Dracula Movie Critique – Luc Besson’s Passionate Reimagining of the Timeless Gothic Tale is Ridiculous but Entertaining
It’s possible there is no great enthusiasm for a new version of Dracula from Luc Besson, the celebrated French director for glossiness and bloat. And yet, it’s worth noting: his opulently crafted vampire romance displays creativity and style – and in all its Hammer-y cheesiness, I might just favor to it to Eggers’s dignified recent take of Nosferatu. Odd details emerge, like a particular moment that seems to depict a land border between France and Romania.
The Veteran Actor as a Clever but Weary Vampire-Hunting Priest
Christoph Waltz plays a humorous yet burdened cleric fighting vampires – it feels natural for him to tackle this character previously – who finds himself in Paris in 1889 for the French Revolution centenary celebrations. So does the sinister Dracula, brought to life by the seasoned horror actor Caleb Landry Jones speaking in a twisted regional dialect evoking Steve Carell’s Gru in the Despicable Me films. This character suits him perfectly.
The Plot: A Tale of Love and Loss
Here’s the premise: the count has wandered endlessly the globe in torment for 400 years since he became undead, a punishment for his irreligious grief over the death of his beloved Elisabeta (a movie debut role for Zoë Bleu, daughter of Rosanna Arquette). Dracula has been searching, searching, searching for some woman who might be the return of his departed beloved. Unfortunately, the lucky lady proves to be Mina (again played by Bleu), the demure fiancee of the count’s timid estate manager, Jonathan Harker (Ewens Abid), who just traveled to Dracula’s fortress to negotiate his real estate holdings and whose miniature portrait of the lovely Mina caught the count’s hooded eye.
Besson’s Direction and Lighthearted Touch
Besson organizes Dracula’s flashback sequence of global roaming sporting extravagant attire confidently, and he willingly includes providing funny bits with a distinctly Mel Brooks flavour – for example Dracula’s ongoing failed efforts to kill himself post-Elisabeta’s demise, as well as absurd moments that result after Dracula applies to himself in a certain perfume during the 1700s in Florence, which causes him to be unavoidably attractive to females. Outlandish but entertaining.
Dracula is on digital platforms beginning on the first of December and on DVD and Blu-ray from 22 December. It plays in Australian cinemas from 5 February 2026.
