REVIEW: Van Helsing and His Kin

BY: DAVEY

Van Helsing and His Kin by Daniel O’Brien is a new study from Telos Publishing that follows the vampire hunter through nearly a century of film and television. It came out on September 25, and I had a great time with it.

O’Brien is a film studies lecturer and tutor who has been writing about cinema as a freelancer since 1989. His articles have run in Film International and Shivers, and his earlier books include The Hannibal Files, Spooky Encounters, and Daniel Craig: Ultimate Professional. He clearly knows his way around a screen character, and that experience shows on every page.

The book traces Van Helsing from a supporting player in the early Dracula films to a leading man in his own right. You get the many faces of the professor, played by Edward Van Sloan, Peter Cushing, Laurence Olivier, Anthony Hopkins, David Suchet, Hugh Jackman, and Dolly Wells, among others. O’Brien also looks beyond the name and covers the Van Helsing types who turn up in films from the 1930s onward, some lightly disguised and some in movies with little connection to Dracula. Reading about those stand-ins made me want to go back and rewatch a lot of old favorites.

The ending is what made this one a highlight for me. The book closes with an analysis of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and I am the world’s biggest Buffy fan. Buffy is the slayer who came to rival Van Helsing in pop culture, so finishing there feels like exactly the right place to land. I loved seeing her looked at alongside the professor who started the whole tradition, and I would happily read an entire second book of it.

If you love vampire movies, this is a smart, well-researched addition to your shelf, and any Buffy fan will find plenty to enjoy in that final section. It is 321 pages from a publisher that clearly loves film, and I am glad to have it.

Order a copy from the publisher here.