Dracula Movie Critique – Besson’s Passionate Revamp of the Classic Horror Story is Absurd but Engaging
Maybe audiences aren’t clamoring for an updated adaptation of Dracula from Luc Besson, the celebrated French director for stylish excess. And yet, it has to be said: his opulently crafted love story with vampires has ambition and panache – and in all its Hammer-y cheesiness, I might just favor to it to Robert Eggers’s recent, solemnly classy version of Nosferatu. A few strange elements appear, such as a scene that looks like it presents a land border between France and Romania.
The Veteran Actor as a Witty Yet Careworn Vampire-Hunting Priest
Christoph Waltz embodies a humorous yet burdened vampire-hunting priest – it’s surprising he never took on this character previously – who finds himself in Paris in 1889 for the French Revolution centenary celebrations. Likewise present is the malevolent vampire count, brought to life by the expert in grotesque roles Caleb Landry Jones speaking in a twisted regional dialect similar to Carell’s Gru character in the Despicable Me films. It’s a role suits him perfectly.
The Story: A Chronicle of Longing
Here’s the premise: the vampire lord has been restlessly roaming the globe in sorrow for 400 years since he became undead, a punishment for his irreligious grief following the loss of his spouse Elisabeta (a first film part for Zoë Bleu, the offspring of Rosanna Arquette). The count has been searching, searching, searching for a lady who might be the return of his departed beloved. By cruel fate, the lucky lady is revealed as Mina (portrayed once more by Bleu), the reserved future wife of Dracula’s wimpish land agent, Jonathan Harker (enacted by Ewens Abid), who has recently been to the vampire’s estate to review his real estate holdings and the tiny painting of the winsome Mina caught the count’s hooded eye.
The Filmmaker’s Approach and Lighthearted Touch
Besson organizes Dracula’s flashback sequence of global roaming wearing flamboyant outfits confidently, and he doesn’t shy away from providing some comedy moments in the style of Mel Brooks – like the count’s repeated and futile attempts to commit suicide post-Elisabeta’s demise, in addition to comical sequences that follow Dracula applies to himself using a particular scent in 18th-century Florence, that renders him irresistible to women. Absurd yet engaging.
Dracula is available digitally starting December 1st and on DVD and Blu-ray from 22 December. It will be shown in Australian cinemas starting February 5, 2026.
