Dracula Review – The French Director’s Passionate Reinterpretation of the Classic Horror Story is Absurd but Watchable
Maybe interest is limited for a fresh take of Dracula from Luc Besson, the filmmaker known for stylish excess. And yet, one must admit: his opulently crafted romantic vampire tale displays creativity and style – 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, like a particular moment that looks like it presents a land border between France and Romania.
Waltz as a Humorously Exhausted Clergyman Hunting Vampires
Christoph Waltz plays a witty yet careworn man of the church pursuing the undead – it feels natural for him to tackle this character previously – who ends up in Paris in 1889 for the French Revolution centenary celebrations. So does the malevolent vampire count, played by the expert in grotesque roles Caleb Landry Jones speaking in a twisted regional dialect similar to Carell’s Gru character in the Despicable Me films. This character he seemed destined to play.
The Narrative: A Saga of Heartbreak
The story is this: the vampire lord has wandered endlessly the earth in anguish for 400 years after his transformation into a vampire, a penalty for his irreligious grief over the death of his beloved Elisabeta (a first film part for Zoë Bleu, the offspring of Rosanna Arquette). Dracula has looked tirelessly for a female who would be the rebirth of his departed beloved. As ill fortune would have it, the lucky lady turns out to be Mina (portrayed once more by Bleu), the demure fiancee of Dracula’s wimpish land agent, Jonathan Harker (played by Ewens Abid), who lately visited to the vampire’s estate to negotiate his real estate holdings and the small picture of the lovely Mina attracted Dracula’s gaze.
The Filmmaker’s Approach and Comic Flair
Besson structures Dracula’s middle-section history of worldwide travels in various outrageous costumes skillfully, and he willingly includes giving us funny bits reminiscent of Mel Brooks – like the vampire’s constant unsuccessful tries to kill himself following Elisabeta’s passing, along with comical sequences that occur when Dracula applies to himself with a specific fragrance in historic Florence, which causes him to be compelling to the opposite sex. 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 beginning on the fifth of February, 2026.
