“What I tend to do is look at these myths and then try to explain them. For instance, we know we can’t see Dracula’s reflection, so my natural curiosity as a filmmaker asks, ‘Why?’ If the mythology doesn’t provide an answer, then I supply one of my own. I realized that Frankenstein’s Monster, Dracula and The Wolf Man could all exist in the same world—the setting for all of their legends is Eastern Europe around the same time. Then I would come across something else, like when I read that werewolves were supposedly the guardians of vampires during the day. I started to be really excited by the potential of a film that could include all of these ideas and storylines.”
The ultimate linking piece to Sommers’ narrative puzzle lay in a character created by classic author Bram Stoker within the pages of his monolithic 1897 work of monster fiction: Dracula.
Sommers continues, “I read the book about 20 years ago. In Stoker’s novel, Van Helsing is 60 years old and his first name is Abraham. He’s been a character in countless movies, but no one’s ever done a movie centered on him. I needed to find a way to make him my own. I changed his first name to Gabriel and I made him younger and cooler…in a sense, I made my Van Helsing the younger brother to Stoker’s character. He’s now working for an ancient, secret society as a bounty hunter. He’s a gun-for-hire, a mercenary who is out to vanquish evil—and Count Dracula is evil incarnate, so he makes a very attractive quarry for Van Helsing.”
While this more adrenalized version of Van Helsing would serve as both a classic movie hero and crossroads for all of the monsters’ stories, Sommers went a step further by painting the character with equal amounts of light and darkness.
He adds, “I gave Van Helsing a motivating back story. The character, as I imagined him, doesn’t know who he is or where he is in his life. He doesn’t remember anything about his past. And while Van Helsing is a hero, he’s also the most wanted man in the land. He kills monsters that people are starting not to believe in any more—we’re nearing the end of the 19th century and the dawn of a more reasoned, enlightened period. When Van Helsing kills a werewolf, for example, the monster turns back into a human at the moment of his death. Van Helsing is left standing over the body of a gentle old man. So, people naturally have some serious misgivings about Van Helsing and what he’s up to.”
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