Dracula Movie Critique – Besson’s Passionate Revamp of the Classic Horror Story is Outlandish but Watchable
Maybe there is no great enthusiasm for a new version of Dracula from Luc Besson, the filmmaker known for polished extravagance. However, it’s worth noting: his richly designed love story with vampires displays creativity and style – and amid its theatrical camp, I’m not sure I wouldn’t prefer over Eggers’s dignified recent take of Nosferatu. There are some very bizarre touches, like a particular moment that looks like it presents a territorial boundary between France and Romania.
Waltz as a Humorously Exhausted Priest Tracking the Undead
Christoph Waltz portrays a clever but beleaguered man of the church pursuing the undead – I can’t believe he hasn’t played such a part earlier – who arrives in Paris in 1889 for the French Revolution centenary celebrations. Likewise present is the sinister Dracula, enacted by the expert in grotesque roles Caleb Landry Jones with a mangled central European accent reminiscent of Carell’s Gru character in the Despicable Me films. This is a part suits him perfectly.
The Narrative: A Chronicle of Longing
The story is this: 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 spouse Elisabeta (a movie debut role for Zoë Bleu, daughter of Rosanna Arquette). The count has been searching, searching, searching for a lady who could be the return of his deceased partner. As ill fortune would have it, the lucky lady turns out to be Mina (again played by Bleu), the modest betrothed of Dracula’s feeble property handler, Jonathan Harker (enacted by Ewens Abid), who just traveled to the count’s castle to negotiate his land assets and whose miniature portrait of the charming Mina caught the count’s hooded eye.
Besson’s Handling and Comic Flair
Besson structures Dracula’s flashback sequence of global roaming in various outrageous costumes with a sure hand, and he doesn’t shy away from providing some comedy moments with a distinctly Mel Brooks flavour – for example the count’s repeated and futile attempts to commit suicide after Elisabeta’s death, along with absurd moments that occur when Dracula applies to himself with a specific fragrance in 18th-century Florence, that renders him unavoidably attractive to females. Outlandish but entertaining.
Dracula is on digital platforms starting December 1st and on DVD and Blu-ray from December 22nd. It plays in Australian cinemas beginning on the fifth of February, 2026.
