#Anna Valerious/Dracula

[ophelialoveshandsomemen]

Say what you will about Van Helsing 2004; hate it, love it, be indifferent, But the All-Hallow's masquerade ball went sooooo hard and it had zero right to do so! It's a fun, campy, monster mash movie with wonderfully dated ( and expensive) cgi and non-stop action meant to be a popcorn flick one takes out to watch around spooky season. And it has this* chef's kiss* GORGEOUS 6 minute sequence plopped arbitrarily in the second act, which unexpectedly surpasses nearly every other ball in the last 30+ years of film( notable exception being the Cinderella 2015 ball) for literally no reason other than to be dramatic af.

Like feast your eyes on this Gothic masterpiece!!! Who doesn't want to immediately live in this picture?!??

They used those candles with oil in them so that they would have real candles, real string orchestra( I believe), probably around 100 real life extras( something which is tragically absent in modern film), said extras are all in beautiful fully decked-out costumes( which are in luxuriously dark colours, but nearly no fully black, another thing you cannot say for much modern cinema), REAL CIRQUE DU SOLEIL PERFORMERS for all the acrobatics!!!! Hell, instead of filming in a sound stage, where they could control the reverb and the acoustics and the size of the set and the bloody lighting ( they apparently had a heck of a time emulating the firelight for this sequence) and the temperature( it's very cold in stone churches!) better, they filmed in a Baroque church in Prague! As I said, peak dramatic splendour, jfc...

Think about that a second...They filmed a vampire masquerade in a Baroque Catholic Church( St. Nicholas' in Lesser Town, if you were curious) with amazing over-the-top acoustics and marble statues and real, tiled floors and marble pillars and a choir loft which they very much utilized, covered the pipe organ and the altar with a grand brocade curtain so it wouldn't be so obviously a, you know, a church! And there's a gold gilt elevated and canopied pulpit into which they put two vampire kiddies for, again, the sake of being dramatic.

And the costumes! They remind me of the 25th anniversary Phantom of the Opera Masquerade costumes. Same quality, like they're old, well-cared-for costumes pulled out of a warehouse, instead of fast industry churn-outs. With lots of trim and colour and masks and lace and feathers and..just...ugh.. they are all perfect! Just look at all the head pieces on the ladies and the hats on all the gentleman ( save Dracula of course) and the powdered wigs on the musicians. ANNNNDD! The dresses are historically correct!!!!!! It's the 80's bustle era! Nobody does the 80's bustle era in film anymore and it's a bummer. Oh and one other thing! Anna's ( and other women's) hair, at least here in the ball, is also historically accurate because it's all pinned up! None of those fucken modern beachwaves at a ball! Everybody's got updo's!

Gah, I swear, Dracula in his gold cloak really does things to me in this scene!

By the way, the acrobatics are bonkers in here for just background stuff!! Especially the random guys on unicycles and the dude playing the violin whilst standing on a ball...Like....WHAT?

Anyways, all this to say, that this masquerade ball feels sooo real and tangible and because of that it blows every other film out of the water, and no, I will not change my mind!!!!!

Here's a few more gifs, bcuz, why the hell not, this scene is sexy as fuu*ck?

Alright I need to go to bed now.

[mistressvera]

Van Helsing (2004) dir. Stephen Sommers

[periodcostumefantasylover]

Dracula dances with Anna Valerious in Van Helsing in 4k

[thiswaycomessomethingwicked]

Van Helsing 2004 is just joyful to watch

It's messy, it's non-sensicle, it's stupid, it's overdramatic, everyone's accent changes every three minutes and god help me is it a masterpiece of early 2000s blockbuster hoopla

I love that film unironically

[fearlesstarker]

I'm looking for a new bride, someone strong and beautiful. all it takes is one bite from me.

