Dracula Review – The French Director’s Romantic Reimagining of the Classic Horror Story is Outlandish but Watchable
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 richly designed love story with vampires displays creativity and style – and in all its Hammer-y cheesiness, I might just favor to it to 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.
The Veteran Actor as a Witty Yet Careworn Priest Tracking the Undead
Christoph Waltz portrays a clever but beleaguered cleric fighting vampires – I can’t believe he hasn’t played such a part earlier – 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 body-horror veteran Caleb Landry Jones using a distorted Eastern European tone reminiscent of Carell’s Gru character of the Despicable Me series. This character suits him perfectly.
The Plot: A Tale of Love and Loss
Here’s the premise: the count has been restlessly roaming the globe in anguish for 400 years following his rise as one of the undead, a punishment for his irreligious grief following the loss of his spouse Elisabeta (an inaugural screen appearance for Zoë Bleu, Rosanna Arquette’s child). Dracula has been searching, searching, searching for some woman who could be the reincarnation of his deceased partner. As ill fortune would have it, the fortunate female is revealed as Mina (portrayed once more by Bleu), the demure fiancee of Dracula’s feeble property handler, Jonathan Harker (enacted by Ewens Abid), who just traveled to the vampire’s estate to negotiate his land assets and whose miniature portrait of the winsome Mina drew the vampire’s attention.
Besson’s Direction and Lighthearted Touch
Besson structures Dracula’s flashback sequence of global roaming sporting extravagant attire skillfully, and he doesn’t shy away from giving us some comedy moments in the style of Mel Brooks – like the count’s repeated and futile attempts to kill himself post-Elisabeta’s demise, in addition to farcical scenes that follow Dracula sprays himself using a particular scent in 18th-century Florence, which makes him irresistible to women. Outlandish but entertaining.
Dracula is available digitally starting December 1st and for physical purchase starting the twenty-second of December. It plays in Australian cinemas beginning on the fifth of February, 2026.
