The first time I saw the Van Helsing trailer, when I went to see Hellboy for the first time, I thought the movie looked to have some promise. One of my employees thought Jackman had too much of an Amish look to him; I tried to explain that no, that’s not an Amish look, and I would know, I lived in Lancaster, Pennsylvania for a while and had two Amish farms as my neighbors.
Off on a tangent I’ve gone.
The second time I saw the trailer, when I went with a group of friends to see Hellboy a second time, I had a deeply sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.
Why?
I noticed who was playing Dracula.
Richard Roxburgh.
Now, Roxburgh has a claim to fame. He can rightly say that he is one of maybe three actors–among them Orson Welles–to have played Sherlock Holmes, James Moriarty, and Dracula. Holmes, in a BBC production of The Hound of the Baskervilles. Moriarty, in last summer’s LXG. And now Dracula.
Roxburgh made a terrible Holmes. Roxburgh made a terrible Moriarty. I have little confidence in his ability to portray the embodiment of pure evil as Dracula.
I know I’ll go see the film. I can’t shake the feeling, though, that Van Helsing will fail in the villain department.