Dracula Review – The French Director’s Love-Struck Revamp of the Classic Horror Story is Absurd but Engaging
Maybe interest is limited for an updated adaptation of Dracula from Luc Besson, the filmmaker known for stylish excess. Still, it’s worth noting: his lavishly upholstered love story with vampires displays creativity and style – and with its B-movie charm, it could be preferable to it to the recent, stately interpretation by Robert Eggers of Nosferatu. There are some very bizarre touches, like a particular moment that looks like it presents a geographic divide between France and Romania.
Waltz as a Humorously Exhausted Priest Tracking the Undead
Christoph Waltz portrays a clever but beleaguered vampire-hunting priest – it feels natural for him to tackle this role before – who arrives in Paris in 1889 during the centennial of the French Revolution. The same goes for the evil Count Dracula, brought to life by the body-horror veteran Caleb Landry Jones speaking in a twisted regional dialect similar to the voice of Gru by Steve Carell of the Despicable Me series. It’s a role suits him perfectly.
The Narrative: A Chronicle of Longing
The plot unfolds as follows: Dracula has wandered endlessly the earth in sorrow over four centuries after his transformation into a vampire, a penalty for his faithless sorrow over the death of his wife, Elisabeta (a movie debut role for Zoë Bleu, Rosanna Arquette’s child). The count has been searching, searching, searching for some woman who could be the reincarnation of his lost love. As ill fortune would have it, the lucky lady is revealed as Mina (again played by Bleu), the modest betrothed of the count’s timid estate manager, Jonathan Harker (played by Ewens Abid), who just traveled to the vampire’s estate to review his land assets and whose miniature portrait of the charming Mina drew the vampire’s attention.
Besson’s Direction and Comic Flair
Besson structures Dracula’s middle-section history of worldwide travels sporting extravagant attire confidently, and he doesn’t shy away from providing funny bits reminiscent of Mel Brooks – such as the vampire’s constant unsuccessful tries to kill himself after Elisabeta’s death, along with absurd moments that occur when Dracula sprays himself in a certain perfume during the 1700s in Florence, that renders him compelling to the opposite sex. Ridiculous and watchable.
Dracula is available digitally starting December 1st and for physical purchase from December 22nd. It will be shown in Australian cinemas beginning on the fifth of February, 2026.
