Dracula Review – Besson’s Passionate Reinterpretation of the Gothic Classic is Outlandish but Engaging
It’s possible audiences aren’t clamoring for an updated adaptation of Dracula from Luc Besson, the French maestro for glossiness and bloat. However, it’s worth noting: his opulently crafted love story with vampires displays creativity and style – and in all its Hammer-y cheesiness, I might just favor compared with the recent, stately interpretation by Robert Eggers of Nosferatu. A few strange elements appear, like a particular moment that appears to show a land border between France and Romania.
Christoph Waltz as a Witty Yet Careworn Priest Tracking the Undead
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. Likewise present is the sinister Dracula, played by the body-horror veteran Caleb Landry Jones using a distorted Eastern European tone reminiscent of Steve Carell’s Gru from the Despicable Me comedies. This is a part that he too was born to take on.
The Narrative: A Tale of Love and Loss
Here’s the premise: the vampire lord has traveled ceaselessly the globe in sorrow for hundreds of years since he became undead, a consequence for his irreligious grief after the passing of his beloved Elisabeta (a movie debut role for Zoë Bleu, Rosanna Arquette’s child). Dracula has looked tirelessly for a lady who might be the reincarnation of his departed beloved. By cruel fate, the chosen woman is revealed as Mina (again played by Bleu), the reserved future wife of the count’s timid estate manager, Jonathan Harker (played by Ewens Abid), who lately visited to Dracula’s fortress to review his real estate holdings and the tiny painting of the charming Mina drew the vampire’s attention.
Besson’s Direction and Humorous Style
Besson organizes Dracula’s second-act backstory of worldwide travels wearing flamboyant outfits with a sure hand, and he doesn’t shy away from offering humorous scenes in the style of Mel Brooks – for example Dracula’s ongoing failed efforts to end his own life after Elisabeta’s death, in addition to comical sequences that occur when Dracula sprays himself with a specific fragrance in historic Florence, that renders him irresistible to women. Ridiculous and watchable.
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.
