Dracula Movie Critique – Besson’s Love-Struck Reimagining of the Gothic Classic is Ridiculous but Entertaining
Maybe interest is limited for a new version of Dracula from Luc Besson, the French maestro for stylish excess. And yet, it’s worth noting: his richly designed vampire romance has ambition and panache – and with its B-movie charm, it could be preferable compared with Robert Eggers’s recent, solemnly classy version of Nosferatu. Odd details emerge, including one shot that appears to show a geographic divide between France and Romania.
Christoph Waltz as a Witty Yet Careworn Vampire-Hunting Priest
Christoph Waltz embodies a witty yet careworn vampire-hunting priest – it’s surprising he never took on such a part earlier – who arrives in Paris in 1889 during the centennial of the French Revolution. Likewise present is the evil Count Dracula, played by the body-horror veteran Caleb Landry Jones with a mangled central European accent similar to Steve Carell’s Gru from the Despicable Me comedies. It’s a role that he too was born to take on.
The Plot: A Saga of Heartbreak
The story is this: the count has been restlessly roaming the earth in torment over four centuries after his transformation into a vampire, a penalty for his faithless sorrow over the death of his beloved Elisabeta (an inaugural screen appearance for Zoë Bleu, the offspring of Rosanna Arquette). Dracula has been searching, searching, searching for a female who could be the rebirth of his lost love. Unfortunately, the chosen woman is revealed as Mina (again played by Bleu), the demure fiancee of the count’s timid estate manager, 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 drew the vampire’s attention.
The Filmmaker’s Approach and Humorous Style
Besson arranges Dracula’s flashback sequence of international journeys in various outrageous costumes confidently, and he willingly includes giving us funny bits in the style of Mel Brooks – such as Dracula’s ongoing failed efforts to kill himself following Elisabeta’s passing, along with farcical scenes that follow Dracula applies to himself with a specific fragrance in 18th-century Florence, which makes him unavoidably attractive to females. Ridiculous and watchable.
Dracula is on digital platforms beginning on the first of December and in disc format from 22 December. It plays in Australian cinemas from 5 February 2026.
