Monstrum

- Okay I have a confession to make.

(dramatic music) This movie, foundational for my journey as a monster expert.

Is the writing campy?

(person shouting) Yes, is the CGI laughable?

Sure.

But Hugh Jackman as Van Helsing, a mysterious professional monster Hunter and Kate Beckinsale as a literal werewolf hunting princess.

I didn't know who I wanted to be more.

It was cool to see them take down a slew of recognizable monsters, but what stood out to me the most was the concept of a monster hunter.

Someone hired to find and kill monsters, and it turns out monster hunters were a legitimate profession and well documented.

(upbeat music) Bram Stoker's original "Dr. Van Helsing" is very different from the version that beckoned to me from the big screen, probably because Stoker's character was inspired in part by real life monster hunters in the 1700s.

Monster slays throughout history weren't just taking down strange beasts and dangerous creatures, they were confronting society's deepest anxieties with strange and taboo techniques.

So who were these monster hunters and how did they move from fact to fiction?

(tense music) Before we get into the real life monster slayers that inspired "Van Helsing", we need to go further back.

Thousands of years, years, years, years.

(dramatic music) Monster slayers are generally organized into two categories.

The first are those that are born.

The archetype of a person with the ability to see and destroy evil and monstrosity likely originates from ancient shamanic traditions.

These were spiritual practices found in cultures all over the world.

Shamans were healers, guides, and community leaders who could communicate with unseen forces like the dead.

In many respects, shamans were the original monster hunters.

A shaman's role was to identify and banish malevolent spirits responsible for diseases and death.

Both the practical and spiritual threats were considered equally important to combat.

There are other examples of individuals born with supposed supernatural abilities, like the 15th century Benandanti.

In Italian tradition, the Benandanti were people marked at birth with a call or membrane over the face.

This mark meant they were chosen to defend the community against evil forces, leaving their bodies at night to fight witches.

If they lost, sickness and misfortune would befall the community.

Throughout history, twins were thought to possess rare supernatural abilities.

In ancient Rome and Greece, the twins, Castor and Pollux were divine protectors fighting against unknown and supernatural forces, just like classic monster hunters, or being born on a certain day of the week could predispose a person to detect evil.

In the Balkans, a Saturday birthday gave the ability to detect demonic presence, identify disease, and interpret dreams.

While those born this way served their communities, other monster hunters were made.

Starting around the sixth century, practitioners of Onmyodo, a form of divination based on the understanding of the cosmic balance, could see, create and defeat the harmful and demon like spirit.

In the Heian period, some Onmyodo practitioners were government employees and hired by aristocrats and royals to fight malevolent spirits.

During the medieval period, Roman Catholic church officials sent inquisitors to probe allegations of werewolves and witches.

The inquisitors were tasked with finding and punishing heretical behavior.

They were often from high ranking positions and always scholars, medical professionals or military personnel.

In the Shuten Doji story of pre-modern Japan, the emperor sent out famous warriors to defeat the malevolent and violent Oni who were considered real and physical threats.

With some help from a few Buddhist deities, the warriors allegedly brought the severed head of an Oni to the emperor in triumph.

It wasn't until the 16th century that we began to see recorded accounts of monster hunters that more closely resembled Stoker's character Van Helsing.

In Greece, historical documents show that clergymen were tasked with performing ecclesiastical exorcisms to destroy creatures called, undead decomposing corpses that brought death and havoc to entire communities.

Other times, villagers would exhume bodies and remove their hearts in an attempt to ensure permanent death.

But if none of that worked, there was one last resort, hire a monster hunter to cremate the body.

(dramatic music) In one 1575 case, for instance, Greek villagers called upon one such expert to rid their community of a corpse believed to be undead.

The monster slayer who was Turkish did so by burning the body.

Why bring in someone from another country?

In orthodox tradition, cremation is seen as a damnable act.

Presumably, this slayer didn't share the same faith and didn't fear being eternally condemned.

Not all monster hunters relied on violence or superstition.

Some of the earliest undead hunters were specialists who were well-versed in contagious diseases.

In 1725, famous monster investigator Ernst Frombald, an Austrian military doctor, was called upon to investigate a rash of suspicious deaths in Serbia.

Villagers reported that a recently deceased man, Petar Blagojev, had visited them in the night and tried to strangle and bite them.

When several of the victims died, locals were convinced that Blagojeviwas a vampire.

When they exhumed Blagojev's body, it showed no decomposition.

Hair and nails appeared to have grown, and there was blood in the mouth.

