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Van Helsing is a 2004 action horror film written and directed by Stephen Sommers. It stars Hugh Jackman as monster hunter Van Helsing and Kate Beckinsale as Anna Valerious. Van Helsing is both an homage and tribute to the Universal Horror Monster films from the 1930s and 1940s (also produced by Universal Pictures which were in turn partially 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 (and other vampires), Frankenstein's monster, Duergar, Mr. Hyde and werewolves in a way similar to the multi-monster movies that Universal produced in the 1940s, such as Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, House of Frankenstein and House of Dracula. The film received generally negative reviews but grossed $300.2 million worldwide against a budget of $160–170 million. Plot In 1887 Transylvania, Doctor Victor Frankenstein, aided by his assistant Igor and Count Dracula, creates a monster. Dracula kills Frankenstein when he refuses to go along with the vampire's designs for the creature as Igor, revealed to be under Dracula's pay, watches impassively. As an angry mob storms the castle, the monster flees to a windmill with Frankenstein's body. The mob burns down the windmill, seemingly killing the monster. A year later, monster hunter Gabriel Van Helsing travels to Notre-Dame de Paris and kills Dr. Jekyll after a brawl with Mr. Hyde. Van Helsing pursues evil on behalf of the Knights of the Holy Order, which has protected mankind "since time immemorial". Van Helsing, who remembers nothing before he was found crawling up the steps of a church nearly dead, hopes to earn pardon for his forgotten sins and regain his memory. At the Order's Vatican City headquarters, Van Helsing is tasked with travelling to Transylvania, destroying Dracula and protecting Anna and Velkan Valerious, the last of an ancient Romanian family. Their ancestor vowed that his descendants would kill Dracula or spend eternity in Purgatory. In Transylvania, Anna and Velkan attempt to kill a werewolf controlled by Dracula, but it falls with Velkan into a deep river gorge, managing to bite him in the process as Velkan shoots it with a silver bullet. Van Helsing and Carl, a friar and weapons inventor, arrive at a village and join Anna's fight with Dracula's brides - Verona, Marishka, and Aleera - slaying Marishka in the process. That night, Velkan visits Anna to warn her of Dracula's plans but transforms into a werewolf and escapes. Van Helsing and Anna pursue Velkan to Frankenstein's castle. They stumble upon Dracula's plan to duplicate Frankenstein's experiments to give life to thousands of his undead children, using Velkan as a conduit. During the fray, Dracula confronts Van Helsing, whom he regards as an ancient rival. Dracula's spawn come to life, before dying due to lacking Frankenstein's original formula. Van Helsing and Anna escape and stumble upon Frankenstein's monster at the windmill, who reveals that he is the key to Frankenstein's machine giving life to Dracula's brood. Eavesdropping on their discussion, Velkan escapes with this new information. In Anna's castle, Carl discovers a hidden painting of two rival knights. It comes to life, revealing the knights as a vampire and a werewolf in battle. While attempting to bring the monster to Rome, Van Helsing and his crew are ambushed by the brides and Velkan, near Budapest. Verona and Velkan are killed, but Van Helsing is bitten by the latter. Aleera kidnaps Anna and offers to trade her for the monster at a masquerade ball. Van Helsing locks the monster in a crypt, but the undead retrieve him for Dracula. Van Helsing and Carl rescue Anna and escape from the masquerade guests, revealed to be vampires. At Anna's castle, Carl explains that Dracula is the son of Valerious the Elder. When he was killed in 1462 by the "Left Hand of God", Dracula made a pact with the Devil and lived again. Valerious was told to kill Dracula and gain salvation for his entire family. Unable to kill his son, he imprisoned him in an icy fortress. A fragment, which the Cardinal gave Van Helsing back in Vatican City, opens a path to Dracula's castle. They find the monster, who reveals that Dracula possesses a cure for lycanthropy because only a werewolf can kill him. Van Helsing, fighting the curse, sends Anna and Carl to retrieve the cure, killing Igor and Aleera in the process. Van Helsing attempts to free the monster but is struck by lightning, bringing Dracula's children to life. Dracula and Van Helsing turn into their bestial forms and battle, while Frankenstein's monster helps Anna escape Dracula's brides. Whilst both briefly return to their human forms, Dracula reveals that it was Van Helsing who killed him and offers to restore his memory. Van Helsing refuses and kills Dracula after reverting back to his werewolf form, triggering his brood's deaths. Anna arrives and injects the cure into Van Helsing but is killed by him in the process. Van Helsing and Carl burn Anna's body on a cliff overlooking the sea. Frankenstein's monster departs by raft, and Van Helsing sees Anna's spirit reuniting with her family in Heaven. Van Helsing and Carl ride off into the sunset. Cast Production Universal Pictures wanted to reinvent their iconic movie monsters and wanted to replicate the formula that had worked for both The Mummy (1999) and The Mummy Returns (2001). This was not only attempted by bringing on Stephen Sommers as the director but also with the release date of May 7, 2004, which was five years to the date after The Mummy opened in 1999. The Mummy took the classic monster in an action-adventure tone, so it made sense to do the same with Van Helsing. While The Mummy was very much inspired by Indiana Jones, Van Helsing drew heavily from James Bond films. Universal Pictures was so confident that Van Helsing would be a hit at the box office, they began development on a sequel before the first movie opened. They even paid to keep the original Transylvania sets, as they figured they would need to come back for it and other projects. However, the film's poor box office eventually resulted in the sequel being scrapped. Richard Roxburgh, who was cast as Dracula, said that he loved the old Universal monster movies, Klaus Kinski's Nosferatu and Gary Oldman's Dracula and in general likes "the dark, sad, kind of naïve, Germanic type of monster movie". About his physical transformation for the role, Roxburgh said that "it's a pretty significant physical transformation. There is obviously darker hair and I wanted a sense of a Romany king or leader, a faded aristocrat. I liked that gypsy element. So the character looks nothing like me." Soundtrack The film's original soundtrack was composed by Alan Silvestri. Merchandise Video game Vivendi Universal Games p.... Discover the Anna Castle popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Anna Castle books.