Official "Van Helsing" Discussion Thread

I can't believe I'm in here before the Countess!

I'm really, really curious how the trailer will be when it finally hits tomorrow.

I want to go on record that, despite the pics of Drac so far, I am heavily supporting this movie. I am personally seeing this as one of my most favoured movies of the last few years, if not ever. It looks like a fun brainless blast. Sucks I gotta wait for the trailer, but then again, good things come...

You're right but I'll survive. Somehow.

I gotta say that I dig the screenshots on that website that's linked to from the CC main page. The sets look spectacular and very atmospheric. From the look of it they got the visuals right this time. Now my main question is about the tone of the film. The trailer should give me at least an idea how Sommers handled his trademark brain-amputated "humor" in this flick. I've heard horrorstories about the one liners that Van Helsing drops every time he offs one of the big monsters ...

I read that too but I was hoping it was just a rumor. In the latest Fango, Jackman said, "It's easy to do 'I'm good, you're bad, let's beat you up and move on,' and there's a quick one liner. It's harder to make people feel for him-that's the real challenge."
So it sounds to me like the one liners are in there.

Unless I had a narcoleptic incident, ET did not air the trailer. Damn. That was the most painful half hour of 'entertainment' news that I have ever suffered through and they just showed one minute of behind the scenes Van Helsing footage. Kate and Jackman looked really good and that set was awesome. The little bit of the CGI monsters they showed looked pretty good but I wanted to see the trailer. Instead of that, I got Bette Midler and a gently weeping Jennifer Aniston. The horror. Anyway, all of the pictures I've seen of the sets have given me a lot to look forward to so I hope Sommers can deliver something a little bit darker than his last movie.

The trailer is already available online in crappy streaming formats:

http://www.themoviebox.net/movies/20...iler-page.html

Quicktime should follow soon.

I must say I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw. There was no cheesy humor in the trailer and if they don't emphasize it in the trailer that gives me hope. The sets look great, the CGI was very obvious but not nearly as bad as in MUMMY RETURNS. I dig the Wolfman stuff!

But of course they still call Frankenstein's Monster "Frankenstein" in the trailer ... Fucking morons! If they actually call it "Frankenstein" in the film I shall be pissed and Universal should be ashamed!

But that aside I am now actually looking forward to watch VAN HELSING when it comes out. So the trailer did what it was supposed to do.

Yeah I thought ET was pretty damn painful.. I was taping and turned the TV on during the Bette Midler interview.. Yikes.

As for what I saw.. I liked the shadow of Dracula(?) on the wall, the quick flash of Dracula as a demon looking thing was nice looking but not what I expected.. As for the Wolf Man and Frankenstein's monster.. I liked them! The Wolf Man looked pretty damn terrific.. I didn't think the CGI was too obvious there. Kate Beckinsale looked good too..

Looking forward to seeing the whole trailer. I was under the impression that the entire thing would be shown on ET. Ohwell..

Watched the streaming trailer earlier tonight and must say I was more than a little underwhelmed. I still hope it turns out great but that trailer did zero for me. Can someone explain to me why it is that Stephen Sommers can spend $100 million on computer effects just to make them look rubbery and less convincing than if they were done using make-up and monster suits? Why not just use a rubber monster suit and save yourself the budget of a third world nation? I'm getting serious HULK vibes off of this one. I will say this though, the actual production values of the sets and stuff look spectacular.

I gotta say it doesn't bother me that much. Sure it's technically wrong, but it hasn't got a name. And children automatically take the last name of the parents, and since the monster is more or less, in a twisted sense of the word, his son, I guess it could be argued that it would take the father's name. That's streching it a bit, but I can see why they could call it Frankenstein.

I agree with Wetbones. I just saw the streaming version and I gotta say, the visuals and sets got me very excited (and how cool is that shot if the carriage riding thru the creepy woods set.)

The CGI didn't look too bad, and though there were one or two lines delivered that do give me pause--they could go either way, stupid attempts at 'sly, wink wink' humor or just not that bad, but still very cool.

And I too, gotta say I'm a little disappointed with the use of "Frankenstein" for the Monster. For me, it kinda all starts and ends with the Universal classics and Wetbones is right...if nothing else, Universal should be ashamed of themselves. But at the same time, I gotta admit to getting chills seeing a trailer from Universal for a new movie with those titles coming up "The Wolfman" "Frankenstein" "Dracula." Just too cool.

