Continuity mistake: Towards the end of the movie, in the scene where Anna is taking the werewolf cure to Van Helsing and the vampire bride stops her on the large fallen pillar, she falls so she is in a sitting position with the cure in her left hand. She then switches it to her right. Then in the close-up shot, the cure is still in her left hand and she switches it again. (01:49:50)
Continuity mistake: In the final fighting scene between Dracula and Van Helsing it can be seen that Dracula has all his fingers. However, later in the scene, when he asks Van Helsing for the return of his ring, one of his fingers is missing.
Visible crew/equipment: As the camera moves in on the bull that is about to be grabbed by the vampire, if you look under the bull, you can see two men hiding behind it. You can see their legs. They are probably there to keep the bull standing still. When it cuts they are gone. (00:26:05)
Revealing mistake: When firing the crossbow, Van Helsing runs out of arrows, but the bow's canister is completely full of arrows. In the same shot the canister spins once and they all disappear. (00:25:55)
Continuity mistake: When Velkan hangs on the rope and is being pulled up he looks down and the werewolf climbs up the wooden pole and you can see scratch marks on the top of the pole. Then the second time he looks down at the werewolf you can see the top of the pole is scratch free and the werewolf makes the scratch marks again. If you have a close look at these two scenes you can see it's the same scene played twice, but with a different roaring sound from the werewolf. (00:20:20)
Continuity mistake: In the opening shot at the Ball when Carl and Van Helsing are to "trade" Frankenstein for Anna, everybody has a reflection in the mirrors at either side of the ballroom although they are later to be revealed as Vampires and have no reflection. (01:20:45)
Visible crew/equipment: When Anna picks up the sickle you can see a shadow moving. It has to be a crew member, because when it cuts, we can see that no one is standing anywhere near her. (00:27:10)
Continuity mistake: When Anna is hanging from the top of the roof, she places her feet against the wall before jumping. At that time you can see the wall is perfect without any cracks or marks. When it cuts to her leaping off you can see a huge crack going along the wall where she has her right foot. (00:28:20)
Continuity mistake: In the beginning when Van Helsing kills the first bride with holy water he sits on the church steps. In the wide angle shot there is a lot more snow on the steps than in the close up shot. (00:32:55)
Revealing mistake: When Dracula is walking upside down, and he yells "Let us Begin.", you can see the wire and pulley device supporting him underneath his feet, in between the sides of a pre-cut line on the top side of the bridge. (00:51:10)
Continuity mistake: When Anna and Van Helsing embrace to kiss, the hands with which they caress each other change position and even totally swap in between cuts. In one shot Van Helsing will be touching her with his right hand, the next shot with his left hand, the next shot with no hand, etc. (01:36:05)
Continuity mistake: When they first meet the second wolfman in the castle, he transforms into a human and talks to his sister. When he made his transformation he wore a open yellow shirt. When he changed back into the Wolf, the shirt tore off. So if the man had been a wolf not five minutes before, wouldn't the shirt have already ripped off? Same with the legs of his pants. (00:41:35)
Factual error: Part of the "Wanted" poster in France reads "2,000 francs de récompence." 1) numbers are not written with a comma in French, but with a space (i.e. 2 000); 2) "reward" in French is spelled "récompense," not "récompence." (00:07:35)
Factual error: On the map, Budapest is indicated to be just as large as Transylvania, or at least of the same size category. Apart from Budapest being only a city and Transylvania a pretty large county, Budapest (taking its 19th century size) is not more than 500 square kilometres while the Transylvanian region is circa 57000 square kilometres. (01:11:40)
Revealing mistake: When Van Helsing enters the secret-society under Vatican City, in the distance you can see a giant mirror used to reflect the set to create the illusion that the room is much bigger than it really is. You can see Van Helsing and the priest's reflections at the top corner of the screen several times (Confirmed on DVD commentary). (00:14:45)
Factual error: When Van Helsing goes to Rome, the subtitle refers to the Vatican as "Vatican City". By the 1880's the Pope had lost all his temporal power, and his previous lands (The Papal States) were taken by the new Italy. The Vatican had no lands or authority over any of Italy or Rome. The Pope was a virtual prisoner inside the Vatican. Only with the Lateran treaty in 1929 (with Mussolini) did the Vatican gain independence as the "State of Vatican City". (00:13:10)
Revealing mistake: At the end of the movie, when Dracula's children explode, the goop from their bodies doesn't match up with the splashes on the ground. You can see some of it hit the ground and disappear, and other places, it would hit, then the splash would occur a second or two later. It was all computer-generated, so it was just slightly mismatched. Hard to catch normally, but a bit easier to see in slow-motion. (Though slow motion is not required). (01:52:15)
Continuity mistake: When Dracula and Van Helsing meet for the first time, Dracula's hand placement changes between shots. This happens twice, once when he is saying 'But like me, hunted by all others." During this, his hands move from his side to taking his gloves off. And again, when he says 'You are the great Van Helsing,' his hands move from his sides to being in the air.
Continuity mistake: When Velkan changes into a werewolf in front of his sister he still has tattered remains of pants on him. When he goes to Castle Frankenstein, and enters through the roof his pants are gone. When the Velkan werewolf lands on the ground and starts to change back, his pants are back on. (00:42:50 - 00:48:50)
Continuity mistake: When we first get to Carl there is a man behind him on a some sort of power generating machine. Then the man suddenly almost get electrocuted and smoke rises all around him. When it cuts to Carl walking to Van Helsing we can see the man in the background but now all the smoke is gone. (00:17:05)
Answer: Gabriel is the true name of the character described elsewhere as the Left Hand of God, responsible for Dracula's original death. Dracula uses this to try to remind Van Helsing of their history together. The implication is that Van Helsing is actually the archangel Gabriel, credited with (among other things) announcing the pending birth of Christ to Mary his mother, Joseph his father, and Elizabeth mother of John the Baptist.
Phoenix