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..Gary Dretzka
..Noah Forrest
..Leonard Klady
..R.J. Matson
..David Poland
..Douglas Pratt
..Ray Pride
..Michael Wilmington



This may be stretching a point a bit further than it ought to be taken, but, at first blush, the expensive marketing campaign supporting Van Helsing appears more likely to produce boffo results for Universal’s home-video division than the studio’s $150-million supernatural thriller, starring Hugh Jackman. As exciting as the new movie promises to be in television ads and trailers, old codgers like me tend to come away from them thinking we’ve just seen two hours of action boiled down to a 90-second highlight reel, and what’s left unshown probably won’t be worth paying $10 to see.

Maybe I’ll be proven wrong. Van Helsing could turn out to be every bit as entertaining as, say, Spider-Man or X-Men, but judging from the available evidence, the creators of the trailers would then have to be withholding even better material. Sadly, that almost never happens anymore.

In the early Variety review of Stephen Sommer’s follow-up to his two Mummy blockbusters, Todd McCarthy called Van Helsing a “monster mash on steroids.” As such, the critic predicted traditionalists would be appalled by the end result, while kids would “eat it up.”

Guess which audience Universal is hoping to impress most with its $30-milion-plus ad campaign?

Hey, a studio has to make a buck, right? In this case … sure.

Now that the scent of wolfbane is in the air – at least until Troy opens, on May 14 – it’s worth throwing a few solid props in the direction of Universal City. Someone there wisely decided to re-package the studio’s “crown jewels” – its library of classic horror pictures -- and release them on DVD, almost simultaneously with the launch of Van Helsing.

It would be a mistake to dismiss the handsome three-box, six-disc Monster Legacy Collections of Frankenstein, Dracula and The Wolf Man as merely a cleverly timed cross-promotion. These are films, after all, that already have passed the test of time and trendy tide, and will be studied and admired long after Van Helsing has been sequel-ized and turned into a cartoon series on one of NBC’s many cable properties.

In addition to the aforementioned titles, the movies included in the Legacy Collection run the gamut from great to goofy: Bride of Frankenstein, Son of Frankenstein, Ghost of Frankenstein, House of Frankenstein, the 1931 Spanish-language version of Dracula, Dracula’s Daughter, Son of Dracula, House of Dracula, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, Werewolves of London and She-Wolf of London. Moreover, there are several interesting and informative documentaries, commentaries, photo and poster galleries, and reminiscences by descendants of the principle players. In a direct promotional link to Van Helsing, Sommers offers his own perspective on the great monsters, as well as behind-the-scenes glimpses of his new picture.

After seeing a few too many promos for Van Helsing, I was inspired to pick up the marvelously restored DVD of Dracula and click on the version with Philip Glass’ 1999 minimalist score. The original Dracula, which arrived at the dawn of the “talkie” era, offered little in the way of music, and the Kronos Quartet’s repetitively rhythmic playing adds a slightly different tonal perspective to the mix. Immediately afterward, I watched two of the documentaries.

With a stack of recently arrived DVDs already gathering dust on my floor, it seemed a bit foolish to linger over a package I’d reviewed a week previously for the Las Vegas Weekly (www.lasvegasweekly.com), but I was hooked, Without hesitation, I also pulled The Wolf Man out of its box, and watched all 100 minutes of it.

After enduring too many scratchy and chopped versions of these same films on television over the last 40 to 50 years of my life, I was amazed to see how fresh they seemed with a few digital tweaks. My enjoyment was based on something far more substantial than the films’ campy charms, though. The storytelling remained sound, and there was room to breathe between the more dramatic moments. Hard to imagination that the languid pace would suit today’s teen audiences, but, I suspect, many would still get a kick out of seeing the originals with their parents or grandparents.

Still on the trail of contextual relevance, though, I ventured onto the Internet. It didn’t take long to find reviews written at the time of the films’ initial release (unlike today’s critics, writers weren’t then encouraged to carry on much, or fall in love with their own words):

In the New York Times, Mordaunt Hall, observed: "Count Dracula, Bram Stoker's human vampire, who has chilled the spines of book readers and playgoers, is now to be seen at the Roxy in a talking film directed by Tod Browning, who delights in such bloodcurdling stories. It is a production that evidently had the desired effect upon many in the audience yesterday afternoon, for there was a general outburst of applause when Dr. Van Helsing produced a little cross that caused the dreaded Dracula to fling his cloak over his head and make himself scarce.”

The Variety review opined: “On the stage it was a thriller carried to such an extreme that it had a comedy punch by its very outre aspect. On the screen it comes out as a sublimated ghost story related with all surface seriousness and above all with a remarkably effective background of creepy atmosphere.”

Nearly 70 years later, Roger Ebert looked back at the classic horror tale, and offered this lovely commentary: “The vampire Dracula has been the subject of more than 30 films; something deep within the legend is suited to cinema. Perhaps it is the joining of eroticism with terror. The vampire's attack is not specifically sexual, but in drinking the blood of his victims he is engaged in the most intimate of embraces, and no doubt there is an instinctive connection between losing your virginity (and your soul) and becoming one of the undead. Vampirism is like elegant, slow-motion rape, done politely by a creature who charms you into surrender.”

I’d looked up Maria Ouspenskaya’s file once before on www.imdb.com, so I left it at that.

All this knowledge from an overdose of Van Helsing publicity? Not bad, for a Monday night on the Web.

The next few days might be tough to handle, though. According to Variety, the current campaign also includes film promotions with Carl's Jr. (breath mints), the American Red Cross (a blood drive, natch) and Toys "R" Us (action figures); Van Helsing attractions at Universal Studios in Hollywood and Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum in New York; a Van Helsing interactive video game; an animated prequel to the film on DVD; and a vast array of consumer product lines based on both the classic and newly created monsters, as well as the Van Helsing character played by Jackman. Universal's new parent company, General Electric's NBC, may elect to produce a drama series conceived by Sommers and inspired by Van Helsing, who, in the original, was about as charismatic as an old bowling bag.

In addition to this bounty of riches, horror buffs also are celebrating the release of Warner Home Video’s six-film retrospective of mid-century gore-fests from England’s Hammer Studios. Instead of Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff, these adaptations featured Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, who have their loyalists, as well. Available in the boxed set or individually are Curse of Frankenstein, Dracula Has Risen From the Grave, Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed, Horror of Dracula, The Mummy and Taste the Blood of Dracula. Unfortunately, there are very few bonus features.

To paraphrase Count Dracula, “For one who has not lived even a single lifetime, you are a wise man, Van Helsing. Now, get over yourself.”

- by Gary Dretzka

May 4, 2004


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