Dracula Movie Critique – Besson’s Passionate Reimagining of the Gothic Classic is Ridiculous but Entertaining
Maybe audiences aren’t clamoring for an updated adaptation of Dracula from Luc Besson, the celebrated French director for stylish excess. And yet, it has to be said: his opulently crafted vampire romance displays creativity and style – and amid its theatrical camp, I might just favor compared with Eggers’s dignified recent take of Nosferatu. Odd details emerge, like a particular moment that looks like it presents a territorial boundary between France and Romania.
Waltz as a Witty Yet Careworn Clergyman Hunting Vampires
Christoph Waltz plays a witty yet careworn vampire-hunting priest – it’s surprising he never took on this role before – who finds himself in Paris in 1889 during the centennial 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 Steve Carell’s Gru of the Despicable Me series. It’s a role he seemed destined to play.
The Narrative: A Tale of Love and Loss
The story is this: the count has wandered endlessly the globe in sorrow over four centuries after his transformation into a vampire, a penalty 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 some woman who would be the reincarnation of his departed beloved. As ill fortune would have it, the chosen woman proves to be Mina (also Bleu, of course), the modest betrothed of Dracula’s feeble property handler, Jonathan Harker (enacted by Ewens Abid), who just traveled to the count’s castle to discuss his real estate holdings and the small picture of the lovely Mina caught the count’s hooded eye.
Besson’s Direction and Comic Flair
Besson arranges Dracula’s flashback sequence of global roaming sporting extravagant attire confidently, and he is not above providing funny bits with a distinctly Mel Brooks flavour – such as Dracula’s ongoing failed efforts to kill himself after Elisabeta’s death, as well as absurd moments that occur when Dracula sprays himself in a certain perfume in historic Florence, which makes him compelling to the opposite sex. Ridiculous and watchable.
Dracula is available digitally beginning on the first of December and on DVD and Blu-ray from 22 December. It plays in Australian cinemas from 5 February 2026.