Van Helsing

The film opens in Transylvania, 1887, where an angry mob is preparing to storm Dr. Frankenstein's (Samuel West) castle, as his infamous reanimation experiment is about to complete. Count Dracula (Richard Roxburgh) has commissioned the experiment, because he wants to use the monster (Shuler Hensley) for an evil scheme. When Dr. Frankenstein refuses to abide, Dracula bites and sucks all his blood out which causes him to die, and the mob breaks into the castle. Frankenstein's monster takes his "father's" body and runs off to a nearby windmill. Igor, Frankenstein's assistant, accidentally blows his master's location, and the mob follows. The mob burns it down, and the monster and Dr. Frankenstein fall into a cavern below. Dracula and his brides managed to frighten the mob away to watch the horrible end of a perfect plan.

Van Helsing (Hugh Jackman) is a monster hunter for a secret organization called "The Order" that fights evil. One year after the Frankenstein incident, he is assigned to bring in Dr. Henry L. Jekyll/Mr. Edward Hyde (Robbie Coltrane), but fails by killing him accidentally. Van Helsing is hunted himself, branded a murderer, as most of the monsters he kills change back to human form once they're dead and found by the authorities. Also, he is haunted by memories of some sort of past life, most of which are of events that occurred hundreds of years ago. The Order sends him after Count Dracula, partially because the Order believes he might find the answers to his real past on the journey. He, and his assistant friar Carl (David Wenham), arrive in Romania and meet Anna Valerious (Kate Beckinsale). Anna is one of the last of the Valerious family, along with her brother, Velkin (Will Kemp). Their family has been trying to kill Dracula since their ancestor swore to God that their family would never enter heaven until Dracula was dead. Velkin is killed by a werewolf during a failed attempt to kill the creature, making Anna the last Valerious, and just as determined to kill Dracula. Upon arriving, Van Helsing and Anna are attacked by Dracula's three brides. Using special weapons designed to kill vampires, Van Helsing defeats one Marishka (Josie Maran), loaded with holy water from a nearby church.

Anna and Van Helsing form an alliance to kill Dracula, who is using Castle Frankenstein for some mysterious purpose. They find that Dracula and his Brides have been breeding and trying to produce thousands of offspring. Because the Count and his Brides are dead, their children are conceived dead as well, and the Count is using Victor Frankenstein's work to bring them to life. However, every attempt he makes fails, and he needs Frankenstein's monster to make it work. He is partially successful with werewolf venom from Anna's brother Velkin, who was not killed and is now in Dracula's servitude, but the results prove insufficient, as the children die after a short period (the Count's last experiment resulted into killing Anna and Velkin's father, who is actually also a werewolf). Dracula confronts Van Helsing (whom Dracula calls "Gabriel") and tries to bargain with him, saying that he knows about his past, but Dracula leaves once he learns his children are dead. Meanwhile, Carl, who had slept with a woman he saved from Dracula's children, finds a hidden painting of two knights fighting, framed by a Latin inscription. As he recites it, the knights come alive and fight, one of them turning into a werewolf, the other a vampire. Caught in the rain, and on the run, Anna and Van Helsing arrive at the windmill that was burned down in the prologue. Anna tells Van Helsing that no conventional method to kill Dracula will work. While at the windmill, the floor gives way, and Anna and Van Helsing fall into a cavern. Van Helsing observes the cavern and describes the last creature who stepped in. Anna asks him how he knows it. Van Helsing says it was standing behind Anna. Frankenstein's monster is hiding down there, away from Dracula and the merciless townspeople. Van Helsing cannot kill the creature, as it is not evil, so he spirits it away to the Vatican in Rome, where it will be safer. A chase ensues, between Van Helsing and the Maidens of Dracula, resulting in one being killed from stakes in a decoy carriage. Velkin, in werewolf form, attacks and wounds Van Helsing. Anna is captured by Dracula's minions, and Van Helsing has only two nights before becoming a full Werewolf. The last of Dracula's brides tells them her master is willing to trade Anna for the monster. Van Helsing wasn't intent on doing it and neither was Dracula. Van Helsing and Carl tranquilized Frankenstein's monster and hid him in a cemetery.

Dracula is hosting a masquerade ball, where he intends to make Anna another bride, but before he bites her, Van Helsing rescues Anna; however, all the patrons are Vampires and Frankenstein's monster gets captured. Escaping by killing all the vampires with a device that produces a powerful burst of light, Van Helsing must now find Dracula's lair... as he begins to transform. Carl deciphers the clues in the Valerious house. Apparently, Dracula was the son of Anna's ancestor. After he was killed in 1462, Dracula made a deal with the devil for eternal life which can only be sustained by drinking blood (there was a picture with people between Dracula and Satan, but when folded, it shows Dracula touching Satan's finger). Anna's ancestor had his son banished to a frozen land and went to Rome to ask for forgiveness, which is how the Valerious pact was made. It is discovered that only a werewolf can kill Dracula. A map of Transylvania in the study creates a portal to Castle Dracula with an incantation Van Helsing was given back in Rome.

Frankenstein's monster, who is imprisoned in a block of ice, reveals that Dracula had a cure for werewolves, should one turn on him. Helsing goes to fight Dracula, while Carl and Anna force Igor (Kevin J. O'Connor) to find the cure. Igor pulls a fast one on them and locks them in the room with the cure. Anna fights another Maiden, while Carl runs to Helsing with the cure but is attacked by Igor. Van Helsing transforms into a werewolf and fights Dracula with his new-found strength (which side-effects his human form). Frankenstein's monster helps Anna fight the Maiden and gets surprised because Anna thanked him. Dracula reveals that Van Helsing is the "Left hand of God", a name for the archangel Gabriel, which may explain Van Helsing's long life and his aptitude at destroying evil. Dracula reveals that Van Helsing was the one that murdered him in 1462, and that he will tell Van Helsing everything he's forgotten, if he will become Dracula's partner. Van Helsing refuses this offer, transforms again, and kills Dracula. Anna runs in, and is attacked by Van Helsing. She is killed by him, but she injects him with the cure before she dies. Anna is given a proper cremation by Van Helsing and Carl, while Frankenstein's monster takes to the sea to evade the Vatican's orders to have him killed, and to find somewhere where he is accepted. Van Helsing looks to the sky and sees Anna and her family ascend to heaven, and then he and Carl ride off into the setting sun.