Dracula Review – Besson’s Passionate Reinterpretation of the Timeless Gothic Tale is Outlandish but Watchable
Maybe interest is limited for a fresh take of Dracula from Luc Besson, the filmmaker known for glossiness and bloat. Still, it has to be said: his richly designed romantic vampire tale has ambition and panache – and in all its Hammer-y cheesiness, it could be preferable compared with Robert Eggers’s recent, solemnly classy version of Nosferatu. A few strange elements appear, like a particular moment that looks like it presents a territorial boundary between France and Romania.
The Veteran Actor as a Witty Yet Careworn Vampire-Hunting Priest
Christoph Waltz plays 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 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 speaking in a twisted regional dialect similar to Carell’s Gru character from the Despicable Me comedies. This is a part suits him perfectly.
The Narrative: A Chronicle of Longing
The story is this: Dracula has traveled ceaselessly the world in sorrow over four centuries after his transformation into a vampire, a penalty for his faithless sorrow over the death of his spouse Elisabeta (a movie debut role for Zoë Bleu, the offspring of Rosanna Arquette). the vampire has been searching, searching, searching for some woman who would be the reincarnation of his lost love. As ill fortune would have it, the lucky lady turns out to be Mina (portrayed once more by Bleu), the modest betrothed of Dracula’s feeble property handler, Jonathan Harker (played by Ewens Abid), who has recently been to the vampire’s estate to discuss his real estate holdings and the small picture of the winsome Mina caught the count’s hooded eye.
Besson’s Handling and Lighthearted Touch
Besson arranges Dracula’s middle-section history of global roaming in various outrageous costumes skillfully, and he doesn’t shy away from offering funny bits reminiscent of Mel Brooks – like the count’s repeated and futile attempts to end his own life after Elisabeta’s death, along with absurd moments that follow Dracula applies to himself using a particular scent in 18th-century Florence, which makes him irresistible to women. Ridiculous and watchable.
Dracula can be streamed online beginning on the first of December and on DVD and Blu-ray starting the twenty-second of December. It plays in Australian cinemas starting February 5, 2026.
