Dracula Review – Besson’s Passionate Reinterpretation of the Classic Horror Story is Outlandish but Watchable
Perhaps audiences aren’t clamoring for an updated adaptation of Dracula from Luc Besson, the filmmaker known for stylish excess. However, it’s worth noting: his lavishly upholstered love story with vampires has ambition and panache – and amid its theatrical camp, it could be preferable over Robert Eggers’s recent, solemnly classy version of Nosferatu. A few strange elements appear, like a particular moment that appears to show a territorial boundary between France and Romania.
The Veteran Actor as a Clever but Weary Priest Tracking the Undead
Christoph Waltz embodies a clever but beleaguered cleric fighting vampires – I can’t believe he hasn’t played this role before – who arrives in Paris in 1889 during the centennial of the French Revolution. So does the malevolent vampire count, brought to life by the body-horror veteran Caleb Landry Jones with a mangled central European accent evoking Carell’s Gru character from the Despicable Me comedies. It’s a role suits him perfectly.
The Story: A Chronicle of Longing
The plot unfolds as follows: the vampire lord has traveled ceaselessly the earth in anguish for 400 years following his rise as one of the undead, a penalty for his faithless sorrow over the death of his spouse Elisabeta (an inaugural screen appearance for Zoë Bleu, Rosanna Arquette’s child). The count has sought relentlessly for some woman who might be the return of his deceased partner. By cruel fate, the fortunate female turns out to be Mina (portrayed once more by Bleu), the reserved future wife of Dracula’s feeble property handler, Jonathan Harker (Ewens Abid), who has recently been to the vampire’s estate to discuss his real estate holdings and whose miniature portrait of the lovely Mina attracted Dracula’s gaze.
The Filmmaker’s Approach and Comic Flair
Besson structures Dracula’s flashback sequence of global roaming sporting extravagant attire with a sure hand, and he willingly includes providing humorous scenes reminiscent of Mel Brooks – such as Dracula’s ongoing failed efforts to kill himself after Elisabeta’s death, in addition to comical sequences that follow Dracula applies to himself in a certain perfume in 18th-century Florence, that renders him irresistible to women. Outlandish but entertaining.
Dracula is on digital platforms from 1 December and on DVD and Blu-ray starting the twenty-second of December. It will be shown in Australian cinemas starting February 5, 2026.
