Dracula Review – Luc Besson’s Love-Struck Reinterpretation of the Classic Horror Story is Absurd but Engaging
Perhaps there is no great enthusiasm for a fresh take of Dracula from Luc Besson, the celebrated French director for glossiness and bloat. Still, it has to be said: his opulently crafted romantic vampire tale has ambition and panache – and in all its Hammer-y cheesiness, I might just favor over Eggers’s dignified recent take of Nosferatu. There are some very bizarre touches, like a particular moment that appears to show a territorial boundary between France and Romania.
Waltz as a Clever but Weary Priest Tracking the Undead
Christoph Waltz plays a humorous yet burdened vampire-hunting priest – it feels natural for him to tackle such a part earlier – who finds himself in Paris in 1889 for the French Revolution centenary celebrations. The same goes for the sinister Dracula, enacted by the body-horror veteran Caleb Landry Jones with a mangled central European accent evoking Carell’s Gru character from the Despicable Me comedies. This is a part that he too was born to take on.
The Narrative: A Chronicle of Longing
The story is this: Dracula has wandered endlessly the globe in anguish for 400 years after his transformation into a vampire, a penalty for his irreligious grief over the death of his wife, Elisabeta (a movie debut role for Zoë Bleu, daughter of Rosanna Arquette). Dracula has looked tirelessly for a lady who would be the rebirth of his lost love. As ill fortune would have it, the chosen woman proves to be Mina (again played by Bleu), the reserved future wife of the count’s timid estate manager, Jonathan Harker (played by Ewens Abid), who just traveled to the vampire’s estate to review his property portfolio and the small picture of the charming Mina drew the vampire’s attention.
The Filmmaker’s Approach and Humorous Style
Besson arranges Dracula’s second-act backstory of international journeys wearing flamboyant outfits with a sure hand, and he doesn’t shy away from offering some comedy moments with a distinctly Mel Brooks flavour – for example Dracula’s ongoing failed efforts to end his own life post-Elisabeta’s demise, along with absurd moments that occur when Dracula sprays himself using a particular scent in 18th-century Florence, that renders him irresistible to women. Outlandish but entertaining.
Dracula is on digital platforms from 1 December and in disc format from December 22nd. It plays in Australian cinemas beginning on the fifth of February, 2026.
