Dracula Review – Luc Besson’s Romantic Reinterpretation of the Gothic Classic is Absurd but Watchable
Maybe audiences aren’t clamoring for a fresh take of Dracula from Luc Besson, the celebrated French director for polished extravagance. Still, one must admit: his lavishly upholstered romantic vampire tale boasts bold vision and flair – and amid its theatrical camp, I’m not sure I wouldn’t prefer compared with Eggers’s dignified recent take of Nosferatu. A few strange elements appear, including one shot that looks like it presents a land border between France and Romania.
The Veteran Actor as a Humorously Exhausted Vampire-Hunting Priest
Christoph Waltz portrays a clever but beleaguered man of the church pursuing the undead – it feels natural for him to tackle this character previously – who ends up in Paris in 1889 to mark the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution. The same goes for the sinister Dracula, played by the body-horror veteran Caleb Landry Jones with a mangled central European accent similar to the voice of Gru by Steve Carell from the Despicable Me comedies. It’s a role he seemed destined to play.
The Story: A Saga of Heartbreak
The plot unfolds as follows: the vampire lord has been restlessly roaming the earth in sorrow for hundreds of years after his transformation into a vampire, a punishment due to his blasphemous mourning over the death of his wife, Elisabeta (a movie debut role for Zoë Bleu, Rosanna Arquette’s child). the vampire has looked tirelessly for some woman who could be the return of his deceased partner. By cruel fate, the fortunate female turns out to be Mina (portrayed once more by Bleu), the modest betrothed of Dracula’s feeble property handler, Jonathan Harker (enacted by Ewens Abid), who lately visited to Dracula’s fortress to discuss his property portfolio and whose miniature portrait of the lovely Mina caught the count’s hooded eye.
Besson’s Handling and Comic Flair
Besson organizes Dracula’s middle-section history of international journeys in various outrageous costumes confidently, and he willingly includes giving us funny bits reminiscent of Mel Brooks – for example Dracula’s ongoing failed efforts to commit suicide following Elisabeta’s passing, along with comical sequences that occur when Dracula applies to himself in a certain perfume during the 1700s in Florence, that renders him unavoidably attractive to females. Absurd yet engaging.
Dracula is on digital platforms beginning on the first of December and on DVD and Blu-ray starting the twenty-second of December. It screens in Australian cinemas from 5 February 2026.
