Van Helsing | |
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Theatrical release poster
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Directed by | Stephen Sommers |
Produced by |
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Written by | Stephen Sommers |
Based on | Van Helsing(character) by Bram Stoker |
Starring | |
Music by | Alan Silvestri |
Cinematography | Allen Daviau |
Edited by |
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Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
Release date
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Running time
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131 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $160 million |
Box office | $300.3 million |
Van Helsing is a 2004 American dark fantasy action-adventure film directed by Stephen Sommers. It stars Hugh Jackman as vigilante monster hunter Van Helsing, and Kate Beckinsale as Anna Valerious. The film is an homage and tribute to the Universal Horror Monster films from the 1930s and '40s (also produced by Universal Studios which were in turn based on novels by Bram Stoker and Mary Shelley), of which Sommers is a fan.
The eponymous character was inspired by the Dutch vampire hunter Abraham Van Helsing from Irish author Bram Stoker's novel Dracula. Distributed by Universal Pictures, the film includes a number of monsters such as Count Dracula, Frankenstein's monster and werewolves in a way similar to the multi-monster movies that Universal produced in the 1940s, such as Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man and House of Dracula.
Despite mostly negative reviews, the film grossed over $300 million worldwide.
In 1887 Transylvania, Doctor Victor Frankenstein creates a monster with the anticipated aid of Count Dracula, who reveals that he plans to use the creature for his own evil plans and kills the doctor as his castle is raided by a mob of villagers. His assistant Igor escapes, but the villagers chase the monster to an old windmill and set it ablaze. The villagers are scared off by Dracula and his brides, who witness the monster and the doctor's research apparently destroyed by the fire.