Dracula Movie Critique – Luc Besson’s Love-Struck Revamp of the Classic Horror Story is Absurd but Watchable
Maybe interest is limited for a fresh take of Dracula from Luc Besson, the celebrated French director for polished extravagance. Still, it has to be said: his opulently crafted romantic vampire tale displays creativity and style – and with its B-movie charm, I might just favor over Robert Eggers’s recent, solemnly classy version of Nosferatu. There are some very bizarre touches, like a particular moment that appears to show a land border between France and Romania.
Christoph Waltz as a Witty Yet Careworn Vampire-Hunting Priest
Christoph Waltz embodies a witty yet careworn cleric fighting vampires – I can’t believe he hasn’t played such a part earlier – who finds himself in Paris in 1889 to mark the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution. So does the malevolent vampire count, played by the body-horror veteran Caleb Landry Jones using a distorted Eastern European tone reminiscent of Steve Carell’s Gru in the Despicable Me films. It’s a role that he too was born to take on.
The Story: A Tale of Love and Loss
The plot unfolds as follows: Dracula has wandered endlessly the globe in anguish for hundreds of years after his transformation into a vampire, a penalty for his irreligious grief after the passing of his wife, Elisabeta (an inaugural screen appearance for Zoë Bleu, daughter of Rosanna Arquette). Dracula has looked tirelessly for some woman who would be the return of his deceased partner. Unfortunately, the chosen woman is revealed as Mina (also Bleu, of course), the demure fiancee of the count’s timid estate manager, Jonathan Harker (Ewens Abid), who lately visited to the vampire’s estate to negotiate his property portfolio and whose miniature portrait of the lovely Mina caught the count’s hooded eye.
The Filmmaker’s Approach and Humorous Style
Besson arranges Dracula’s second-act backstory of worldwide travels in various outrageous costumes with a sure hand, and he willingly includes giving us humorous scenes with a distinctly Mel Brooks flavour – like Dracula’s ongoing failed efforts to kill himself following Elisabeta’s passing, along with comical sequences that occur when Dracula sprays himself in a certain perfume in 18th-century Florence, which makes him irresistible to women. Absurd yet engaging.
Dracula is on digital platforms from 1 December and on DVD and Blu-ray starting the twenty-second of December. It will be shown in Australian cinemas starting February 5, 2026.
