Dracula Movie Critique – Luc Besson’s Love-Struck Reimagining of the Gothic Classic is Outlandish but Entertaining
Maybe interest is limited for a fresh take of Dracula from Luc Besson, the celebrated French director for polished extravagance. However, it has to be said: his richly designed romantic vampire tale has ambition and panache – and with its B-movie charm, it could be preferable compared with Eggers’s dignified recent take of Nosferatu. A few strange elements appear, including one shot that seems to depict a territorial boundary between France and Romania.
Waltz as a Humorously Exhausted Vampire-Hunting Priest
Christoph Waltz embodies a witty yet careworn vampire-hunting priest – it’s surprising he never took on this character previously – who finds himself in Paris in 1889 for the French Revolution centenary celebrations. So does the malevolent vampire count, enacted by the expert in grotesque roles Caleb Landry Jones with a mangled central European accent evoking Carell’s Gru character from the Despicable Me comedies. This is a part suits him perfectly.
The Narrative: A Saga of Heartbreak
The story is this: Dracula has wandered endlessly the globe in anguish for hundreds of years after his transformation into a vampire, a consequence for his faithless sorrow following the loss of his wife, Elisabeta (a first film part for Zoë Bleu, the offspring of Rosanna Arquette). The count has been searching, searching, searching for a female who might be the return of his deceased partner. As ill fortune would have it, the chosen woman is revealed as Mina (also Bleu, of course), the modest betrothed of the count’s timid estate manager, Jonathan Harker (enacted by Ewens Abid), who has recently been to Dracula’s fortress to negotiate his property portfolio and whose miniature portrait of the winsome Mina drew the vampire’s attention.
Besson’s Handling and Humorous Style
Besson structures Dracula’s second-act backstory of worldwide travels in various outrageous costumes with a sure hand, and he is not above giving us humorous scenes reminiscent of Mel Brooks – like the vampire’s constant unsuccessful tries to commit suicide following Elisabeta’s passing, as well as farcical scenes that result after Dracula applies to himself with a specific fragrance in 18th-century Florence, which makes him unavoidably attractive to females. Ridiculous and watchable.
Dracula can be streamed online starting December 1st and in disc format from December 22nd. It will be shown in Australian cinemas from 5 February 2026.
