Dracula Review – Besson’s Love-Struck Reinterpretation of the Gothic Classic is Ridiculous but Engaging
Maybe audiences aren’t clamoring for an updated adaptation of Dracula from Luc Besson, the celebrated French director for polished extravagance. And yet, it’s worth noting: his opulently crafted romantic vampire tale boasts bold vision and flair – and in all its Hammer-y cheesiness, I’m not sure I wouldn’t prefer to it to the recent, stately interpretation by Robert Eggers of Nosferatu. A few strange elements appear, such as a scene that looks like it presents a land border between France and Romania.
Waltz as a Clever but Weary Clergyman Hunting Vampires
Christoph Waltz embodies a witty yet careworn man of the church pursuing the undead – I can’t believe he hasn’t played this role before – who ends up in Paris in 1889 during the centennial of the French Revolution. The same goes for the sinister Dracula, played by the seasoned horror actor Caleb Landry Jones speaking in a twisted regional dialect reminiscent of the voice of Gru by Steve Carell of the Despicable Me series. It’s a role that he too was born to take on.
The Plot: A Saga of Heartbreak
The plot unfolds as follows: Dracula has traveled ceaselessly the earth in anguish for hundreds of years after his transformation into a vampire, a punishment for his irreligious grief over the death of his spouse Elisabeta (a first film part for Zoë Bleu, the offspring of Rosanna Arquette). Dracula has sought relentlessly for a lady who might be the return of his departed beloved. Unfortunately, the fortunate female turns out to be Mina (also Bleu, of course), the demure fiancee of Dracula’s feeble property handler, Jonathan Harker (played by Ewens Abid), who just traveled to the vampire’s estate to negotiate his land assets and whose miniature portrait of the winsome Mina caught the count’s hooded eye.
The Filmmaker’s Approach and Comic Flair
Besson organizes Dracula’s flashback sequence of global roaming sporting extravagant attire confidently, and he doesn’t shy away from offering funny bits with a distinctly Mel Brooks flavour – like the count’s repeated and futile attempts to commit suicide after Elisabeta’s death, along with comical sequences that follow Dracula sprays himself in a certain perfume in 18th-century Florence, which makes him irresistible to women. Outlandish but entertaining.
Dracula can be streamed online beginning on the first of December and for physical purchase from 22 December. It plays in Australian cinemas starting February 5, 2026.
