Dracula Movie Critique – The French Director’s Love-Struck Reinterpretation of the Gothic Classic is Ridiculous but Entertaining
Maybe interest is limited for a new version of Dracula from Luc Besson, the French maestro for polished extravagance. However, one must admit: his lavishly upholstered love story with vampires has ambition and panache – and in all its Hammer-y cheesiness, I might just favor over Eggers’s dignified recent take of Nosferatu. Odd details emerge, such as a scene that appears to show a land border between France and Romania.
The Veteran Actor as a Clever but Weary Vampire-Hunting Priest
Christoph Waltz embodies a humorous yet burdened 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 sinister Dracula, enacted by the body-horror veteran Caleb Landry Jones using a distorted Eastern European tone similar to Carell’s Gru character of the Despicable Me series. It’s a role that he too was born to take on.
The Plot: A Saga of Heartbreak
The story is this: Dracula has wandered endlessly the world in torment over four centuries after his transformation into a vampire, a penalty for his faithless sorrow over the death of his beloved Elisabeta (an inaugural screen appearance for Zoë Bleu, the offspring of Rosanna Arquette). The count has been searching, searching, searching for some woman who might be the reincarnation of his lost love. Unfortunately, the chosen woman proves to be Mina (portrayed once more by Bleu), the reserved future wife 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 the small picture of the lovely Mina caught the count’s hooded eye.
The Filmmaker’s Approach and Comic Flair
Besson arranges Dracula’s second-act backstory of international journeys sporting extravagant attire skillfully, and he willingly includes giving us some comedy moments in the style of Mel Brooks – for example Dracula’s ongoing failed efforts to kill himself after Elisabeta’s death, along with farcical scenes that result after Dracula douses himself with a specific fragrance in historic Florence, which causes him to be unavoidably attractive to females. Absurd yet engaging.
Dracula is on digital platforms starting December 1st and on DVD and Blu-ray from 22 December. It screens in Australian cinemas beginning on the fifth of February, 2026.
