Having only gone and delivered one of the a generation’s most beloved blockbusters in The Mummy, before following it up with a sequel that offered more of the same, Stephen Sommers decided to throw caution to the wind and go all-in on the Universal Monsters. The end result was Van Helsing, an ambitiously flawed epic that was shunned by critics at the time, but has gone on to forge a reputation as a camp classic guilty pleasure.
Make no mistake about it, though, there is far too much going on in Van Helsing from the first minute to last. In the space of 131 minutes packed to bursting point, we get Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Dracula and his Brides, Frankenstein’s Monster, the Wolfman, a secret society of Vatican-sponsored monster hunters, Hugh Jackman’s tortured title hero trying to remember his past, a shady backstory that hints at immortality, the history of Kate Beckinsale’s Valerious clan, and a great deal more besides.
There were high hopes for Van Helsing at the time, which ended up spawning a slew of tie-in merchandise, a video game, slot machines, animated spinoffs, and comic book offshoots, only for the middling critical and commercial response to cut the would-be franchise off at the knees.
18 years later, and the gloriously over-the-top example of what happens when you give a director too much money, too much freedom, and too much CGI has charted on the HBO Max most-watched list per FlixPatrol, with a new legion of Van Helsing supporters ready to be converted.
Is it a good movie? No, it most certainly is not. If you plant your tongue firmly in cheek, get on the required wavelength, switch off your brain, and prepare for balls-to-the-wall excess and overindulgence at each and every turn, is it an undeniably and insanely entertaining romp? Oh yes.
