Dracula Movie Critique – The French Director’s Passionate Reinterpretation of the Timeless Gothic Tale is Absurd but Engaging
Perhaps audiences aren’t clamoring for a fresh take of Dracula from Luc Besson, the French maestro for polished extravagance. And yet, one must admit: his richly designed vampire romance boasts bold vision and flair – and amid its theatrical camp, it could be preferable to it to Robert Eggers’s recent, solemnly classy version of Nosferatu. Odd details emerge, such as a scene that seems to depict a geographic divide between France and Romania.
Waltz as a Humorously Exhausted Clergyman Hunting Vampires
Christoph Waltz embodies a humorous yet burdened cleric fighting vampires – I can’t believe he hasn’t played this character previously – who arrives in Paris in 1889 during the centennial of the French Revolution. Likewise present is the evil Count Dracula, brought to life by the body-horror veteran Caleb Landry Jones with a mangled central European accent reminiscent of Steve Carell’s Gru in the Despicable Me films. It’s a role that he too was born to take on.
The Plot: A Tale of Love and Loss
The plot unfolds as follows: the vampire lord has been restlessly roaming the earth in torment for 400 years since he became undead, a punishment due to his blasphemous mourning following the loss of his wife, Elisabeta (an inaugural screen appearance for Zoë Bleu, the offspring of Rosanna Arquette). The count has sought relentlessly for a female who would be the rebirth of his lost love. By cruel fate, the fortunate female is revealed as Mina (also Bleu, of course), the modest betrothed of the count’s timid estate manager, Jonathan Harker (enacted by Ewens Abid), who has recently been to the vampire’s estate to negotiate his property portfolio and whose miniature portrait of the charming Mina caught the count’s hooded eye.
Besson’s Handling and Comic Flair
Besson structures Dracula’s flashback sequence of international journeys wearing flamboyant outfits confidently, and he doesn’t shy away from giving us humorous scenes with a distinctly Mel Brooks flavour – like the count’s repeated and futile attempts to commit suicide post-Elisabeta’s demise, along with comical sequences that result after Dracula applies to himself in a certain perfume in 18th-century Florence, which causes him to be compelling to the opposite sex. Outlandish but entertaining.
Dracula is available digitally from 1 December and on DVD and Blu-ray starting the twenty-second of December. It will be shown in Australian cinemas beginning on the fifth of February, 2026.
