The monster mash

It might be Halloween tomorrow but don't rap on GRAHAM REID's door, he's quaking under the covers already.

On theatrical release, Van Helsing got a bad rap - dodgy computer graphics, a story which tried to accommodate Dracula, werewolves and Frankenstein's beast, over-long, and just plain silly. All true.

But on a home viewing, because you haven't gone to a cinema so have less emotional investment in it, you just kick back and go with its errant idiocy.

Overwrought Van Helsing has a secret Vatican cabal, a wasp-waisted gypsy princess with heaving breasts, skilful swordplay, rats and spiderwebs, angry peasants with flaming torches storming massive castles, Mr Hyde as Hellboy-meets-Fat Bastard, and a remarkably well-spoken Frankenstein creation. It wittily references The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Alien and Star Wars. An amusing, visually excessive diversion not to be taken seriously.

This is a good exchange between bad boss and the evil servant baiting his prisoner:

"Why do you torture that thing so?"

"It's what I do."

The special edition has another disc with a tedious interactive section, but with a fine short film tracing movie monsters and which includes clips from the original flicks, available in the Legacy Collection's Dracula, Frankenstein and The Wolf Man.

The Dracula collection begins with Bela Lugosi's genuinely freaky vampire-man of 1931. Then it's downhill somewhat as Lon Chaney jnr - who, like Lugosi and Boris Karloff, made his career in such fright flicks - adopts the Sam Neill school of acting as the Count.

The collection has Son of Dracula (1943), House of Dracula (1945) and Dracula's Daughter (1936). There's a Philip Glass score by the Kronos Quartet, a rundown on the making of the originals, and a poster gallery so you can print off cool Drac-pix. Lots of neck-biting, bat-wings, and shadows'n'screaming.

It's full of great moments (the children of the night, what music they make) and the Wolf Man set is especially good: the original 1941 Wolf Man; Werewolf of London (1935); She-Wolf of London (1943) and the funky Frankenstein Meets the Wolf-Man (1943).

The original is the killer, so to speak. It starts in Tibet when a botanist gets bitten by a mysterious animal.

He goes home to his London high-society set, all of whom deserve to have their throats ripped out. So Wolfie puts on a scarf, hat and coat and goes out to commit mayhem. She-Wolf isn't a changeling flick but a creepy mystery (you can guess the ending) starring June Lockhart, who became Mrs Robinson in Lost in Space. This collection also has a good doco called Monsters by Moonlight.

Best of the series is the Frankenstein collection with the 1931 original. There's the spooky Bride of Frankenstein (1935), Son of Frankenstein (1939), Ghost of Frankenstein (1942) and House of Frankenstein (1944) - that's a lot of clunking, bandaged, bolt-neck guys (who look like Lou Reed), but the huge, expressionistic stage sets and haunting chiaroscuro lighting seldom fail to impress.

There is also an excellent doco on gay director James Whale, who felt like an outsider - much like the monster Frankenstein created. Essential package.

The pristine prints in the Legacy Collection have great stories where geography is irrelevant (a coach trip from Cardiff to Transylvania takes a day), and include eye-rolling gypsies and upright London bobbies.

When it comes to monster flicks - scary or silly - they are all you need.

Except Young Frankenstein, of course.