Dracula Movie Critique – Besson’s Love-Struck Reimagining of the Classic Horror Story is Outlandish but Entertaining
It’s possible there is no great enthusiasm for an updated adaptation of Dracula from Luc Besson, the filmmaker known for stylish excess. Still, it’s worth noting: his opulently crafted vampire romance boasts bold vision and flair – and amid its theatrical camp, I’m not sure I wouldn’t prefer to it to Eggers’s dignified recent take of Nosferatu. A few strange elements appear, like a particular moment that seems to depict a geographic divide between France and Romania.
The Veteran Actor as a Clever but Weary Vampire-Hunting Priest
Christoph Waltz plays a clever but beleaguered cleric fighting vampires – it’s surprising he never took on this role before – who ends up in Paris in 1889 during the centennial of the French Revolution. The same goes for the malevolent vampire count, played by the seasoned horror actor Caleb Landry Jones with a mangled central European accent evoking the voice of Gru by Steve Carell from the Despicable Me comedies. This character that he too was born to take on.
The Plot: A Saga of Heartbreak
The story is this: the count has traveled ceaselessly the world in anguish for hundreds of years after his transformation into a vampire, a penalty due to his blasphemous mourning over the death of his wife, Elisabeta (an inaugural screen appearance for Zoë Bleu, the offspring of Rosanna Arquette). The count has been searching, searching, searching for a lady who might be the rebirth of his lost love. By cruel fate, the lucky lady is revealed as Mina (portrayed once more by Bleu), the reserved future wife of the count’s timid estate manager, Jonathan Harker (played by Ewens Abid), who has recently been to Dracula’s fortress to negotiate his real estate holdings and whose miniature portrait of the charming Mina attracted Dracula’s gaze.
Besson’s Handling and Humorous Style
Besson organizes Dracula’s flashback sequence of worldwide travels sporting extravagant attire confidently, and he is not above giving us some comedy moments reminiscent of Mel Brooks – for example the count’s repeated and futile attempts to end his own life after Elisabeta’s death, in addition to comical sequences that follow Dracula douses himself with a specific fragrance in 18th-century Florence, that renders him unavoidably attractive to females. Ridiculous and watchable.
Dracula is available digitally beginning on the first of December and on DVD and Blu-ray from December 22nd. It will be shown in Australian cinemas from 5 February 2026.
