Dracula Review – The French Director’s Love-Struck Revamp of the Classic Horror Story is Ridiculous but Entertaining
It’s possible interest is limited for a new version of Dracula from Luc Besson, the French maestro for glossiness and bloat. And yet, it has to be said: his lavishly upholstered vampire romance boasts bold vision and flair – and amid its theatrical camp, I’m not sure I wouldn’t prefer compared with Eggers’s dignified recent take of Nosferatu. There are some very bizarre touches, including one shot that looks like it presents a land border between France and Romania.
Christoph Waltz as a Humorously Exhausted Priest Tracking the Undead
Christoph Waltz embodies a witty yet careworn man of the church pursuing the undead – it’s surprising he never took on this character previously – who ends up in Paris in 1889 during the centennial of the French Revolution. The same goes for the malevolent vampire count, brought to life by the expert in grotesque roles Caleb Landry Jones speaking in a twisted regional dialect evoking Carell’s Gru character from the Despicable Me comedies. This is a part he seemed destined to play.
The Story: A Saga of Heartbreak
The plot unfolds as follows: Dracula has been restlessly roaming the globe in anguish for 400 years after his transformation into a vampire, a penalty for his faithless sorrow following the loss of his spouse Elisabeta (an inaugural screen appearance for Zoë Bleu, Rosanna Arquette’s child). The count has been searching, searching, searching for some woman who might be the rebirth of his lost love. As ill fortune would have it, the fortunate female proves to be Mina (also Bleu, of course), the reserved future wife of Dracula’s wimpish land agent, Jonathan Harker (played by Ewens Abid), who lately visited to the vampire’s estate to review his land assets and the small picture of the lovely Mina attracted Dracula’s gaze.
Besson’s Handling and Comic Flair
Besson organizes Dracula’s middle-section history of global roaming in various outrageous costumes skillfully, and he doesn’t shy away from offering funny bits in the style of Mel Brooks – for example the vampire’s constant unsuccessful tries to end his own life following Elisabeta’s passing, in addition to farcical scenes that occur when Dracula applies to himself with a specific fragrance in 18th-century Florence, that renders him compelling to the opposite sex. Absurd yet engaging.
Dracula can be streamed online starting December 1st and on DVD and Blu-ray from 22 December. It plays in Australian cinemas starting February 5, 2026.