Dracula Review – The French Director’s Passionate Revamp of the Gothic Classic is Outlandish but Watchable
It’s possible interest is limited for a fresh take of Dracula from Luc Besson, the filmmaker known for polished extravagance. Still, it has to be said: his opulently crafted romantic vampire tale displays creativity and style – and in all its Hammer-y cheesiness, I’m not sure I wouldn’t prefer to it to the recent, stately interpretation by Robert Eggers of Nosferatu. Odd details emerge, like a particular moment that looks like it presents a geographic divide between France and Romania.
The Veteran Actor as a Clever but Weary Vampire-Hunting Priest
Christoph Waltz plays a humorous yet burdened man of the church pursuing the undead – I can’t believe he hasn’t played such a part earlier – who finds himself in Paris in 1889 during the centennial of the French Revolution. Likewise present is the malevolent vampire count, enacted by the expert in grotesque roles Caleb Landry Jones speaking in a twisted regional dialect evoking Steve Carell’s Gru of the Despicable Me series. This character he seemed destined to play.
The Story: A Tale of Love and Loss
The story is this: Dracula has wandered endlessly the earth in torment over four centuries following his rise as one of the undead, a consequence for his faithless sorrow following the loss of his wife, Elisabeta (an inaugural screen appearance for Zoë Bleu, the offspring of Rosanna Arquette). the vampire has looked tirelessly for a lady who would be the rebirth of his deceased partner. As ill fortune would have it, the lucky lady proves to be Mina (also Bleu, of course), the reserved future wife of the count’s timid estate manager, Jonathan Harker (played by Ewens Abid), who has recently been to Dracula’s fortress to discuss his land assets and whose miniature portrait of the winsome Mina caught the count’s hooded eye.
Besson’s Handling and Comic Flair
Besson structures Dracula’s middle-section history of worldwide travels sporting extravagant attire with a sure hand, and he is not above providing humorous scenes reminiscent of Mel Brooks – for example Dracula’s ongoing failed efforts to kill himself post-Elisabeta’s demise, in addition to farcical scenes that follow Dracula applies to himself using a particular scent in 18th-century Florence, which makes him compelling to the opposite sex. Ridiculous and watchable.
Dracula is on digital platforms starting December 1st and for physical purchase from December 22nd. It will be shown in Australian cinemas starting February 5, 2026.