[giveamadeuschohisownmovie]

I’ve watched the 2004 Van Helsing movie multiple times, and it’s only occurred to me now that Dracula and his wives were being really stupid in not wiping out the Valerious bloodline as soon as possible. Because at the start of the movie, it’s clear that Velkan and Anna can’t do shit without Van Helsing and Carl. Velkan got wrecked by the werewolf and there were so many moments where Anna was about to get killed by the wives. The only reason the wives stopped short of killing Anna was that Van Helsing and Carl showed up. In fact, there’s a moment in the village square fight where Anna was about to fall to her death and the only reason why she survived was that one of the wives caught her.

All of this just tells me that Dracula and his wives could’ve just invaded the village and ended the Valerious bloodline for good. In fact, the alien-bat-vampire babies could’ve wiped the village out on their own! Instead, Dracula and his wives just…let the Valerious siblings roam freely? And even when they’re actively trying to kill her, they act so stupid that Anna survives by sheer luck (which the movie does point out).

Still a fun movie, but as soon as I realized this, it changed how I saw the plot.

[foxglovevibes]

I dunno about y'all but to me, Van Helsing (2004) had the biggest hand early 2000s monsterfucker + sexual awakenings 🤣

[mylittlepimp]

*My conversation with my nonverbal (in the way of words) nephew*

Me to my nephew: "I watched the first 3 X-Men. Well not the prequel... The first 3 before the prequels, that I grew up with."

My nephew: 🤗

Me: "and I cried for 2 hours."

My nephew: 🥺

Me: "then I watched Van Helsing..."

My nephew: 🤨

Me: "and I was sad again. But I didn't cry."

My nephew: 🥹

Me: "then I watched league of extraordinary gentlemen for the first 20 minutes so I could prove people are who I think they are! And they were!"

My nephew: 🤨

Me: "I couldn't finish it because I promised Grandma (my mom) I wouldn't finish it without her."

My nephew: 🤣

Me: "but they are who I thought they were! Dracula - uh Van Helsing's Dracula is M."

Me: "and Marcus - uh underworld and underworld evolution, because he dies in evolution (spoiler alert) Marcus is Skinner - the invisible man!"

My nephew: 🤔😘

Me: "I don't recognize their faces but I recognize their voices. It was in the first five or ten minutes that I knew "M" or the masked villain was Dracula and he was speaking in an entirely different language." *Laughs*

My nephew: 🙄 *giggles* 😁

Me: "I'm not crazy."

[6lostgirl6]

Van Helsing (2004) Masterlist

Gabriel Van Helsing

Gabriel Van Helsing With Vampire!Reader HCs - G/n!Reader

My Kind of Woman - Fem!Reader

Anna Velerious

Count Dracula

Chivalry is Undead Dracula x Fem!Reader

Poly!Dracula/Wives

Poly!Wives Accidentally Upsetting Their Fem!Mate HCs

Marishka

Verona

Aleera

[marianoguzman]

[sithfar]

I knew something was wrong with me when at the age of 5 I was watching that ballroom scene in Van Helsing, imagining myself in Anna’s place and genuinely getting excited.

[mistressvera]

Van Helsing (2004) dir. Stephen Sommers

[ibrithir-was-here]

Ironically, the version of Dracula who perhaps comes closest to his charismatic, monologing and still utterly remorless, monsterous self in the book, is the one from the movie that's least close to the book, 2004's Van Helsing

(Which is a severely underated gem of a movie. Perfect camp. Gorgeous sets, music and people. Best version of the Brides too. Absolutely bonkersly off plot but at least the replacement they give is fun)

[milaeryn]

Today is the day to rewatch Van Helsing! I love vampire movies of the 2000s... *chef kiss*

Happy Halloween everyone!

[a-live-wire]

Right, here's my little contribution for the Van Helsing (2004) fandom, since I rewatched it a week ago, and it has not left me alone since.

Are you interested in an alternate ending of the movie, where Dracula doesn't die, and he and Gabriel are left to deal with the consequences, their past, and what they will make of their future?

Would you like to see more of Carl, and the Frankenstein's creature?

Did you get just a *little* frustrated with Anna, and would like to see her have a better character arc, and some good shoes?

First two chapters are up, and in time, you should find this and more in this fic ⬇️

[axel0715]

Van Helsing