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| “ | I can feel fresh blood rushing through her veins! | „ |
| ~ Verona to Aleera about Anna |
| “ | Feed, my darlings! FEED!!! | „ |
| ~ Verona to her vampire children. |
Verona is one of the secondary antagonists of the 2004 dark fantasy horror action film Van Helsing. She is the oldest of Count Dracula's three brides.
She was portrayed by Silvia Colloca.
Personality[]
Given Verona's elegant yet commanding demeanor, it is suggested she is of noble blood, possibly royalty. Verona is the eldest of the three Brides, making her the first vampire Dracula turned, in that she is seen ordering the other two about with condescending tones, and threatening facial expressions. Despite the way she treats Marishka and Aleera, she states that she loves them very much. Verona is entirely loyal to her master, serving as his consort, eager to please him by any means necessary, though she isn't above disagreeing with him, much to his immense displeasure. She wishes nothing more than to have her children be given the key to life which is accomplished through Frankenstein's creation.
The oldest and most worldly of the Brides, Verona has fought for centuries to rid the world of all those who stand in the way of her husband Dracula's sinister plan. As beautiful, as she is deadly, the bloodthirsty Verona is Dracula's second-in-command both on the ground and in the sky.
Appearance[]
Verona is an exquisitely beautiful older woman with pale skin, long straight black hair often worn loose, and dark eyes. She wears an elaborate gothic, almost Egyptian-style white vampire bridal gown with yellow undertones and fades into green at the bottom, made of pleated silk, with a deep plunging neckline and revealed midriff embellished with vertical rows of sequins. Alongside the dress were two-part hanging sleeves; the top part of the sleeves were attached to the bodice at the shoulders and made of sheer fabric with hand-sewn sequins and crystal tassels, whereas the bottom part of sleeves were made of pleated silk with vertical rows of sequins and attached to a pair of gold jade-encrusted bracelets. Verona also wore an exotic neck collar around her neck. Like the other Brides, she has eyes that can glow at will, and her eyes glow in a fluorescent light blue hue.
Powers and Abilities[]
During the course of the story, Verona transforms from a fully gowned woman to a flying harpy-like Bat Creature. Her long flowing sleeves change into wings as her clothes are absorbed into her skin. Verona's wings could be stiff and have the structure of flying but could also drape.
History[]
Verona, along with fellow Brides Aleera and Marishka, accompanied Count Dracula to the Windmill in 1887 in an attempt to rescue Frankenstein's monster from an angry mob. As the Windmill burned and collapsed, she and the other Brides cried in horror as their only chance of their children's immortal life had just been destroyed.
A year later, shortly after Van Helsing's arrival in Transylvania, she and the other Brides carried out an attack on a village during daylight in order to surprise the Humans. They attacked Anna Valerious and the villagers with the intent of capturing her for their master. The surprise attack was foiled by Van Helsing who saw them coming, and opened fire with his crossbow upon them. Verona told Marishka to kill Van Helsing, while she and Aleera stalked Anna Valerious. When Verona and Aleera cornered Anna in a house, Verona grabbed her arm and felt the fresh blood rushing through her veins. Her strong grip on her wrist caused Anna to lose consciousness, and Verona attempted to drink her blood. However, Van Helsing, who had been fighting Marishka, shot the latter with his crossbow, which had previously been dipped in the Holy Water at the church, which made the arrows toxic to the vampire. As Marishka died, Verona and Aleera felt her death causing the two to revert to their Bat Creature forms, and flew away fleeing back to Castle Dracula. Van Helsing managed to save Anna's life.
Verona and Aleera later retreated to Castle Dracula where they both mourned Marishka, and then scolded Dracula for his thought of finding another Bride. They tried to convince their master not to go through with another experiment that could result in the death of his children, but Dracula scared them into submission and comforted them afterward. Dracula then embraced his Brides and he ordered his forces to Castle Frankenstein before he froze himself and his Brides into the wall.
When Van Helsing and Anna infiltrated Castle Frankenstein to rescue Prince Velkan, who was being used in an experiment as a conductor to bring the Vampire Children to life. Verona held one of her newborn children in her hand before she flew out with Aleera and the children toward the village, where they began to teach the young to feed. Verona grabbed a villager, threw him to her young, and expressed her joy toward her children commanding them to feed. However, the lack of a proper host for the children's life caused the baby vampires began to bloat and burst into puddles of goo. Using Velkan as a catalyst during the experiment proved to be too insufficient, and made the babies deficient. Watching as their children died caused the pair to wail in agony and sadness, fleeing back to Castle Frankenstein.
Soon after the death of their children, Velkan found the Frankenstein monster and informed Dracula and his Brides. Dracula sent Verona and Aleera after the transport in an attempt to ambush the carriage that carried the monster en-route to Rome. During the attack, the Carriage fell into a chasm after it attempted a jump over a destroyed bridge, with Van Helsing barely making the jump on the horses. Both Verona and Aleera dove into the chasm in an attempt to save the Frankenstein Monster. Aleera had difficulty latching on to the falling carriage, and so broke off to chase after Van Helsing, leaving Verona to tackle the monster. She ripped open the coach door, but instead found dozens of stakes strapped to explosives; the carriage was a decoy, the real carriage being driven by Anna. Verona attempted to flee, but the carriage hit the bottom and exploded, sending stakes flying off in all directions and impaling Verona, who fell to her death in the flames below.
Trivia[]
- Verona was the only Bride not to have her name said in the film.
- Out of all the female characters in Van Helsing, Verona's actress has the largest measured bust size (having D-cups), even though Aleera has bulbous breasts (which are C-cups).
- Richard Roxburgh (Dracula) and Silvia Colloca (Verona), are actually married as they met during filming and he proposed to her the following year to become his real life bride.
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 Villains
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 Villains
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