Dracula Movie Critique – Besson’s Romantic Reimagining of the Timeless Gothic Tale is Ridiculous but Engaging
It’s possible audiences aren’t clamoring for an updated adaptation of Dracula from Luc Besson, the celebrated French director for polished extravagance. Still, one must admit: his lavishly upholstered love story with vampires displays creativity and style – and in all its Hammer-y cheesiness, I’m not sure I wouldn’t prefer compared with Robert Eggers’s recent, solemnly classy version of Nosferatu. Odd details emerge, such as a scene that appears to show a geographic divide between France and Romania.
The Veteran Actor as a Witty Yet Careworn Vampire-Hunting Priest
Christoph Waltz plays a witty yet careworn cleric fighting vampires – it’s surprising he never took on this character previously – who arrives in Paris in 1889 during the centennial of the French Revolution. Likewise present is the evil Count Dracula, played by the body-horror veteran Caleb Landry Jones with a mangled central European accent similar to Steve Carell’s Gru of the Despicable Me series. This character suits him perfectly.
The Story: A Chronicle of Longing
The story is this: Dracula has traveled ceaselessly the earth in torment for 400 years since he became undead, a penalty due to his blasphemous mourning over the death of his beloved Elisabeta (an inaugural screen appearance for Zoë Bleu, daughter of Rosanna Arquette). The count has been searching, searching, searching for a female who might be the return of his departed beloved. Unfortunately, the lucky lady turns out to be Mina (also Bleu, of course), the reserved future wife of Dracula’s feeble property handler, Jonathan Harker (Ewens Abid), who just traveled to Dracula’s fortress to review his real estate holdings and whose miniature portrait of the winsome Mina attracted Dracula’s gaze.
Besson’s Direction and Humorous Style
Besson arranges Dracula’s middle-section history of global roaming in various outrageous costumes confidently, and he is not above offering some comedy moments in the style of Mel Brooks – like the count’s repeated and futile attempts to end his own life post-Elisabeta’s demise, as well as farcical scenes that result after Dracula applies to himself with a specific fragrance in historic Florence, which causes him to be irresistible to women. Ridiculous and watchable.
Dracula can be streamed online from 1 December and on DVD and Blu-ray from 22 December. It screens in Australian cinemas starting February 5, 2026.
