Dracula Review – The French Director’s Love-Struck Reinterpretation of the Timeless Gothic Tale is Absurd but Watchable
It’s possible audiences aren’t clamoring for a new version of Dracula from Luc Besson, the celebrated French director for glossiness and bloat. Still, it’s worth noting: his opulently crafted romantic vampire tale boasts bold vision and flair – and with its B-movie charm, I might just favor to it to Eggers’s dignified recent take of Nosferatu. A few strange elements appear, including one shot that looks like it presents a land border between France and Romania.
Christoph Waltz as a Clever but Weary Priest Tracking the Undead
Christoph Waltz plays a humorous yet burdened cleric fighting vampires – I can’t believe he hasn’t played this role before – who finds himself in Paris in 1889 for the French Revolution centenary celebrations. So does the sinister Dracula, played by the seasoned horror actor Caleb Landry Jones using a distorted Eastern European tone similar to the voice of Gru by Steve Carell in the Despicable Me films. It’s a role he seemed destined to play.
The Story: A Saga of Heartbreak
The story is this: Dracula has traveled ceaselessly the globe in sorrow for 400 years since he became undead, a consequence due to his blasphemous mourning following the loss of his wife, Elisabeta (a first film part for Zoë Bleu, daughter of Rosanna Arquette). Dracula has sought relentlessly for some woman who would be the reincarnation of his deceased partner. By cruel fate, the chosen woman turns out to be Mina (also Bleu, of course), the demure fiancee of the count’s timid estate manager, Jonathan Harker (played by Ewens Abid), who lately visited to the vampire’s estate to discuss his property portfolio and whose miniature portrait of the lovely Mina drew the vampire’s attention.
Besson’s Handling and Comic Flair
Besson arranges Dracula’s flashback sequence of global roaming wearing flamboyant outfits with a sure hand, and he willingly includes offering funny bits with a distinctly Mel Brooks flavour – such as Dracula’s ongoing failed efforts to end his own life post-Elisabeta’s demise, along with farcical scenes that follow Dracula douses himself in a certain perfume in historic Florence, which makes him unavoidably attractive to females. Absurd yet engaging.
Dracula is available digitally starting December 1st and on DVD and Blu-ray from 22 December. It screens in Australian cinemas beginning on the fifth of February, 2026.
