Dracula Review – Besson’s Romantic Reinterpretation of the Gothic Classic is Outlandish but Engaging
Maybe interest is limited for a new version of Dracula from Luc Besson, the French maestro for stylish excess. Still, one must admit: his lavishly upholstered love story with vampires boasts bold vision and flair – and with its B-movie charm, I’m not sure I wouldn’t prefer compared with Eggers’s dignified recent take of Nosferatu. Odd details emerge, like a particular moment that seems to depict a territorial boundary between France and Romania.
Waltz as a Witty Yet Careworn Priest Tracking the Undead
Christoph Waltz embodies a humorous yet burdened man of the church pursuing the undead – it feels natural for him to tackle this role before – who ends up in Paris in 1889 during the centennial of the French Revolution. The same goes for the evil Count Dracula, played by the seasoned horror actor Caleb Landry Jones with a mangled central European accent evoking the voice of Gru by Steve Carell of the Despicable Me series. This is a part that he too was born to take on.
The Plot: A Tale of Love and Loss
Here’s the premise: the vampire lord has traveled ceaselessly the globe in anguish for 400 years following his rise as one of the undead, a penalty for his faithless sorrow following the loss of his wife, Elisabeta (a first film part for Zoë Bleu, Rosanna Arquette’s child). Dracula has been searching, searching, searching 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 Dracula’s feeble property handler, Jonathan Harker (enacted by Ewens Abid), who lately visited to the count’s castle to review his real estate holdings and whose miniature portrait of the winsome Mina attracted Dracula’s gaze.
The Filmmaker’s Approach and Lighthearted Touch
Besson arranges Dracula’s middle-section history of worldwide travels in various outrageous costumes confidently, and he doesn’t shy away from providing some comedy moments in the style of Mel Brooks – for example the count’s repeated and futile attempts to commit suicide after Elisabeta’s death, as well as absurd moments that occur when Dracula douses himself in a certain perfume during the 1700s in Florence, which causes him to be irresistible to women. Outlandish but entertaining.
Dracula is on digital platforms starting December 1st and on DVD and Blu-ray from December 22nd. It plays in Australian cinemas beginning on the fifth of February, 2026.
