Dracula Review – The French Director’s Love-Struck Reimagining of the Gothic Classic is Absurd but Watchable
Maybe audiences aren’t clamoring for an updated adaptation of Dracula from Luc Besson, the filmmaker known for glossiness and bloat. However, one must admit: his lavishly upholstered vampire romance has ambition and panache – and in all its Hammer-y cheesiness, I might just favor to it to Robert Eggers’s recent, solemnly classy version of Nosferatu. There are some very bizarre touches, including one shot that appears to show a land border between France and Romania.
Waltz as a Clever but Weary Vampire-Hunting Priest
Christoph Waltz embodies a clever but beleaguered man of the church pursuing the undead – it feels natural for him to tackle such a part earlier – who arrives in Paris in 1889 for the French Revolution centenary celebrations. Likewise present is the evil Count Dracula, enacted by the expert in grotesque roles Caleb Landry Jones with a mangled central European accent similar to the voice of Gru by Steve Carell in the Despicable Me films. This character suits him perfectly.
The Narrative: A Saga of Heartbreak
The story is this: the vampire lord has traveled ceaselessly the world in sorrow for hundreds of years following his rise as one of the undead, a consequence for his irreligious grief over the death of his wife, Elisabeta (a first film part for Zoë Bleu, the offspring of Rosanna Arquette). Dracula has sought relentlessly for a female who would be the return of his lost love. As ill fortune would have it, the lucky lady is revealed as Mina (again played by Bleu), the reserved future wife of Dracula’s feeble property handler, Jonathan Harker (enacted by Ewens Abid), who lately visited to Dracula’s fortress to negotiate his property portfolio and the small picture of the lovely Mina attracted Dracula’s gaze.
Besson’s Direction and Comic Flair
Besson organizes Dracula’s second-act backstory of international journeys in various outrageous costumes skillfully, and he doesn’t shy away from giving us humorous scenes reminiscent of Mel Brooks – like the vampire’s constant unsuccessful tries to kill himself following Elisabeta’s passing, in addition to comical sequences that occur when Dracula sprays himself with a specific fragrance during the 1700s in Florence, which makes him unavoidably attractive to females. Ridiculous and watchable.
Dracula is available digitally starting December 1st and on DVD and Blu-ray from 22 December. It screens in Australian cinemas beginning on the fifth of February, 2026.