Abraham Van Helsing

Count Dracula (1977) Director : Philip Saville By Marilyn Ferdinand Among monsters, there is none that has had more longevity and allure than the vampire. From its first English-language iteration, John Polidori’s short story “Vampyre,” through to the wildly popular Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer, the vampire indeed seems likely to live forever. Certainly, vampires already rule the world of cinematic monsters, with directors both great and small finding their stories worthy of telling and retelling. The template for most vampire films is Irishman Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula . Few of the adaptations have been terribly faithful to the novel, the result of ... Read Full Story

Count Dracula, the grand-daddy of all vampires, is back, vengeance coursing through his veins, in a frighteningly good novel written by Bram Stoker’s great-grandnephew. The timing couldn’t be better. Fans can’t stop gushing over vampires. Stephenie Meyer, Charlaine Harris and a host of other writers are making their fortunes slaking fans’ bloodlust for stories of the undead. But writing sequels to classics whose authors are no longer among the living can send shivers of dread through fans and critics. In the case of “Dracula The Un-Dead,” which continues the chilling tale begun in Stoker’s “Dracula,” written more than a century ago, the shivers are ... Read Full Story

Horror of Dracula (1958) was one of the first films to really explore the sexual aspect of the vampire myth. While other films had broached the inherent eroticism in veiled ways (most notably, the Spanish Dracula (1931), Dracula’s Daughter (1936) and I Vampiri (1957)), Horror of Dracula tackled it directly with a vampire who was in many ways more seducer than attacker, more lover than monster. Dracula doesn’t just make moves on women; he actually moves into their houses -- right under their husbands' noses. While I’m not a huge fan of Hammer Studios, many of their films have grown on me over the ... Read Full Story

Released : May 7th, 2004 Genre : Action/Adventure and Suspense/Horror Starcast : Hugh Jackman, Kate Beckinsale, Richard Roxburgh, David Wenham, Shuler Hensley Desc : Gabriel Van Helsing is a man cursed with a past he cannot recall and driven by a mission he cannot deny. Charged by a secret organization to seek out and defeat evil the world over, his efforts to rid the world of its nightmareish creatures have been rewarded with the title that now follows him: murderer. Van Helsing roams the globe an outcast, a fugitive, a loner, himself hunted by those who don't understand the true nature of his calling. ... Read Full Story

The biggest problems with Count Dracula are completely unrelated. First, the obvious–the source material. Bram Stoker’s novel is, apparently, unadaptable. To date, no film version has been successful. The problem lies with Stoker’s plotting. After the compelling opening with Dracula in Transylvania, his subsequent disappearance leaves the reader or viewer with a bunch of rubes. Many of the characters are unlikable, not because they’re bad people, but because Stoker did such a bad job creating them. For example, in this version, Harker–played to mediocrity (sort of appropriate for the character) by Bosco Hogan–is immediately unsympathetic. He’s a rube. Richard Barnes plays the Texan and ... Read Full Story