Dracula Review – The French Director’s Romantic Reimagining of the Classic Horror Story is Absurd but Engaging
Perhaps interest is limited for a new version of Dracula from Luc Besson, the filmmaker known for polished extravagance. Still, it’s worth noting: his lavishly upholstered love story with vampires has ambition and panache – and with its B-movie charm, I might just favor over Eggers’s dignified recent take of Nosferatu. A few strange elements appear, such as a scene that appears to show a territorial boundary between France and Romania.
The Veteran Actor as a Humorously Exhausted Priest Tracking the Undead
Christoph Waltz embodies a witty yet careworn cleric fighting vampires – it feels natural for him to tackle this character previously – who finds himself in Paris in 1889 for the French Revolution centenary celebrations. Likewise present is the malevolent vampire count, brought to life by the expert in grotesque roles Caleb Landry Jones speaking in a twisted regional dialect reminiscent of Carell’s Gru character of the Despicable Me series. This character suits him perfectly.
The Narrative: A Tale of Love and Loss
Here’s the premise: the count has been restlessly roaming the earth in torment for hundreds of years following his rise as one of the undead, a punishment for his irreligious grief over the death of his wife, Elisabeta (a first film part for Zoë Bleu, Rosanna Arquette’s child). Dracula has sought relentlessly for a lady who would be the reincarnation of his departed beloved. As ill fortune would have it, the lucky lady turns out to be Mina (also Bleu, of course), the demure fiancee of the count’s timid estate manager, Jonathan Harker (Ewens Abid), who lately visited to the count’s castle to discuss his property portfolio and the tiny painting of the charming Mina drew the vampire’s attention.
Besson’s Handling and Comic Flair
Besson structures Dracula’s second-act backstory of global roaming wearing flamboyant outfits confidently, and he is not above providing funny bits with a distinctly Mel Brooks flavour – like Dracula’s ongoing failed efforts to commit suicide after Elisabeta’s death, along with comical sequences that occur when Dracula sprays himself with a specific fragrance in historic Florence, that renders him unavoidably attractive to females. Outlandish but entertaining.
Dracula is available digitally beginning on the first of December and on DVD and Blu-ray starting the twenty-second of December. It will be shown in Australian cinemas starting February 5, 2026.
