Dracula Movie Critique – The French Director’s Romantic Revamp of the Gothic Classic is Ridiculous but Engaging
It’s possible interest is limited for an updated adaptation of Dracula from Luc Besson, the filmmaker known for polished extravagance. And yet, it’s worth noting: his lavishly upholstered romantic vampire tale displays creativity and style – and with its B-movie charm, it could be preferable over the recent, stately interpretation by Robert Eggers of Nosferatu. Odd details emerge, including one shot that looks like it presents 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 – it feels natural for him to tackle this character previously – who finds himself in Paris in 1889 during the centennial of the French Revolution. So does the malevolent vampire count, enacted by the body-horror veteran Caleb Landry Jones speaking in a twisted regional dialect evoking Steve Carell’s Gru of the Despicable Me series. This character suits him perfectly.
The Plot: A Chronicle of Longing
Here’s the premise: the vampire lord has been restlessly roaming the globe in anguish for hundreds of years after his transformation into a vampire, a penalty for his faithless sorrow over the death of his beloved Elisabeta (a first film part for Zoë Bleu, the offspring of Rosanna Arquette). Dracula has sought relentlessly for some woman who might be the return of his departed beloved. As ill fortune would have it, the chosen woman turns out to be Mina (portrayed once more by Bleu), the modest betrothed of the count’s timid estate manager, Jonathan Harker (enacted by Ewens Abid), who lately visited to the count’s castle to discuss his land assets and whose miniature portrait of the lovely Mina drew the vampire’s attention.
The Filmmaker’s Approach and Comic Flair
Besson arranges Dracula’s flashback sequence of worldwide travels wearing flamboyant outfits confidently, and he is not above giving us funny bits reminiscent of Mel Brooks – like the count’s repeated and futile attempts to end his own life post-Elisabeta’s demise, along with farcical scenes that follow Dracula douses himself in a certain perfume in 18th-century Florence, which causes him to be unavoidably attractive to females. Absurd yet engaging.
Dracula can be streamed online from 1 December and on DVD and Blu-ray from 22 December. It plays in Australian cinemas from 5 February 2026.
