Van Helsing
Having grown up worshipping classic Universal horror - from the early stodgy debuts of Frankie and Drac through to the kiddie matinee Monster Rallys - I was fairly skeptical of this Stephen Sommers re-imagining of my favorite things that go bump in the night. For one thing a Monster Rally usually signalled creative inertia - starting a new Universal horror series off with one seemed a bit desperate - after all everyone save for the Mummy and the Scorpion King seem to show up in Van Helsing . Luckily the result was far more enjoyable than I could have ever imagined.
First I had to let go of my notion of what a Universal horror flick was supposed to be and embrace the new style - as much Ian Fleming as Bram Stoker, as much Indiana Jones as Jonathan Harker. Once I got over my traditionalist preconceptions I fell in love with Sommers deft mix of action genre flourishes and fast paced modern horror shocks. Bits of James Bond, Lord of the Rings, Indy, Aliens and more meld with more traditional elements of torch weilding villagers, bloodthirsty vampires and rampaging lycanthropes. Van Helsing succeeds in updating the Victorian Gothic where the earlier League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and From Hell both sadly failed.
My only quibble with this perfect popcorn flick is the casting of the defiantly mediocre Richard Roxburgh as Count Dracula - while much of Van Helsing is indeed delivered tongue in cheek Roxburgh's performance would shame even a Carry On campfest.
Plus a nifty anthology of (non-film related) Van Helsing lead tales from the pens of such genre luminaries as Tanith Lee, Kathe Koja, Thomas Tessier and Steve Rasnic Tem & Melanie Tem: