Dracula Movie Critique – The French Director’s Romantic Revamp of the Classic Horror Story is Absurd but Engaging
Perhaps interest is limited for a fresh take of Dracula from Luc Besson, the celebrated French director for stylish excess. Still, one must admit: his richly designed romantic vampire tale has ambition and panache – and with its B-movie charm, 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 land border between France and Romania.
Waltz as a Witty Yet Careworn Clergyman Hunting Vampires
Christoph Waltz embodies a witty yet careworn vampire-hunting priest – it feels natural for him to tackle this character previously – who arrives in Paris in 1889 to mark the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution. Likewise present is the malevolent vampire count, played by the seasoned horror actor Caleb Landry Jones using a distorted Eastern European tone similar to Carell’s Gru character 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 been restlessly roaming the world in torment for 400 years following his rise as one of the undead, a penalty for his irreligious grief over the death of his beloved Elisabeta (a first film part for Zoë Bleu, Rosanna Arquette’s child). The count has sought relentlessly for a lady who would be the return of his deceased partner. As ill fortune would have it, the lucky lady is revealed as Mina (portrayed once more by Bleu), the modest betrothed of the count’s timid estate manager, Jonathan Harker (played by Ewens Abid), who lately visited to Dracula’s fortress to review his real estate holdings and whose miniature portrait of the winsome Mina drew the vampire’s attention.
Besson’s Direction and Humorous Style
Besson structures Dracula’s second-act backstory of international journeys wearing flamboyant outfits with a sure hand, and he is not above giving us some comedy moments in the style of Mel Brooks – for example Dracula’s ongoing failed efforts to commit suicide after Elisabeta’s death, in addition to comical sequences that occur when Dracula douses himself in a certain perfume in historic Florence, that renders him unavoidably attractive to females. Absurd yet engaging.
Dracula is available digitally starting December 1st and on DVD and Blu-ray from December 22nd. It will be shown in Australian cinemas beginning on the fifth of February, 2026.