Van Helsing and Frankenstein
Topic #1: Dracula is trying to give life to his babies, or in connection to Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, his creations. But the only way for Dracula to give life to his babies is if he uses the monster’s body to pass his power and life on to the other creation. Almost like from one creation to another. By using the monster for Dracula’s creations the director pulls the idea of Frankenstein creating the monster from the novel. It also can start alluding to the idea and themes of the novel Frankenstein to the movie Van Helsing.
Topic #2: Dracula uses a lightning conductor on Anna’s brother, Velkan, hoping that his body will give life at least for a little while to his babies or his creations. The lightning storm and conductor is similar to the way that Frakenstein created his monster. This similarity is another way that the director can pull different allusions from movies/novels in the same gothic horror theme into his movie Van Helsing. By pulling in small elements of different films or books like Frankenstein the director can show elements like the idea of creation being something that is very tricky and hard to achieve. Dracula must get the most perfect environment for creating his babies.
