Dracula Movie Critique – Luc Besson’s Romantic Reimagining of the Gothic Classic is Absurd but Engaging
It’s possible interest is limited for a new version of Dracula from Luc Besson, the French maestro for polished extravagance. Still, it has to be said: his lavishly upholstered love story with vampires has ambition and panache – and with its B-movie charm, I’m not sure I wouldn’t prefer over Robert Eggers’s recent, solemnly classy version of Nosferatu. There are some very bizarre touches, like a particular moment that appears to show a territorial boundary between France and Romania.
Christoph Waltz as a Clever but Weary Vampire-Hunting Priest
Christoph Waltz portrays a humorous yet burdened cleric fighting vampires – it feels natural for him to tackle this role before – who arrives in Paris in 1889 for the French Revolution centenary celebrations. Likewise present is the sinister Dracula, played by the seasoned horror actor Caleb Landry Jones with a mangled central European accent evoking Carell’s Gru character from the Despicable Me comedies. This character he seemed destined to play.
The Story: A Chronicle of Longing
The plot unfolds as follows: the count has traveled ceaselessly the globe in sorrow for hundreds of years since he became undead, a punishment for his faithless sorrow over the death of his beloved Elisabeta (a first film part for Zoë Bleu, the offspring of Rosanna Arquette). the vampire has looked tirelessly for a female who would be the return of his deceased partner. By cruel fate, the chosen woman turns out to be Mina (also Bleu, of course), the reserved future wife of the count’s timid estate manager, Jonathan Harker (enacted by Ewens Abid), who has recently been to the count’s castle to review his real estate holdings and whose miniature portrait of the lovely Mina drew the vampire’s attention.
Besson’s Handling and Comic Flair
Besson organizes Dracula’s second-act backstory of global roaming sporting extravagant attire skillfully, and he willingly includes providing humorous scenes reminiscent of Mel Brooks – for example Dracula’s ongoing failed efforts to end his own life after Elisabeta’s death, in addition to comical sequences that result after Dracula applies to himself with a specific fragrance in 18th-century Florence, which makes him compelling to the opposite sex. Absurd yet engaging.
Dracula is available digitally from 1 December and for physical purchase starting the twenty-second of December. It screens in Australian cinemas from 5 February 2026.
