Dracula Movie Critique – Luc Besson’s Love-Struck Reinterpretation of the Gothic Classic is Absurd but Engaging
Maybe audiences aren’t clamoring for an updated adaptation of Dracula from Luc Besson, the filmmaker known for glossiness and bloat. However, it’s worth noting: his richly designed vampire romance has ambition and panache – and with its B-movie charm, I might just favor to it to Eggers’s dignified recent take of Nosferatu. Odd details emerge, including one shot that appears to show a territorial boundary between France and Romania.
Waltz as a Witty Yet Careworn Vampire-Hunting Priest
Christoph Waltz portrays a witty yet careworn cleric fighting vampires – it feels natural for him to tackle this character previously – who ends up in Paris in 1889 to mark the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution. Likewise present is the malevolent vampire count, enacted 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 that he too was born to take on.
The Story: A Saga of Heartbreak
The story is this: the vampire lord has traveled ceaselessly the globe in sorrow for 400 years after his transformation into a vampire, a punishment for his irreligious grief over the death of his spouse 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 deceased partner. Unfortunately, the fortunate female turns out to be Mina (also Bleu, of course), the demure fiancee of Dracula’s feeble property handler, Jonathan Harker (played by Ewens Abid), who has recently been to the count’s castle to negotiate his property portfolio and the tiny painting of the charming Mina drew the vampire’s attention.
The Filmmaker’s Approach and Humorous Style
Besson arranges Dracula’s middle-section history of international journeys in various outrageous costumes confidently, and he is not above providing funny bits in the style of Mel Brooks – like the count’s repeated and futile attempts to end his own life after Elisabeta’s death, as well as comical sequences that occur when Dracula applies to himself with a specific fragrance in 18th-century Florence, which causes him to be unavoidably attractive to females. Ridiculous and watchable.
Dracula can be streamed online from 1 December and for physical purchase from December 22nd. It plays in Australian cinemas starting February 5, 2026.
