It's worth a viewing in my opinion. It portrays the church in a positive light -though there is a little ambiguity about it; it is the church that orders the destruction of Frankenstein's 'monster'; though that order is not carried out by friar Carl who acts in mercy towards him. There is an accidently ecumenical moment when VanH uses holy water to vanquish one of the brides of Dracula -it is Orthodox holy water rather than RC ...
I liked too the way that the vanquishing of bad guys is not seen a a simply morally right thing to do: VanH won't kill Frankenstein's monster because he/it is not given over to evil, and there is some regret at the work of dispatching monsters ["You don't have to see them when they return to human." -or suchlike words]. Of course the major criticism is that it is still a replication of the 'myth of redemptive violence' [Walter Wink's phrase fromNaming the Powers...
or one of the following books]. Ie that good wins over evil by means of cathartic violence which restores or creates order and peace out of 'chaos'.
I liked too the tongue in cheek nature of it all. See how many film and TV references you can spot: here's my initial list to get you started: Star Wars [Dracula's servants], LOTR [lots], Gremlins, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Buffy, Angel, Indiana Jones, James Bond [see Friar Carl's workplace and role], I half expected Van H to say "I'll be back" ...
Interesting thing is how 'spiritual' dimensions of good and evil are 'in' and that there is a valuing of the notion of dedicating onself to fight against evil [echoes of baptismal texts]. The idea too that even something of the werewolf could be pressed into service for good is quite interesting too. And the ending isn't entirely or simply happy; so that's a bit grown up for American popular film ... [sorry; no offence intended -you know what I mean].
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