Dracula Review – The French Director’s Romantic Reimagining of the Timeless Gothic Tale is Outlandish but Watchable
It’s possible audiences aren’t clamoring for an updated adaptation of Dracula from Luc Besson, the celebrated French director for glossiness and bloat. And yet, it has to be said: his richly designed vampire romance displays creativity and style – and with its B-movie charm, I’m not sure I wouldn’t prefer compared with Eggers’s dignified recent take of Nosferatu. A few strange elements appear, such as a scene that seems to depict a territorial boundary between France and Romania.
The Veteran Actor as a Humorously Exhausted Clergyman Hunting Vampires
Christoph Waltz plays a humorous yet burdened cleric fighting vampires – it’s surprising he never took on such a part earlier – who ends up in Paris in 1889 for the French Revolution centenary celebrations. Likewise present is the evil Count Dracula, enacted by the body-horror veteran Caleb Landry Jones speaking in a twisted regional dialect similar to the voice of Gru by Steve Carell of the Despicable Me series. It’s a role suits him perfectly.
The Plot: A Tale of Love and Loss
The story is this: Dracula has wandered endlessly the world in torment for 400 years following his rise as one of the undead, a consequence due to his blasphemous mourning after the passing of his beloved Elisabeta (a first film part for Zoë Bleu, daughter of Rosanna Arquette). the vampire has looked tirelessly for a female who could be the return of his deceased partner. By cruel fate, the chosen woman proves to be Mina (portrayed once more by Bleu), the demure fiancee of Dracula’s feeble property handler, Jonathan Harker (enacted by Ewens Abid), who lately visited to the count’s castle to discuss his land assets and whose miniature portrait of the charming Mina attracted Dracula’s gaze.
Besson’s Direction and Comic Flair
Besson arranges Dracula’s middle-section history of international journeys wearing flamboyant outfits skillfully, and he doesn’t shy away from providing funny bits with a distinctly Mel Brooks flavour – such as the count’s repeated and futile attempts to end his own life following Elisabeta’s passing, along with comical sequences that occur when Dracula applies to himself in a certain perfume in historic Florence, which makes him irresistible to women. Absurd yet engaging.
Dracula can be streamed online beginning on the first of December and on DVD and Blu-ray from 22 December. It will be shown in Australian cinemas beginning on the fifth of February, 2026.
