Dracula Movie Critique – Luc Besson’s Love-Struck Reinterpretation of the Timeless Gothic Tale is Outlandish but Watchable
Perhaps interest is limited for a new version of Dracula from Luc Besson, the French maestro for glossiness and bloat. Still, it’s worth noting: his richly designed romantic vampire tale has ambition and panache – and amid its theatrical camp, I’m not sure I wouldn’t prefer compared with Robert Eggers’s recent, solemnly classy version of Nosferatu. Odd details emerge, like a particular moment that appears to show a land border between France and Romania.
Christoph Waltz as a Clever but Weary Vampire-Hunting Priest
Christoph Waltz plays a humorous yet burdened man of the church pursuing the undead – I can’t believe he hasn’t played this character previously – who finds himself in Paris in 1889 to mark the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution. So does the evil Count Dracula, played by the seasoned horror actor Caleb Landry Jones with a mangled central European accent similar to the voice of Gru by Steve Carell from the Despicable Me comedies. It’s a role suits him perfectly.
The Narrative: A Tale of Love and Loss
Here’s the premise: the vampire lord has wandered endlessly the world in sorrow over four centuries after his transformation into a vampire, a consequence for his irreligious grief after the passing of his spouse Elisabeta (an inaugural screen appearance for Zoë Bleu, the offspring of Rosanna Arquette). the vampire has been searching, searching, searching for a female who would be the reincarnation of his deceased partner. Unfortunately, the chosen woman turns out to be Mina (also Bleu, of course), the reserved future wife of Dracula’s wimpish land agent, Jonathan Harker (played by Ewens Abid), who just traveled to the count’s castle to review his land assets and whose miniature portrait of the winsome Mina attracted Dracula’s gaze.
Besson’s Direction and Humorous Style
Besson structures Dracula’s middle-section history of global roaming sporting extravagant attire skillfully, and he doesn’t shy away from giving us some comedy moments with a distinctly Mel Brooks flavour – such as the vampire’s constant unsuccessful tries to commit suicide following Elisabeta’s passing, along with farcical scenes that occur when Dracula sprays himself in a certain perfume during the 1700s in Florence, that renders him unavoidably attractive to females. Absurd yet engaging.
Dracula can be streamed online starting December 1st and on DVD and Blu-ray starting the twenty-second of December. It will be shown in Australian cinemas beginning on the fifth of February, 2026.
