Dracula Review – The French Director’s Love-Struck Reimagining of the Classic Horror Story is Outlandish but Entertaining
It’s possible there is no great enthusiasm for an updated adaptation of Dracula from Luc Besson, the celebrated French director for stylish excess. And yet, it has to be said: his richly designed romantic vampire tale boasts bold vision and flair – and amid its theatrical camp, it could be preferable over Eggers’s dignified recent take of Nosferatu. There are some very bizarre touches, like a particular moment that appears to show a territorial boundary between France and Romania.
Waltz as a Humorously Exhausted Priest Tracking the Undead
Christoph Waltz embodies a clever but beleaguered vampire-hunting priest – I can’t believe he hasn’t played this character previously – who arrives in Paris in 1889 during the centennial of the French Revolution. The same goes for the evil Count Dracula, brought to life by the body-horror veteran Caleb Landry Jones with a mangled central European accent reminiscent of Carell’s Gru character of the Despicable Me series. This character he seemed destined to play.
The Story: A Chronicle of Longing
The story is this: Dracula has wandered endlessly the globe in torment over four centuries after his transformation into a vampire, a punishment due to his blasphemous mourning over the death of his wife, Elisabeta (a movie debut role for Zoë Bleu, Rosanna Arquette’s child). Dracula has been searching, searching, searching for a female who would be the rebirth of his lost love. Unfortunately, the lucky lady is revealed as Mina (again played by Bleu), the demure fiancee of Dracula’s wimpish land agent, Jonathan Harker (enacted by Ewens Abid), who lately visited to the count’s castle to negotiate his land assets and the small picture of the winsome Mina attracted Dracula’s gaze.
Besson’s Direction and Comic Flair
Besson arranges Dracula’s flashback sequence of worldwide travels in various outrageous costumes with a sure hand, and he willingly includes providing humorous scenes in the style of Mel Brooks – for example the vampire’s constant unsuccessful tries to commit suicide following Elisabeta’s passing, in addition to absurd moments that result after Dracula douses himself in a certain perfume in 18th-century Florence, which makes him irresistible to women. Absurd yet engaging.
Dracula can be streamed online starting December 1st and for physical purchase starting the twenty-second of December. It screens in Australian cinemas from 5 February 2026.
