Dracula Review – The French Director’s Romantic Reimagining of the Gothic Classic is Absurd but Watchable
Perhaps interest is limited for an updated adaptation of Dracula from Luc Besson, the French maestro for stylish excess. Still, it’s worth noting: his lavishly upholstered romantic vampire tale displays creativity and style – and amid its theatrical camp, I’m not sure I wouldn’t prefer over Robert Eggers’s recent, solemnly classy version of Nosferatu. There are some very bizarre touches, such as a scene that looks like it presents a geographic divide between France and Romania.
The Veteran Actor as a Humorously Exhausted Priest Tracking the Undead
Christoph Waltz plays a clever but beleaguered man of the church pursuing the undead – it’s surprising he never took on such a part earlier – who arrives in Paris in 1889 during the centennial of the French Revolution. The same goes for the evil Count Dracula, enacted by the seasoned horror actor Caleb Landry Jones with a mangled central European accent similar to the voice of Gru by Steve Carell of the Despicable Me series. This is a part suits him perfectly.
The Narrative: A Tale of Love and Loss
The story is this: the count has wandered endlessly the earth in torment for hundreds of years following his rise as one of the undead, a consequence for his faithless sorrow over the death of his wife, Elisabeta (a movie debut role for Zoë Bleu, the offspring of Rosanna Arquette). Dracula has looked tirelessly for some woman who might be the rebirth of his departed beloved. By cruel fate, the fortunate female is revealed as Mina (also Bleu, of course), the reserved future wife of the count’s timid estate manager, Jonathan Harker (played by Ewens Abid), who just traveled to the vampire’s estate to negotiate his property portfolio and whose miniature portrait of the charming Mina attracted Dracula’s gaze.
Besson’s Direction and Humorous Style
Besson organizes Dracula’s second-act backstory of global roaming in various outrageous costumes with a sure hand, and he willingly includes giving us funny bits with a distinctly Mel Brooks flavour – like Dracula’s ongoing failed efforts to end his own life post-Elisabeta’s demise, in addition to comical sequences that follow Dracula sprays himself in a certain perfume in 18th-century Florence, which makes him unavoidably attractive to females. Absurd yet engaging.
Dracula is on digital platforms starting December 1st and in disc format from December 22nd. It screens in Australian cinemas starting February 5, 2026.
