Dracula Movie Critique – The French Director’s Romantic Reinterpretation of the Timeless Gothic Tale is Ridiculous but Watchable
Maybe interest is limited for an updated adaptation of Dracula from Luc Besson, the French maestro for polished extravagance. However, it’s worth noting: his lavishly upholstered love story with vampires has ambition and panache – and with its B-movie charm, I might just favor over Eggers’s dignified recent take of Nosferatu. A few strange elements appear, such as a scene that appears to show a territorial boundary between France and Romania.
Christoph Waltz as a Witty Yet Careworn Clergyman Hunting Vampires
Christoph Waltz portrays a witty yet careworn man of the church pursuing the undead – I can’t believe he hasn’t played such a part earlier – who finds himself in Paris in 1889 during the centennial of the French Revolution. Likewise present is the evil Count Dracula, enacted by the body-horror veteran Caleb Landry Jones speaking in a twisted regional dialect similar to Carell’s Gru character of the Despicable Me series. This character suits him perfectly.
The Plot: A Tale of Love and Loss
The story is this: Dracula has traveled ceaselessly the earth in anguish for 400 years since he became undead, a punishment for his irreligious grief over the death of his wife, Elisabeta (a movie debut role for Zoë Bleu, Rosanna Arquette’s child). Dracula has been searching, searching, searching for a female who could be the reincarnation of his deceased partner. Unfortunately, the chosen woman turns out to be Mina (again played by Bleu), the reserved future wife of the count’s timid estate manager, Jonathan Harker (played by Ewens Abid), who has recently been to the count’s castle to negotiate his land assets and the tiny painting of the winsome Mina caught the count’s hooded eye.
The Filmmaker’s Approach and Humorous Style
Besson structures Dracula’s middle-section history of international journeys sporting extravagant attire confidently, and he doesn’t shy away from providing some comedy moments reminiscent of Mel Brooks – for example the count’s repeated and futile attempts to commit suicide following Elisabeta’s passing, along with farcical scenes that occur when Dracula douses himself in a certain perfume in historic Florence, which causes him to be irresistible to women. Outlandish but entertaining.
Dracula can be streamed online beginning on the first of December and for physical purchase from December 22nd. It screens in Australian cinemas beginning on the fifth of February, 2026.
