Dracula Movie Critique – Luc Besson’s Love-Struck Reimagining of the Classic Horror Story is Absurd but Watchable
It’s possible audiences aren’t clamoring for a fresh take of Dracula from Luc Besson, the French maestro for stylish excess. Still, it’s worth noting: his richly designed romantic vampire tale has ambition and panache – and in all its Hammer-y cheesiness, I might just favor compared with Eggers’s dignified recent take of Nosferatu. There are some very bizarre touches, like a particular moment that seems to depict a land border between France and Romania.
The Veteran Actor as a Humorously Exhausted Clergyman Hunting Vampires
Christoph Waltz plays a clever but beleaguered vampire-hunting priest – it feels natural for him to tackle this character previously – who finds himself in Paris in 1889 for the French Revolution centenary celebrations. The same goes for the malevolent vampire count, enacted by the expert in grotesque roles Caleb Landry Jones speaking in a twisted regional dialect similar to Steve Carell’s Gru of the Despicable Me series. This character he seemed destined to play.
The Narrative: A Chronicle of Longing
The plot unfolds as follows: Dracula has wandered endlessly the globe in anguish for 400 years after his transformation into a vampire, a consequence due to his blasphemous mourning after the passing of his wife, Elisabeta (an inaugural screen appearance for Zoë Bleu, the offspring of Rosanna Arquette). Dracula has been searching, searching, searching for a lady who might be the rebirth of his lost love. As ill fortune would have it, the lucky lady proves to be Mina (again played by Bleu), the modest betrothed of the count’s timid estate manager, Jonathan Harker (played by Ewens Abid), who has recently been to Dracula’s fortress to review his property portfolio and the tiny painting of the charming Mina drew the vampire’s attention.
Besson’s Direction and Humorous Style
Besson arranges Dracula’s second-act backstory of international journeys sporting extravagant attire skillfully, and he doesn’t shy away from giving us funny bits with a distinctly Mel Brooks flavour – such as the count’s repeated and futile attempts to kill himself after Elisabeta’s death, as well as absurd moments that follow Dracula douses himself in a certain perfume in 18th-century Florence, that renders him compelling to the opposite sex. Ridiculous and watchable.
Dracula is available digitally from 1 December and on DVD and Blu-ray from 22 December. It plays in Australian cinemas beginning on the fifth of February, 2026.
