Dracula Review – Luc Besson’s Love-Struck Revamp of the Gothic Classic is Ridiculous but Engaging
Perhaps there is no great enthusiasm for a fresh take of Dracula from Luc Besson, the French maestro for polished extravagance. However, it’s worth noting: his opulently crafted romantic vampire tale has ambition and panache – and in all its Hammer-y cheesiness, I might just favor over Robert Eggers’s recent, solemnly classy version of Nosferatu. Odd details emerge, including one shot that seems to depict a territorial boundary between France and Romania.
Waltz as a Witty Yet Careworn Priest Tracking the Undead
Christoph Waltz plays a humorous yet burdened cleric fighting vampires – it feels natural for him to tackle such a part earlier – who finds himself in Paris in 1889 during the centennial of the French Revolution. Likewise present is the evil Count Dracula, played by the body-horror veteran Caleb Landry Jones speaking in a twisted regional dialect evoking Carell’s Gru character from the Despicable Me comedies. This character suits him perfectly.
The Narrative: A Saga of Heartbreak
The story is this: the count has wandered endlessly the earth in sorrow for hundreds of years following his rise as one of the undead, a consequence for his irreligious grief following the loss of his beloved Elisabeta (a movie debut role for Zoë Bleu, Rosanna Arquette’s child). The count has been searching, searching, searching for a female who could be the rebirth of his deceased partner. As ill fortune would have it, the fortunate female is revealed as Mina (again played by Bleu), the demure fiancee of the count’s timid estate manager, Jonathan Harker (played by Ewens Abid), who just traveled to Dracula’s fortress to negotiate his property portfolio and the tiny painting of the winsome Mina caught the count’s hooded eye.
The Filmmaker’s Approach and Comic Flair
Besson organizes Dracula’s second-act backstory of global roaming in various outrageous costumes with a sure hand, and he doesn’t shy away from offering funny bits reminiscent of Mel Brooks – like Dracula’s ongoing failed efforts to commit suicide post-Elisabeta’s demise, along with farcical scenes that result after Dracula sprays himself with a specific fragrance during the 1700s in Florence, which causes him to be unavoidably attractive to females. Ridiculous and watchable.
Dracula is available digitally from 1 December and on DVD and Blu-ray starting the twenty-second of December. It will be shown in Australian cinemas starting February 5, 2026.
