Dracula Review – The French Director’s Romantic Reinterpretation of the Timeless Gothic Tale is Outlandish but Engaging
Perhaps there is no great enthusiasm for a fresh take of Dracula from Luc Besson, the filmmaker known for stylish excess. However, it’s worth noting: his opulently crafted vampire romance boasts bold vision and flair – and in all its Hammer-y cheesiness, it could be preferable over Robert Eggers’s recent, solemnly classy version of Nosferatu. Odd details emerge, like a particular moment that looks like it presents a land border between France and Romania.
Waltz as a Witty Yet Careworn Priest Tracking the Undead
Christoph Waltz portrays a humorous yet burdened man of the church pursuing the undead – I can’t believe he hasn’t played this role before – who arrives in Paris in 1889 to mark the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution. Likewise present is the evil Count Dracula, brought to life by the body-horror veteran Caleb Landry Jones using a distorted Eastern European tone evoking Carell’s Gru character from the Despicable Me comedies. This is a part that he too was born to take on.
The Story: A Tale of Love and Loss
The story is this: Dracula has been restlessly roaming the world in torment over four centuries following his rise as one of the undead, a punishment for his irreligious grief following the loss of his spouse Elisabeta (a movie debut role for Zoë Bleu, Rosanna Arquette’s child). The count has looked tirelessly for some woman who could be the rebirth of his deceased partner. As ill fortune would have it, the lucky lady is revealed as Mina (also Bleu, of course), the reserved future wife of Dracula’s feeble property handler, Jonathan Harker (enacted by Ewens Abid), who lately visited to Dracula’s fortress to negotiate his property portfolio and whose miniature portrait of the charming Mina caught the count’s hooded eye.
Besson’s Direction and Humorous Style
Besson arranges Dracula’s second-act backstory of international journeys wearing flamboyant outfits confidently, and he willingly includes giving us humorous scenes reminiscent of Mel Brooks – such as the vampire’s constant unsuccessful tries to end his own life after Elisabeta’s death, along with comical sequences that follow Dracula douses himself in a certain perfume during the 1700s in Florence, that renders him irresistible to women. Ridiculous and watchable.
Dracula is available digitally from 1 December and on DVD and Blu-ray from 22 December. It plays in Australian cinemas beginning on the fifth of February, 2026.
