Dracula Movie Critique – Luc Besson’s Passionate Revamp of the Gothic Classic is Outlandish but Engaging
Maybe interest is limited for an updated adaptation of Dracula from Luc Besson, the celebrated French director for glossiness and bloat. However, it has to be said: his lavishly upholstered vampire romance displays creativity and style – and with its B-movie charm, it could be preferable over 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 Clergyman Hunting Vampires
Christoph Waltz plays a clever but beleaguered man of the church pursuing the undead – I can’t believe he hasn’t played this role before – who ends up in Paris in 1889 for the French Revolution centenary celebrations. The same goes for the sinister Dracula, enacted by the body-horror veteran Caleb Landry Jones speaking in a twisted regional dialect similar to the voice of Gru by Steve Carell from the Despicable Me comedies. It’s a role that he too was born to take on.
The Story: A Tale of Love and Loss
The story is this: the count has wandered endlessly the globe in anguish for hundreds of years since he became undead, a penalty due to his blasphemous mourning following the loss of his spouse Elisabeta (a first film part for Zoë Bleu, the offspring of Rosanna Arquette). the vampire has looked tirelessly for some woman who could be the reincarnation of his deceased partner. As ill fortune would have it, the fortunate female is revealed as Mina (again played by Bleu), the reserved future wife of the count’s timid estate manager, Jonathan Harker (Ewens Abid), who lately visited to Dracula’s fortress to discuss his real estate holdings and the tiny painting 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 wearing flamboyant outfits with a sure hand, and he doesn’t shy away from providing funny bits in the style of Mel Brooks – such as the count’s repeated and futile attempts to kill himself post-Elisabeta’s demise, as well as absurd moments that follow Dracula sprays himself using a particular scent in 18th-century Florence, which makes him unavoidably attractive to females. Ridiculous and watchable.
Dracula is on digital platforms from 1 December and in disc format from 22 December. It will be shown in Australian cinemas beginning on the fifth of February, 2026.
