Van Helsing (2004)

Universal Pictures has long had a complicated relationship with its classic monster properties, and Van Helsing, released in the summer of 2004, represents one of the more ambitious attempts to pull them all together under one roof. The film imagines the legendary monster hunter Gabriel Van Helsing as a kind of 19th-century secret agent working for a shadowy Vatican order, despatched to Transylvania to help Anna Valerious, the last of a cursed bloodline, bring down Count Dracula. Along the way, the film cheerfully ropes in Frankenstein's creature and Mr. Hyde for good measure, functioning as something between a Universal Monsters greatest-hits package and a late-period action blockbuster. It arrived at a particular moment in Hollywood when studios were hungry for franchise starters built around iconic IP, and Universal clearly had one eye on building what would eventually, years later, be labelled a "Dark Universe." That ambition, whether it served the film well or otherwise, is hard to miss.

The film was written and directed by Stephen Sommers, who had already delivered Universal a sizeable hit with The Mummy (1999) and its sequel. Produced through his own Stillking Films-backed production company alongside Universal, Van Helsing was a large-scale, effects-heavy production, shot substantially on location and on stages in the Czech Republic, a country that has become a popular destination for Hollywood productions seeking atmospheric central European architecture on a practical budget. (If you're curious how Czech-shot productions can vary wildly in tone and ambition, my review of Anthropoid makes for an interesting comparison point.) Sommers built the film around a maximalist aesthetic: gothic imagery, non-stop set pieces, and a kitchen-sink approach to monster mythology that left very little breathing room between action beats.

At the centre of it all is Hugh Jackman, who was, by 2004, firmly established as a major Hollywood draw on the back of his work as Wolverine in the X-Men series. His physical presence and easy screen charisma were never really in question, and you can see why Sommers cast him as a character who needed to feel both world-weary and irresistibly watchable. Fans of his action work from this era will find the Jackman question a familiar one, and it's worth cross-referencing with his appearances in films like X-Men: The Last Stand or the considerably grittier Logan to get a sense of the range he was working across during this stretch of his career. Opposite him, Kate Beckinsale takes on the role of Anna Valerious, fresh off her own monster-adjacent franchise work in Underworld. Richard Roxburgh plays Dracula with a theatrical, broad-strokes energy, and David Wenham provides comic relief as Van Helsing's gadget-supplying friar. The cast, on paper, is polished but unremarkable, a solid ensemble assembled to serve a film far more interested in movement than character.

Van Helsing (2004) is a spectacle-driven, gothic popcorn flick that wants to be The Mummy meets Blade with a dash of Frankenstein, but ends up feeling more like a video game cutscene stretched into two hours. Hugh Jackman brings his usual charm and muscle as the legendary monster hunter, and the film barrels through Dracula’s castle, Werewolves, Mr. Hyde, and enough CGI carnage to drown Transylvania in digital fog. The premise is fun (monster hunter for the Vatican, blessed bullets, acrobatic fights) but the execution is pure camp. The CGI, unfortunately, has not aged well. Whole scenes look weightless, fake, and overblown, robbing the action of any real impact. The tone veers wildly from dark horror to slapstick one-liners, and Kate Beckinsale as Anna Valerious tries her best with a script that gives her swords but no depth. It’s all style, no soul, more interested in explosions and slow-mo leaps than atmosphere or scares. It’s undeniably corny, yes, but there’s a certain guilty-pleasure energy to its ridiculousness. You can’t hate it if you’re in the mood for dumb fun. Silly, flashy, and forgettable, but occasionally entertaining in a “turn your brain off” kind of way. A relic of early-2000s blockbuster excess. Not good… but not boring either.

What stays with me, honestly, is how much Van Helsing feels like a time capsule of a very specific blockbuster mentality, one where throwing more monsters, more CGI, and more slow-motion leaps at the screen was considered a reasonable substitute for tension or genuine dread. For anyone with a taste for that particular brand of early-2000s excess, there's a sort of fond, rueful nostalgia to watching it now, a bit like finding an old energy drink you used to love and realising it was always a bit much. If you want horror that actually commits to being unsettling rather than spectacular, something like Moshari shows just how different the genre can feel when it plays it straight. Van Helsing never plays anything straight, which is both its greatest flaw and, on the right evening, its one saving grace. Sometimes daft is enough.

Rating: ★★½  | Year: 2004  | Watched: 2025-09-29

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Trailer

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Related on Movies With Macca

More with Hugh Jackman: Logan (2017) · X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) · X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) · The Wolverine (2013)
More from Czech Republic: The Kite (2019) · Underground (1995) · Aferim! (2015) · Anthropoid (2016)
More from the 2000s: Kirikou and the Wild Beasts (2005) · Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) · Daredevil (2003) · Apocalypto (2006)
More horror: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) · Viy (1967) · Nightmare City (1980) · Angst (1983)
More adventure: Alice in Wonderland (1951) · The Eagle (1925) · Louisiana Story (1948) · The General (1926)