Continuity mistake: When the men open Lucy's grave, Van Helsing's lamp and hammer, sitting on top of the stone lid, switch position between the shot of Van Helsing and the following shot from above. The same thing happens after they see the empty coffin. (01:21:20)
Continuity mistake: When Lucy enters the crypt, the candles on her left side ignite twice, once in the wide shot where she walks down the stairs and once in the following close-up of the candles. (01:22:40)
Revealing mistake: When they are in the crypt to kill Lucy, they open the stone lid and look down. Clearly you can see glass on top of the inner coffin, yet later when Lucy goes in the coffin there is no glass. (01:24:55 - 01:27:05)
Audio problem: When Holmwood has the gun pointed in Van Helsing's face in Lucy's crypt, Van Helsing explains about the undead. Switch to a shot behind Helsing and his jaw is still moving even though he has stopped speaking. (01:25:35)
Continuity mistake: When Van Helsing forces vampire Lucy to go back into her coffin using a cross, as Lucy lies down in the coffin, he lowers the cross gradually. In the next shot, he is still holding it up. For the next few shots, the cross alternates between being lowered and being held up. (01:27:00)
Continuity mistake: During the crypt scene, the shot of Lucy lying down in the stone coffin and the following shot where she sits up and vomits blood on Van Helsing, show dramatic difference in the depth of the coffin. (01:27:00 - 01:27:05)
Continuity mistake: When Van Helsing fends off Lucy in the crypt, he forces her to lie down inside the stone coffin and fall asleep. However, when Arthur and Van Helsing proceed to kill her, you can see that she is no longer lying inside the coffin but is lying on top of it, on the stone lid; this is best seen in the overhead shot where we see the stake go through her heart and the shot where her head is sliced off. There is no way that the vampire hunters took an angry and dangerous vampire out of the coffin, proceeded to push the heavy stone lid back into place and then placed her on top of the lid before they proceeded with their grisly work. (01:27:15)
Continuity mistake: When Mina and Jonathan are dining with Van Helsing, the shape of the roast beef sitting on the table keeps changing throughout the scene. (01:27:50)
Continuity mistake: When Mina and Jonathan are dining with Van Helsing, in some shots, Mina's drinking glass is full, but in two shots facing Van Helsing, the glass can be seen in the lower right hand corner, and it is empty. (01:27:50)
Continuity mistake: When Van Helsing carves the steak at the restaurant, there is food on his plate, but in the next shot, his plate is empty. (01:27:55)
Continuity mistake: When Van Helsing is dining with Jonathan and Mina, as he asks Jonathan about the vampire women, he is holding his glass of ale up to his lips, but when the camera angle changes, his drinking glass appears at the bottom of the screen, back on the table. The camera cuts to another view of Van Helsing, where the glass is back in his hand as he downs his drink, emptying the glass; however, when Mina kisses Jonathan's cheek, the glass appears at the bottom of the screen and it is full again. (01:28:40)
Continuity mistake: When Mina is asleep in Dr. Seward's quarters, Dracula enters her bedchamber in the form of green mist. In the first shot, a black chair is sitting by the window, in front of Dr. Seward's wardrobe. When Mina is on the bed with Dracula, the chair is sitting directly beneath the window, next to the wardrobe (this is best seen when Dracula embraces Mina after they exchange blood). In the shot where Jonathan helps Mina out of the bed after the vampire hunters walks in on her and Dracula, the chair is once again sitting in front of the wardrobe. (01:35:30 - 01:42:45)
Revealing mistake: When Dracula enters Mina's bedroom in the form of green mist, at the end of the first shot, as the mist begins moving across the floor, a vertical beam of the green light that was used to color the mist appears beneath the chair that is sitting by the window (as stated in the film's official behind the scenes book, the effect with the mist was accomplished by using dry ice smoke which was lit green and superimposed on the set with a 50/50 mirror). (01:35:35)
Continuity mistake: When Mina is with Dracula in Seward's room, as she says, "I must know. You must tell me.", her hair is behind her shoulders, but in the next shot, most of her hair is in front of her shoulders. (01:37:10)
Factual error: When Mina is with Dracula in Dr. Seward's room, you can see that she is wearing modern white underwear beneath her sheer nightgown; this is best seen when he confesses to be Dracula and she is upset about him having killed Lucy. Victorian lingerie consisted of a long chemise and long loose drawers which extended below the knee. (01:37:55)
Continuity mistake: After Dracula slits his chest so Mina can drink his blood, his hair alternates between being over/behind his shoulder, depending on the camera angle: In the shots facing Dracula, his hair is hanging over his shoulder, but in the shots from behind him, facing Mina, his hair is behind his back. (01:40:10)
Continuity mistake: When Mina begins drinking blood from Dracula's chest, as he stops her, her face and teeth are clean. Two shots later, before she continues drinking, there's blood on her chin and her teeth. (01:40:40)
Revealing mistake: When Dracula looks up toward the door as he hears Jonathan and the others about to walk in on him and Mina, if you look at his left eye, you can see the edges of Gary Oldman's purple contact lens. (01:41:45)
Revealing mistake: When Dracula is standing on the bed, transformed into a giant bat, the red wound from Jonathan's gunshot can be seen on his chest before Jonathan actually shoots him. It is first seen as he says, "Look what your god has done to me", and more in the next two shots of his bat form, before Jonathan fires his gun. (01:42:30)
Revealing mistake: When Dracula escapes from Mina's bedchamber, he transforms into a figure of rats. If you look at the waist area beneath the humanoid rat figure's right arm, you can see one of the metal rods of the armature that was used to create the rat dummy. A couple of other rods are glimpsed as well. (01:43:05)
Answer: For protection from the inmates.
raywest ★