Dracula Review – Besson’s Love-Struck Revamp of the Classic Horror Story is Absurd but Watchable
Maybe there is no great enthusiasm for an updated adaptation of Dracula from Luc Besson, the filmmaker known for polished extravagance. However, it has to be said: his richly designed romantic vampire tale boasts bold vision and flair – and in all its Hammer-y cheesiness, it could be preferable over Robert Eggers’s recent, solemnly classy version of Nosferatu. A few strange elements appear, such as a scene that appears to show a territorial boundary between France and Romania.
The Veteran Actor as a Witty Yet Careworn Vampire-Hunting Priest
Christoph Waltz plays a clever but beleaguered man of the church pursuing the undead – it feels natural for him to tackle this role before – who finds himself in Paris in 1889 during the centennial of the French Revolution. Likewise present is the sinister Dracula, brought to life by the expert in grotesque roles Caleb Landry Jones speaking in a twisted regional dialect similar to the voice of Gru by Steve Carell in the Despicable Me films. This is a part suits him perfectly.
The Plot: A Chronicle of Longing
The story is this: the vampire lord has been restlessly roaming the globe in torment for 400 years following his rise as one of the undead, a consequence for his faithless sorrow over the death of his spouse Elisabeta (an inaugural screen appearance for Zoë Bleu, the offspring of Rosanna Arquette). the vampire has been searching, searching, searching for some woman who could be the return of his departed beloved. As ill fortune would have it, the lucky lady is revealed as Mina (again played by Bleu), the modest betrothed of Dracula’s wimpish land agent, Jonathan Harker (played by Ewens Abid), who lately visited to Dracula’s fortress to review his real estate holdings and the tiny painting of the lovely Mina caught the count’s hooded eye.
Besson’s Direction and Humorous Style
Besson organizes Dracula’s middle-section history of worldwide travels in various outrageous costumes skillfully, and he doesn’t shy away from giving us funny bits reminiscent of Mel Brooks – for example the count’s repeated and futile attempts to end his own life post-Elisabeta’s demise, along with farcical scenes that occur when Dracula douses himself using a particular scent during the 1700s in Florence, that renders him unavoidably attractive to females. Absurd yet engaging.
Dracula can be streamed online starting December 1st and on DVD and Blu-ray starting the twenty-second of December. It plays in Australian cinemas beginning on the fifth of February, 2026.