What is even stranger is that Dr. Victor Frankenstein IS in the screenplay! He appears in either a pre-credit sequence or right at the beginning of the movie. So if Dr. Frankenstein is in the film how can they call the monster Frankenstein as well? FFF may be right with his theory ...

Quicktime trailer LIVES

Not too bad, but not too good, either. It's got the usual Hollywood trailer elements that bug me, but I have to admit for CGI the werewolf looks pretty bad ass. The "Frankenstein", however, looks like just plain ass.

"Frank" looked a lot like Peter Boyle. That was distracting. The trailer seemed very flat and uninteresting.

A whole lot of garish, CG masturbation. The Stephen Sommers trademark.

My first reaction is disappointment. Wolverine vs the Animaniacs.

Maybe Pinky and the Brain are behind the whole thing. Using the classic monsters in an yet another ill-fated attempt to take over the world. I mean, if you're going to make a cartoon, make a good cartoon!

Sorry I'm such a bitch but I really really didn't like the CGI. I hope I'm wrong. I hope this is a great movie and I hope it makes a whole ton of money and I hope that by simply watching it the world will be overcome by peace and love and we shall know war and strife no longer. Oh yeah, and I hope I get a pony for Christmas next year too.

Whoops being a bitch again.

the movie doesnt come out till may. there is still enough time to work on the cgi. that trailer was probably cut in december. either way i liked what i saw.

also nitpicking about the monster being called frankenstein. is really just two steps away from insanity.

The more I think about it the more I hope Pinky and the Brain are in this. I really liked that show.

Heh. Pinky and the Brain. Makes me laugh just thinking about them. And I'm not thinking about CGI anymore.

God bless those little rascals.

Heee....Long Haired Vampyr Bishônen.....Oh yeah.....

But where is our lovely human Velkan?

As usual when a Quicktime version of a trailer comes out that was previously only available in Windows Media I have to slightly revise my opinion. I really liked the VAN HELSING trailer a lot more now that I can actually make out all the details! The sets looked even more spectacular (in a matte painting sort of way) and what looked like shoddy CGI at first must have been Windows Media artifacing and from what I saw I'm pretty sure that there will be no brutally bad CGI in this film like that CGI The Rock in MUMMY RETURNS or the fire ants in SCORPION KING. With 3 more months to work on the effects and Universal pushing this film as their #1 blockbuster this year I'm sure they'll try to perfect the CGI. I don't see how the CGI in the VAN HELSING trailer was any worse than that in the one for HELLBOY, which was also mostly unfinished effects work.

My only concern right now is with Sommer's annoying penchant for annoyingly dumb jokes and physical comedy. Both were strangely (but pleasantly) absent from the trailer and I wonder if Universal is trying to trick us or if Sommers has really made a film that is darker than his MUMMY flicks. The trailer tries to sell VAN HELSING as an atmospheric and action packed horror/adventure film. Maybe I'll try to find the trailers for the MUMMY flicks to see if they tried to similarily deceive the audience. It is perfectly possible to cut a great trailer for a shitty film and vice versa. For example I dug the UNDERWORLD trailer and look how that turd stunk up the multiplexes ...

But even with those reservations I'm already pretty sure that I'll own VAN HELSING on DVD. Because as bad as the story may turn out to be I love the monster designs and I simply cannot wait to beat off to them in the privacy of my home! Wolfman kicks the most ass and that shot of his shadow on the wall was awesome. I like the teeth and how they made him a huge mofo. That one scene where he leaps through the fire was kinda cheesy, though. Dracula, who looked like a lovelorn transvestite goth in the fashion shoot pics with the brides that hit the net a few weeks ago, looks a lot better with his make-up on. That shot of him on top of the tower is pretty damn cool. Frankenstein's Monster may look like a shaved and deathly pale Harry Knowles but I even dug that design. Somehow I was never a fan of the creature design from the classic Universal films, which was actually ripped off from a painting by Goya. What I liked the least were Drac's Brides who seem to be used as Deadites in this film ... But that one moment where one of them opens her mouth impossibly wide to reveal huge fucking teeth was badass so I won't give up just yet.

I wonder how they will make the inevitable sequel, though. i'm pretty sure Van offs all the monsters in this flick, so will he go after the Creature from the Black Lagoon and The Thing in the next flick? And let me ask Universal already that they please don't rush it into production like MUMMY RETURNS. Take a year longer and try to get it right, will you? And no wrestler as the main baddie ...

OK, So can anybody help me out with copying the trailer to my hard drive? I'm on dialup and would like to save the thing so I can watch it whenever I want..

