Van Helsing (2004)

• Key tracks

  Burning it down!

  Journey to Transylvania

  Attacking Brides

  Dracula’s Nursery

  Transylvanian Horses

  All Hallow’s Eve Ball

  Final Battle

• Notable instruments

  Acoustic guitar

  Taiko drums

  French horns

  Harp

  Bells

  Brass

  Cello

Bombastic and excessive

Bombastic like the film it accompanies, Alan Silvestri’s score from Stephen Sommers’ mega monster mashup takes all the elements he showed during his work in The Mummy Returns and cranks them up to 11. Be aware, this is a bold, excessive, hyperactive and surprisingly … coherent score making a strong case for one of the scores of 2004.

The album matches Sommers’ onscreen kinetic camera - if music could represent swirling movements and frenetic action sequences, then Silvestri has been extremely successful composing enough rich material and musical textures to seduce even those who feel repulsed by CGI-heavy blockbusters. Silvestri weaves a huge musical tapestry across several instruments and a massive (~66) choir to propel the proceedings; there are harps, French horns, lots of percussion including taiko drums, brass, female soprano vocals, acoustic guitar, church bells and more to breathe life into Sommers’ wacky Victorian adventure.

In his attempt to bring the end of the world for our characters during their encounters with famous monsters, Silvestri’s work is voluptuous standing separately from the film as its own listening experience. Just like the motion picture it accompanies, the album’s pace is relentless despite clocking at 43 minutes with no filler material present. Only at the end (“Reunited”), we get some traditional and effective orchestrations regarding Anna’s and Van Helsing’s relationship.

Each track bears a distinct musical identity of action, horror, and swashbuckling adventure. Opening with greater and louder things to come (“Transylvania 1887”) under a brutally rhythmic idea of powerful brass and choral chanting, “Burn it Down!” continues to bring forward the dark choir chants to elevate Dracula’s invisibility whose musical theme is “powerful stuff” with lots of low end percussion and strong brass according to Silvestri himself. An early section of cello performances that get faster to reach a roaring crescendo as the scene plays out is a remarkable tactic for suspense, deployed two more times (“Attacking the Brides”, “All Hallow’s Eve Ball”). Speaking of “Attacking Brides”, this can be easily the album’s standout piece – a fantastic collection of musical notes spanned across 5 delicious minutes with string overkill and lots of brass.

Van Helsing’s own theme is a catchy one (“Journey to Transylvania”) combining nifty electronic samples, choir (you will be hard pressed to find a track without it), French horns and playful acoustic guitar stylings that intercut each other. Silvestri carries this theme towards action overkill in what is perhaps the most bombastic track in the whole album: “Transylvanian Horses”. Although it stops at the first minute to invoke a sense of suspense; then things go really loud, the percussion doing a fantastic job to smash your sound system including a brief segment of minimal church organ use.

A break comes in the form of “All Hallow’s Eve Ball”, a less frantic track beginning with a seductive Waltz in tune with harpsichords, cellos, and  a wonderful female soprano performance. It is appropriate for Dracula’s majestic masquerade ball segment and a pleasant pause from the musical chaos even if at the end it still goes ballistic. By the time we reach the longest track “Final Battle”, all the cues scattered across the album are merged into a six-and-a-half minute piece which in the middle has an extensive and highly effective percussion section that continues Dracula’s theme from “Transylvania 1887”.

Van Helsing, like its movie, tries too hard to entertain. Its lack of filler though casts aside anyone’s doubts. Aging incredibly well over time with a clear love for the source material and pure craftsmanship for something truly special. It is not a masterpiece, but it is damn close, echoing the work of John Debney in Renny Harlin’s Cutthroat Island, a decade earlier.