Dracula Movie Critique – Besson’s Passionate Revamp of the Gothic Classic is Ridiculous but Entertaining
It’s possible there is no great enthusiasm for a new version of Dracula from Luc Besson, the filmmaker known for polished extravagance. However, one must admit: his lavishly upholstered romantic vampire tale displays creativity and style – and with its B-movie charm, it could be preferable compared with Robert Eggers’s recent, solemnly classy version of Nosferatu. There are some very bizarre touches, like a particular moment that looks like it presents a territorial boundary between France and Romania.
The Veteran Actor as a Witty Yet Careworn Priest Tracking the Undead
Christoph Waltz plays a clever but beleaguered cleric fighting vampires – I can’t believe he hasn’t played this role before – who arrives in Paris in 1889 to mark the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution. So does the evil Count Dracula, played by the body-horror veteran Caleb Landry Jones with a mangled central European accent evoking Carell’s Gru character in the Despicable Me films. This character suits him perfectly.
The Narrative: A Chronicle of Longing
The story is this: Dracula has been restlessly roaming the world in torment for 400 years after his transformation into a vampire, a penalty for his faithless sorrow over the death of his beloved Elisabeta (a first film part for Zoë Bleu, Rosanna Arquette’s child). The count has been searching, searching, searching for a female 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 modest betrothed of Dracula’s feeble property handler, Jonathan Harker (played by Ewens Abid), who lately visited to the count’s castle to review his land assets and whose miniature portrait of the winsome Mina caught the count’s hooded eye.
Besson’s Handling and Humorous Style
Besson organizes Dracula’s middle-section history of worldwide travels in various outrageous costumes with a sure hand, and he willingly includes providing humorous scenes reminiscent of Mel Brooks – like the count’s repeated and futile attempts to commit suicide after Elisabeta’s death, in addition to farcical scenes that result after Dracula applies to himself using a particular scent in historic Florence, that renders him irresistible to women. Outlandish but entertaining.
Dracula can be streamed online starting December 1st and in disc format starting the twenty-second of December. It plays in Australian cinemas beginning on the fifth of February, 2026.
