Dracula Review – Luc Besson’s Passionate Revamp of the Gothic Classic is Ridiculous but Engaging
Maybe interest is limited for a fresh take of Dracula from Luc Besson, the filmmaker known for stylish excess. However, it has to be said: his lavishly upholstered love story with vampires has ambition and panache – and in all its Hammer-y cheesiness, I’m not sure I wouldn’t prefer compared with Eggers’s dignified recent take of Nosferatu. There are some very bizarre touches, like a particular moment that seems to depict a territorial boundary between France and Romania.
The Veteran Actor as a Humorously Exhausted Priest Tracking the Undead
Christoph Waltz portrays a witty yet careworn cleric fighting vampires – it feels natural for him to tackle this character previously – who arrives in Paris in 1889 for the French Revolution centenary celebrations. So does the evil Count Dracula, brought to life by the body-horror veteran Caleb Landry Jones using a distorted Eastern European tone reminiscent of Carell’s Gru character from the Despicable Me comedies. This character that he too was born to take on.
The Story: A Saga of Heartbreak
The plot unfolds as follows: the vampire lord has been restlessly roaming the earth in sorrow over four centuries following his rise as one of the undead, a punishment for his faithless sorrow over the death of his wife, Elisabeta (a first film part for Zoë Bleu, Rosanna Arquette’s child). The count has been searching, searching, searching for a lady who could be the return of his deceased partner. Unfortunately, the fortunate female is revealed as Mina (also Bleu, of course), the modest betrothed of Dracula’s feeble property handler, Jonathan Harker (enacted by Ewens Abid), who has recently been to Dracula’s fortress to review his land assets and the small picture of the lovely Mina drew the vampire’s attention.
Besson’s Direction and Comic Flair
Besson arranges Dracula’s second-act backstory of worldwide travels sporting extravagant attire with a sure hand, and he doesn’t shy away from giving us humorous scenes in the style of Mel Brooks – like the vampire’s constant unsuccessful tries to end his own life post-Elisabeta’s demise, as well as comical sequences that result after Dracula douses himself with a specific fragrance in 18th-century Florence, which makes him unavoidably attractive to females. Absurd yet engaging.
Dracula is available digitally beginning on the first of December and on DVD and Blu-ray from 22 December. It will be shown in Australian cinemas beginning on the fifth of February, 2026.
