good - but Bela Lugosi and Johnathan Frid better

Rating: Null/10 (7 August 2004)

First of all let me admit I am a big fan of the Universal classics from the 1930's - nobody can do Dracula like Bela Lugosi. And its not just the performance of one particular actor, its plot, characterization and atmosphere - genuine "spookeyness". Actually no modern horror movie has truly satisfied me except Bram Stoker's Dracula. Van Helsing was OK - I expected great. If they are going to MAKE a movie like this - go to all of the trouble, effort, money, why not make a GREAT one. (I say the same for Troy - good movie, should have been GREAT!) The Frankenstein monster was a nice touch, but he rest was too much window dressing - too much flash, too many things flying around. And some of the plot twists, the secret world behind the mirror and those squishy eggs left over from Alien. Real horror movie cliche's are great, but not overworked things like mad chase scenes, squishy eggs complete with the same sound effects, things like that which work in one modern horror or science fiction movie but get old when worked to death in every horror or science fiction movie. Since seeing Van Helsing I have been watching Dark Shadows on video and after VH appreciate DS so much more. Now there is acting, plot, sets, mood, costume - ATMOSPHERE. Just goes to show you cannot beat a two hundred year old vampire discovered chained in a coffin tn the family tomb who authentically redoes the ancestral home and kidnaps a beautiful local girl to turn into his lost love.