Despite being a man of science, he allowed the villagers to stake and burn the corpse, perhaps as a way to prevent further panic and hysteria.

This account was widely circulated in influence vampire mythology, contributing to the ideas that inspired Bram Stoker.

But there are at least two real life vampire investigators who may have inspired the character of Van Helsing.

The first is Dom Augustine Calmet.

Calmet was a French Benedictine monk, biblical scholar and respected theologian.

He's best known for his 1746 book "Treaties on the Apparitions of Spirits and on Vampires or Revenants".

This type of work was highly unusual for a clergyman.

He took reports of vampires, ghosts, and other supernatural phenomenon seriously.

He wasn't necessarily a believer, but approached these topics as a critical investigator and with scholarly curiosity, Calmet embodies the intellectual side of Van Helsing, blending faith and science.

Dr. Abraham Van Helsing is a medical doctor and lawyer who also happens to be a firm believer that science cannot replace supernatural knowledge completely and isn't afraid to use traditional folk methods as medicinal treatment.

He is called upon to diagnose Lucy, one of Dracula's early victims in the novel, suffering from extreme blood loss, sleepwalking and fatigue.

The origin of Lucy's illness is a mystery, so Van Helsing proposes radical treatments, including a blood transfusion.

This was highly unorthodox.

His treatments get even more bizarre when he orders white garlic flowers to hang in Lucy's window and around her neck.

He even proceeds to rub the white garlic on the doorframe and fireplace.

Ultimately, Van Helsing suggests that Dracula is a vampire.

He knows that communion wafers and other sacred Christian objects can drive vampires back.

He tells the others that vampires must be beheaded, their mouths filled with garlic and their chest staked.

Stoker sets up Van Helsing as a monster hunter archetype, who while pretty handy with a steak, is primarily analytical and objective.

This brings us to our second real life vampire investigator, Gerard Van Swieten, whom Stoker likely took inspiration from.

In the early 18th century, Emperess Maria Theresa of Austria-Hungry, sent her personal physician to investigate alleged vampires in the region.

A Dutch physician, Van Swieten, rejected a belief in supernatural vampires, but he did investigate their claims at the behest of his boss.

A reluctant monster seeker if you will.

In the mid 18th century, panic over vampire attacks was sweeping through Eastern Europe.

Villagers were routinely exhuming bodies that seemed to show little signs of decomposition, as if they were still alive.

There's even some archeological evidence that communities were performing burial rituals intended to stop alleged undead from rising, things like putting rocks in their mouths, sickles over their necks, and even decapitation.

Van Swieten approached the reports with scientific reasoning, but with the heavy dose of skepticism.

After examining the cases, he concluded that the corpses weren't showing signs of heavy decomposition because of cold temperatures helping to preserve the corpses.

He concluded that rituals like staking and burning were rooted in fear and mysticism, not fact.

By the 20th century, traditional monster hunters largely faded into obscurity, replaced by explorers, scholars, scientists, hobbyists, and journalists chasing down stories of cryptids and unidentified aerial phenomena newspapers printed stories of regularly.

While Dracula had commercial and critical success, the all knowing physician may have been lost to history if it wasn't for the silver screen.

In 1931, Bela Lugosi famously portrayed Dracula on film with a panache and debonair attitude unseen with screen vampires before.

- Van Helsing a most distinguished scientist.

- [Narrator] The movie's Van Helsing is a relatively accurate adaptation of Stoker's character.

- Foreign woman, how long have you had those little marks?

- Marks?

- [Narrator] Middle aged, well educated, formidable, and confident, the movie version of Van Helsing is also depicted as Dracula's sworn nemesis.

- Look.

(object banging) - [Narrator] And the one who delivers the fatal stake blow to Dracula ending his reign.

- Nina.

(person groaning) - A departure from the source text that helped catapult the good doctor into an action hero, not just a walking encyclopedia.

You could also argue that Stoker's Van Helsing and his early onscreen portrayal helped make other monster hunter characters possible, like Vampire Hunter D, Buffy, Blade, Geralt of Rivia, and even Scully and Mulder.

The monster Hunter is an enduring archetype that builds on a complex and compelling tradition.

We will always have monsters, which means these heroes, whose dedication to knowledge and willingness to break taboos will continue to exist.

It wasn't until the 16th century that we began to see recorded accounts of monster hunters that more closely resembled Stoker's character Van Helsing, Van Helsing, Van, Van.

- [Speaker] All day.

- Oh, I could literally like get some popcorn, let's go.