Dracula Review – The French Director’s Passionate Reimagining of the Gothic Classic is Outlandish but Watchable
It’s possible interest is limited for a new version of Dracula from Luc Besson, the celebrated French director for glossiness and bloat. However, it has to be said: his opulently crafted love story with vampires boasts bold vision and flair – and amid its theatrical camp, it could be preferable over Eggers’s dignified recent take of Nosferatu. Odd details emerge, such as a scene that appears to show a territorial boundary between France and Romania.
Waltz as a Humorously Exhausted Priest Tracking the Undead
Christoph Waltz portrays a humorous yet burdened cleric fighting vampires – it’s surprising he never took on this character previously – who arrives in Paris in 1889 to mark the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution. The same goes for the sinister Dracula, enacted by the seasoned horror actor Caleb Landry Jones using a distorted Eastern European tone evoking the voice of Gru by Steve Carell of the Despicable Me series. It’s a role that he too was born to take on.
The Narrative: A Tale of Love and Loss
The story is this: Dracula has wandered endlessly the earth in torment for 400 years since he became undead, a punishment for his irreligious grief following the loss of his spouse Elisabeta (an inaugural screen appearance for Zoë Bleu, the offspring of Rosanna Arquette). Dracula has sought relentlessly for some woman who would be the return of his departed beloved. As ill fortune would have it, the lucky lady turns out to be Mina (also Bleu, of course), the reserved future wife of Dracula’s feeble property handler, Jonathan Harker (Ewens Abid), who just traveled to the count’s castle to discuss his property portfolio and whose miniature portrait of the winsome Mina attracted Dracula’s gaze.
Besson’s Handling and Comic Flair
Besson structures Dracula’s second-act backstory of international journeys in various outrageous costumes with a sure hand, and he is not above offering humorous scenes with a distinctly Mel Brooks flavour – like the count’s repeated and futile attempts to kill himself post-Elisabeta’s demise, in addition to comical sequences that occur when Dracula applies to himself in a certain perfume in historic Florence, which causes him to be unavoidably attractive to females. Outlandish but entertaining.
Dracula is on digital platforms from 1 December and on DVD and Blu-ray starting the twenty-second of December. It screens in Australian cinemas from 5 February 2026.