Dracula Review – Luc Besson’s Passionate Revamp of the Timeless Gothic Tale is Ridiculous but Watchable
Maybe audiences aren’t clamoring for an updated adaptation of Dracula from Luc Besson, the French maestro for polished extravagance. And yet, one must admit: his richly designed love story with vampires has ambition and panache – and amid its theatrical camp, I’m not sure I wouldn’t prefer over Robert Eggers’s recent, solemnly classy version of Nosferatu. There are some very bizarre touches, such as a scene that appears to show a geographic divide between France and Romania.
The Veteran Actor as a Humorously Exhausted Vampire-Hunting Priest
Christoph Waltz portrays a clever but beleaguered man of the church pursuing the undead – I can’t believe he hasn’t played this character previously – who arrives in Paris in 1889 for the French Revolution centenary celebrations. Likewise present is the sinister Dracula, played by the expert in grotesque roles Caleb Landry Jones using a distorted Eastern European tone evoking the voice of Gru by Steve Carell from the Despicable Me comedies. This is a part that he too was born to take on.
The Plot: A Chronicle of Longing
The story is this: Dracula has traveled ceaselessly the world in torment for 400 years since he became undead, a consequence for his faithless sorrow over the death of his spouse Elisabeta (a movie debut role for Zoë Bleu, the offspring of Rosanna Arquette). Dracula has sought relentlessly for a female who might be the rebirth of his lost love. Unfortunately, the chosen woman proves to be Mina (also Bleu, of course), the reserved future wife of the count’s timid estate manager, Jonathan Harker (enacted by Ewens Abid), who lately visited to the vampire’s estate to review his real estate holdings and whose miniature portrait of the winsome Mina attracted Dracula’s gaze.
The Filmmaker’s Approach and Lighthearted Touch
Besson organizes Dracula’s second-act backstory of global roaming sporting extravagant attire confidently, and he doesn’t shy away from giving us funny bits reminiscent of Mel Brooks – such as Dracula’s ongoing failed efforts to commit suicide following Elisabeta’s passing, along with farcical scenes that result after Dracula douses himself in a certain perfume during the 1700s in Florence, which makes him compelling to the opposite sex. Ridiculous and watchable.
Dracula can be streamed online starting December 1st and for physical purchase from December 22nd. It plays in Australian cinemas from 5 February 2026.
