Action Fest

Rating: 5/10 (8 May 2004)

Van Helsing is one long trailer - but in a good way. I feel you will either love it or loathe it. Comparisons will be drawn with all the horror films you could possibly imagine but in truth it should be looked at as a parody of the genre. The opening crowd sequence is superb, done in black and white for added effect and pays homage to the old Frankenstein movies.

From there the plot moves on at some pace. In fact if you drew a really big breath you could probably tell the whole plot in one sentence and not go blue in the face but hey, I'm not complaining. The accents are acceptable but I think they paid too much attention to sounding Romanian rather than actually acting so it's a bit ropey in that department. I don't really think Kate Beckinsale got the part for her acting though.
It's not really a horror film, it's not really a spoof, its somewhere in between and that is it's major flaw. It has no real identity but if you want a slobber knocker action fest with great looking leads and lots of vamp action then this is the movie for you.