In 1887 Transylvania, Dr. Victor Frankenstein, aided by his assistant, Igor, and Count Dracula, creates a monster. Dracula kills Frankenstein, and as an angry, torch-bearing mob storms the Castle, the monster flees to a windmill with his dead creator cradled in his arms. The windmill burns down, apparently destroying the floor underneath the monster.
One year later, monster hunter Van Helsing kills Mr. Hyde after a brawl in Notre-Dame de Paris. Van Helsing pursues evil on behalf of the Holy Order, which has protected mankind “from time immemorial.” Van Helsing, who remembers nothing before he was found crawling up the steps of a church, hopes to earn pardon for his forgotten sins and thereby regain his memory.
At the Order’s Vatican City headquarters, Cardinal Jinette gives Van Helsing a mission: Go to Transylvania, destroy Dracula and protect the two survivors of an ancient Romanian family, the Valerious. Their ancestor vowed that his descendants would kill Dracula, or spend eternity in Purgatory. He gives Van Helsing the corner of a Medieval painting that reads “In the name of God, open this door” and bears the same insignia as Van Helsing’s ring.
In the Order’s laboratory, men of every faith create devices to battle evil. Carl, an eccentric friar and inventor, equips Van Helsing and joins him. Meanwhile, In Transylvania, Anna and Velkan Valerious attempt to kill a werewolf controlled by Dracula, but it falls with Velkan into a deep river gorge.