Dracula Review – The French Director’s Passionate Reinterpretation of the Gothic Classic is Absurd but Watchable
Perhaps there is no great enthusiasm for a new version of Dracula from Luc Besson, the filmmaker known for glossiness and bloat. However, it has to be said: his richly designed romantic vampire tale boasts bold vision and flair – and amid its theatrical camp, I might just favor to it to Robert Eggers’s recent, solemnly classy version of Nosferatu. There are some very bizarre touches, such as a scene that seems to depict a land border between France and Romania.
Christoph Waltz as a Humorously Exhausted Vampire-Hunting Priest
Christoph Waltz portrays a clever but beleaguered man of the church pursuing the undead – I can’t believe he hasn’t played such a part earlier – who arrives in Paris in 1889 to mark the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution. The same goes for the evil Count Dracula, enacted by the seasoned horror actor Caleb Landry Jones using a distorted Eastern European tone evoking Carell’s Gru character from the Despicable Me comedies. This is a part that he too was born to take on.
The Narrative: A Saga of Heartbreak
Here’s the premise: the count has wandered endlessly the globe in sorrow for 400 years following his rise as one of the undead, a penalty due to his blasphemous mourning over the death of his beloved Elisabeta (a movie debut role for Zoë Bleu, Rosanna Arquette’s child). Dracula has been searching, searching, searching for a lady who might be the reincarnation of his deceased partner. 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 (Ewens Abid), who just traveled to the count’s castle to negotiate his real estate holdings and the small picture of the winsome Mina drew the vampire’s attention.
The Filmmaker’s Approach and Lighthearted Touch
Besson arranges Dracula’s flashback sequence of international journeys sporting extravagant attire with a sure hand, and he is not above offering some comedy moments with a distinctly Mel Brooks flavour – such as Dracula’s ongoing failed efforts to commit suicide after Elisabeta’s death, as well as farcical scenes that follow Dracula applies to himself in a certain perfume in 18th-century Florence, which causes him to be compelling to the opposite sex. Outlandish but entertaining.
Dracula can be streamed online beginning on the first of December and on DVD and Blu-ray from December 22nd. It will be shown in Australian cinemas from 5 February 2026.
