Abraham Van Helsing

Professor Abraham Van Helsing is a character from the 1897 Gothic horror novel Dracula. Van Helsing is an aged Dutch doctor with a wide range of interests and accomplishments, partly attested by the string of letters that follows his name: "M.D., D.Ph., D.Litt., etc, etc," indicating a wealth of experience, education and expertise. The character is best known throughout his many adaptations as a vampire hunter, monster hunter, and the archenemy of Count Dracula.

Dracula

In the novel, Van Helsing is called in by his former student, Dr. John Seward, to assist with the mysterious illness of Lucy Westenra. Van Helsing's friendship with Seward is based in part upon an unknown prior event in which Van Helsing suffered a grievous wound, and Seward saved his life by sucking out the gangrene. It is Van Helsing who first realizes that Lucy is the victim of a vampire, and he guides Dr. Seward and his friends in their efforts to save Lucy.

According to Leonard Wolf's annotations to the novel, Van Helsing had a son who died. Van Helsing says that his son, had he lived, would have had a similar appearance to another character, Arthur Holmwood. Consequently, Van Helsing developed a particular fondness for Holmwood. Van Helsing's wife went insane after their son's death, but as a Catholic, he refuses to divorce her ("with my poor wife dead to me, but alive by Church's law, though no wits, all gone, even I, who am faithful husband to this now-no-wife").

Van Helsing (film)

Van Helsing is a 2004 American dark fantasy action film directed by Stephen Sommers. It stars Hugh Jackman as vigilante monster hunter Van Helsing, and Kate Beckinsale as Anna Valerious. The film is an homage and tribute to the Universal Horror Monster films from the 1930s and 1940s (also produced by Universal Studios which were in turn based on novels by Bram Stoker and Mary Shelley), of which Sommers is a fan.

The eponymous character was inspired by the Dutch vampire hunter Abraham Van Helsing from Irish author Bram Stoker's novel Dracula. Distributed by Universal Pictures, the film includes a number of monsters such as Count Dracula, Frankenstein's monster and werewolves in a way similar to the multi-monster movies that Universal produced in the 1940s, such as Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man and House of Dracula.

Despite mostly negative reviews, the film grossed over $300 million worldwide and did well with the general public, becoming one of the biggest blockbusters released in 2004.

Van Helsing (video game)

Van Helsing is a third-person shooter for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox which is based on the 2004 action/horror film of the same name by Stephen Sommers. Starting off with the killing of Mr. Hyde in Paris, one must use the character of Van Helsing to hunt down Dracula in Transylvania. The character of Carl is completely missing from the video game but to reasonable accuracy, the characters of Anna Valerious, Velkan Valerious, Igor, Dracula and his three brides are portrayed as in the movie.

Van Helsing is able to pick up various weapons, some similar to the ones in the movie to complete the quest. Each weapon, except the elephant gun, has its own ammunition upgrades similar to Capcom's Devil May Cry series in gameplay. An ammo bar indicates how much of the upgraded ammo can be used. Regular ammo is unlimited and use of regular ammo increases the amount of upgraded ammo length. Van Helsing can collect up to three life replenishers, three ammo replenishers and three speed boosts. After every five kills, Van Helsing is able to perform a "finishing move" which will kill the sixth enemy with one hit. Special enemies such as any of the brides, Velkan the werewolf, Dracula or Igor have no response to a finishing move. The list of enemies that Van Helsing encounters during the length of the game include skeletons, flying skulls, small werewolves, skeletons armed with swords, bats, Dracula's children, stone statues, etc. along with the main enemies.