE JEDI. Given the explicit 1888/Eiffel-Tower dating and dynamo imagery, a potentially useful film for students of Modernism vs. po-mo. Discussed by Edward Gross, "Die, Monsters, Die," Cinefantastique 36.2 (April/May 2004): 34 f.