Dracula Review – Luc Besson’s Love-Struck Reimagining of the Gothic Classic is Ridiculous but Entertaining
Maybe interest is limited for a new version of Dracula from Luc Besson, the filmmaker known for polished extravagance. However, it’s worth noting: his lavishly upholstered love story with vampires has ambition and panache – and with its B-movie charm, it could be preferable compared with Robert Eggers’s recent, solemnly classy version of Nosferatu. A few strange elements appear, like a particular moment that looks like it presents a land border between France and Romania.
Waltz as a Witty Yet Careworn Clergyman Hunting Vampires
Christoph Waltz plays a witty yet careworn vampire-hunting priest – it’s surprising he never took on this role before – who finds himself in Paris in 1889 for the French Revolution centenary celebrations. Likewise present is the evil Count Dracula, enacted by the expert in grotesque roles Caleb Landry Jones with a mangled central European accent similar to Steve Carell’s Gru in the Despicable Me films. This is a part that he too was born to take on.
The Narrative: A Tale of Love and Loss
The plot unfolds as follows: the count has wandered endlessly the earth in anguish for hundreds of years following his rise as one of the undead, a penalty for his faithless sorrow after the passing of his beloved Elisabeta (a movie debut role for Zoë Bleu, the offspring of Rosanna Arquette). the vampire has sought relentlessly for a female who could be the return of his departed beloved. Unfortunately, the fortunate female proves to be Mina (again played by Bleu), the modest betrothed of Dracula’s feeble property handler, Jonathan Harker (Ewens Abid), who has recently been to the count’s castle to review his property portfolio and the small picture of the winsome Mina caught the count’s hooded eye.
Besson’s Handling and Humorous Style
Besson arranges Dracula’s middle-section history of global roaming wearing flamboyant outfits skillfully, and he willingly includes giving us funny bits reminiscent of Mel Brooks – such as the count’s repeated and futile attempts to commit suicide following Elisabeta’s passing, as well as comical sequences that occur when Dracula applies to himself with a specific fragrance in historic Florence, that renders him compelling to the opposite sex. Outlandish but entertaining.
Dracula is available digitally beginning on the first of December and in disc format starting the twenty-second of December. It screens in Australian cinemas beginning on the fifth of February, 2026.