And Wetbones, you mentioned that Universal ripped off a Goya painting for their monster design.. Do you happen to know the name of the painting? Thanks.

The only way I know of to save Quicktime trailers is if you upgrade to Quicktime Pro. You can do that by paying them the 30-40$ they ask or you can look for a registration key online, which is of course illegal ... As soon as you have Quicktime Pro you have the option to save every trailer you watch. There's a new icon on the bar at the lower lefthand side and if you click it you can "Save as Quicktime movie".

Hm, Clive Barker mentioned that once in an interview many years ago. I have even seen the painting he was talking about but I cannot remember the name. I'll do some digging! Goya's guy doesn't look exactly like the Universal Frankenstein's Monster but it has the screws at the sides of it's head and that must have, consciously or subconsciously influenced whoever designed Universals creature.

Goya's beautifully chilling Saturn Devouring His Children is quite lumbering beast-esque I suppose. Is that he one ? Nothing like Universal's Monster, but more like subsequent designs: I'm thinking Randy Quaid in the TV version & De Niro...

Villagers demand screencaps.

I am 110% convinced that this will kick major ass.


Speaking of Van Helsing, does anyone have any more info
on that Van Helsing London Mission annimated DVD out may
11th? That DVD is so mine

Yeah, I want to know more about that one as well. It has a slightly anime look like most of the VAN HELSING stuff but I'm pretty sure it's actually US produced animation.

Which is too bad, I'd have loved to see Van Helsing face off against a tentacle monster!

I will probably buy it anyway. I am just so hyped for this movie.
When are the figures (Jakks and Sideshow's) due out again?
Also I hope this movie gets an art book. It looks beautiful.

It is nice to see that the bear from Disney's the Jungle Book is still getting work though.

Also is it me or do you see a fast flash of Mr Hyde at the end of the trailer? He chucks Van Helsing off the roof. It could be Frankenstein ( I will call the monster that from now for reasons I explained early....it's his "father's" name and I will adopt that to him, since it's cooler and less generic than "monster") but it looked a little more human.

Mr. Hyde? Oh see that clears up my previous response. I thought it was Baloo.

Silly me.

overall a good trailer. I like the freaky way they've done Hyde's face.

that hat looks really stupid on Jackman though.

Looks alright, I wont be running out to see it.

The trailer had a Castlevania kinda thing going on, thats good.

What you all should do right now is look at the trailer frame-by-frame! For example Dracula can be seen as a fully transformed creature right after the title DRACULA comes up and he has a weird second row of teeth inside his mouth, almost reminescent of the ALIEN films ... Then there's that freaky dude that throws Van off some tower and who apparently is Mr. Hyde. Look carefully and you'll notice that he has only one arm! The other one is a stump that indicates that it was cut off right below the shoulder.

There's also one pretty trippy shot of one of the Deadites/Brides fling towards the camera and when you pause the trailer you'll notice that some actresses head has been cheaply added to the CGI body.

Along with the Frankenstein name bugging you, something is bugging me too.

They aren't deadites in any way, shape or form

So you are going to tell me that the shot at the very end where the ... um ... "Bride" grabs Beckinsdale and flys off with her wasn't stolen directly from ARMY OF DARKNESS where the Deadite snatches Ash's princess chick away in exactly the same way?

You act like ripping off Army of Darkness is a bag thing!

Overall, the trailer gives off a Castlevania meets Army of Darkness meets Blade 2 feeling, which is damn fine with me. I dig Jackmans look and the way the scenery looks very matte painted. Frankensteins monster and some of the CG could use some work though, but I'd have to say the Wolfman does look good currently, very archetypical but at least we'll be able to see the thing in action, unlike in nearly every recent wolf movie.

Winged beasties grabbing people were around before AOD.
I was pointing out you have a problem with them getting the monster's name wrong and then you went and got the name of the brides totally wrong. I'm just sayin, just a playful observation

If you wanna get technical, they are also stealing from Bram Stoker and Mary Shelly. The Evil Dead series stole heavily from Lovecraft. Happens all the time.

Maybe I'm just really stupid but how exactly did I get the name of the Brides wrong? I called them Deadites/Brides because I wanted to express that there's a certain similarity that reminded me of ED2 & AOD.

And I didn't say that it's a bad thing to take a few things from AOD, I just said that I thought it was pretty obvious.

