Dracula Review – The French Director’s Love-Struck Reimagining of the Gothic Classic is Absurd but Watchable
Maybe audiences aren’t clamoring for a fresh take of Dracula from Luc Besson, the filmmaker known for stylish excess. However, it has to be said: his richly designed vampire romance displays creativity and style – and with its B-movie charm, it could be preferable compared with the recent, stately interpretation by Robert Eggers of Nosferatu. There are some very bizarre touches, like a particular moment that seems to depict a territorial boundary between France and Romania.
Christoph Waltz as a Witty Yet Careworn Clergyman Hunting Vampires
Christoph Waltz plays a clever but beleaguered man of the church pursuing the undead – it feels natural for him to tackle this role before – who ends up in Paris in 1889 for the French Revolution centenary celebrations. So does the evil Count Dracula, enacted by the expert in grotesque roles Caleb Landry Jones speaking in a twisted regional dialect evoking Steve Carell’s Gru from the Despicable Me comedies. It’s a role suits him perfectly.
The Plot: A Chronicle of Longing
The plot unfolds as follows: Dracula has wandered endlessly the world in anguish over four centuries since he became undead, a penalty due to his blasphemous mourning after the passing of his spouse Elisabeta (a movie debut role for Zoë Bleu, daughter of Rosanna Arquette). the vampire has sought relentlessly for some woman who would be the reincarnation of his deceased partner. As ill fortune would have it, the chosen woman is revealed as Mina (also Bleu, of course), the demure fiancee of Dracula’s wimpish land agent, Jonathan Harker (Ewens Abid), who just traveled to the vampire’s estate to negotiate his property portfolio and the tiny painting of the charming Mina attracted Dracula’s gaze.
The Filmmaker’s Approach and Humorous Style
Besson organizes Dracula’s second-act backstory of worldwide travels in various outrageous costumes skillfully, and he doesn’t shy away from giving us some comedy moments with a distinctly Mel Brooks flavour – for example the count’s repeated and futile attempts to kill himself after Elisabeta’s death, along with comical sequences that occur when Dracula applies to himself with a specific fragrance in 18th-century Florence, which makes him compelling to the opposite sex. Ridiculous and watchable.
Dracula is on digital platforms starting December 1st and in disc format from December 22nd. It plays in Australian cinemas beginning on the fifth of February, 2026.
