Author Daniel O’Brien makes a strong point in his introduction to ‘Van Helsing And His Kin’ that, next to the legendary Count…you know the one, Van Helsing hasn’t had as much publicity. As vampire slayers go, he always pops up and, in later years, if not him, then various others have stood in for him. This book covers most of them across various films and TV series.
Something that quickly becomes apparent is how many books O’Brien has drawn on for his arguments. His bibliography at the back of the book is some 12 pages long! If I were applying a scientific argument here, then he should have included contrary opinions, even if only to disagree with them.
The chapter on Hammer films goes beyond the vampire films and into other horror films where there’s an expert, whom he calls a ‘savant’, mostly there to deal with the situation. I’m not so sure about the term, as ‘savant’ usually refers to an expert trait that you’re born with, not one that’s learnt. Nothing wrong with that in itself, but it is a standard character role to have someone there to explain things to the other characters and to the viewer. The only difference with horror films is that many of them are also active participants in resolving the problem.
The real problem I’m finding is that O’Brien turns to film synopsis rather than focusing on the activities of the protagonist and how good they are. Fine for the novice but, as I’m assuming we’re all film fans here, we have some familiarity with some of these films. You do have to wonder if he’s seen all the films here, not to mention read all the books he’s referenced, or just relied on their indexes. As a reviewer, I tend to be inclined to check things. When he jumped out of sequence with his look at the 1957 film, ‘Night Of The Demon’, it does tend to show, especially as it was only a sub-plot in the film.
On reflection after reading, I have drawn an important conclusion. From all these synopses, Van Helsing in all his forms plays a small part in many of the films, often drawn in when the other characters need some help. This might explain why the synopses have to be extended into other subjects to bulk things out.
O’Brien devotes a chapter to ghost story films, even if the first few examples go over the originals and remakes of films. There’s still more focus on the villains of the piece than on the protagonist. Maybe it’s just me, the writer, but I think I would have preferred a shorter book by this point, just drawing out examples of what makes savant protectors effective or failures.
An entire chapter is given over to ‘Buffy The Vampire Slayer’. Although there’s only supposed to be one per generation, Buffy dying a couple of times brings the next into power. While Kendra is explored in terms of her race, Faith barely gets a mention. O’Brien points out a lack of people of colour in Sunnydale, despite then pointing out several in the later seasons. I presume his concern was the lack of people of colour in the Scooby gang. Thing is, if you do a comparison with ‘Smallville’, out around the same time, Pete Ross, now black and Clark’s friend, stands out purely because he looks like a token, as he’s the only one in town. Striking the right balance, especially around the turn of the century, was never going to be easy. This also distracts from the needs of the generations of slayers keeping the vampires in check.
There are several appendices, covering films and TV series that didn’t go in the main chapters, in date order but not all indexed. I’m also pretty sure there were better examples that could have been taken from ‘The X-Files’ TV series. Not a mention of ‘Miracle Man’ from the first season, for instance. Then again, with 218 episodes, you really do have to dig into them. O’Brien does occasionally include the odd horror-SF film, but would probably have doubled the size of this book had he looked to SF films for teacher-protagonists.
As you can tell from the above, I have mixed feelings about this book. If you need a checklist of horror films, especially vampire ones, to watch, then this is a useful book. It does tend to deviate from looking at the activities of Van Helsing and his kin, and there isn’t enough emphasis on them or comparison across the films as to who was more valuable. There’s an odd balance between how much synopsis is given and the influence of any significant character in the story. As it is, other supporting characters and even the main antagonist get equal mention, although rarely are any of the actors mentioned. In that respect, this book covers other details as well.
GF Willmetts
October 2026
(pub: Telos, 2026. 319 page illustrated indexed large paperback. Price: £16.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-1-84583-273-5)
check out website: https://telos.co.uk/shop/film/van-helsing-pb/
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