VAN HELSING isn't trying to be an original film. It's one gigantic hommage to classic Universal horror as filtered through the ADD-riddled mind of Stephen Sommers. I guess you could even compare it to KILL BILL in a way ...

Artists influencing other artists has always happened and will always happen. It's a healthy thing, too. Almost everyone starts out by imitating his/her idols before finally finding his/her own voice somewhere down the road.

But they aren't deadites. At all.

Seriously, I was just kidding. Relax

Is that the Vatican in the beginning of the trailer? IIRC there was a plot summary for the film where it was mentioned that the Vatican sends Van Helsing to Transylvania ...

I wonder if Pope Johannes Paul II. has a cameo ...

Cool, thanks.. The one that came immediately to mind was Saturn Devouring His Children but I didn't think that was quite right.

My thoughts on the whole trailer..

The wolfman looks pretty damn good.. Nice big teeth and ferocious looking.. the CGI isn't obvious to me either.. Frankenstein's monster looks cool enough to me, and we really didn't get a good look at Dracula in his 'human' incarnation. The quick flash of a wide mouthed (almost reminiscent of The Man Who Laughs or Mr. Sardonicus) toothy demon version of Dracula wasn't exactly what I expected of him but it looked cool.. Plenty of winged/flying demons/vampires? The set design, coach in the woods, cemeteries all look terrific.. Sort of a combination of a gothic horror movie and the adventure movie that The Mummy was.. I thought Kate Beckinsale looked a little odd (a little middle eastern?) and a bit out of place.. Overall the locations look old world but the weapons and the look of the heroes make it look high tech.. Not sure about that..

A few questions.. What is that hulking monster on top of the tower toward the end? I've heard people say that its Mr. Hyde but what evidence supports that? Looks like a flesh colored Hulk to me.. Also, what is that creature that jumps over the fire at Van Helsing at the very end? Looks sort of Creature from the Black Lagoon to me.. but further inspection makes me believe that its actually the wolfman.. The fire just makes it look a little green and scaley, and well.. fishy..

Overall I think it was pretty decent and I look forward to seeing these classic monsters battling it out.

For those of you that don't like Frankenstein's monster being called Frankenstein. It was at the end of Universal's Bride Of Frankenstein that Dr. Pretorius ( Ernest Thesiger ) call the female monster "The bride of Frankenstein!!". Now I haven't read the srcipt for the new Van Helsing so I don't know if it's possable but if you think of this as a sequel to the classic Universal monster movies it would be wrong to call the monster Frankenstein. Not only that but I think there is a scene in Son of Frankenstein where the son of Dr. Frankenstein refers to the monster as Frankenstein.

Anyway the trailer made me think of Monster Squad. In that movie the kids find Van Helsing diary and it tells them what to do about the monsters.

The trailer looks good. A little to much like an action movie but it still looked good. I don't know if I'll go see it in a theater but I do want the DVD.

Looks like fun

It looks like a fun, monster-smackdown type popcorn flick very much in the vein of Universal's "The Mummy" re-imagining of a few years back.

The monster designs are neat for the most part (though the Frankenstein's Monster just looks wrong to me for some reason I can't quite put my finger on). As an old school Universal fan, I guess it's just nice to see the old baddies in circulation again. Sure, these Aren't Your Father's Monsters, but I'll take monster flicks as I can get 'em.

Just my two cents...

is it my imagination or was there a mummy in the trailer?

It's your imagination. I just hope it's not wishful thinking that made you see it ...

Mr. Hyde is in the script so that should be evidence enough. Van Helsing fights him in right at the beginning of the film before he's contacted by the Vatican to go to Transylvania and battle the trio of Wolfman, Dracula and Frankenstein's Monster. He's only in the movie for a short bit so I guess that's why they didn't mention him in their marketing campaign like they did with Drac, Wolf, and the Creature.


It's indeed the Wolfman but the CGI looked a lot worse than in his other scenes which must have caused your confusion. I hope they can fix that scene as it looks rather cheesy right now. But maybe Sommers wants it that way ...

nothing can be as bad as the job that was done on the rock in the mummy returns WORST CGI JOB EVER!!!

Agreed. And especially embaressing considering the film's huge budget! I know the flick was rushed into theaters and there was not enough time to get the FX right but considering how much the movie grossed in the US alone I would have thought they'd at least fix that crap for the DVD release. Which they didn't.

Are you talking about the bandaged and blueish creature seen after Van Helsing says 'my curse is to vanquish evil'? I think thats just Frankenstein in bandages, perhaps after the surgery/creation.