Dracula Movie Critique – Besson’s Passionate Revamp of the Classic Horror Story is Ridiculous but Entertaining

Perhaps there is no great enthusiasm for a new version of Dracula from Luc Besson, the filmmaker known for stylish excess. And yet, it’s worth noting: his richly designed romantic vampire tale has ambition and panache – and with its B-movie charm, I might just favor compared with Robert Eggers’s recent, solemnly classy version of Nosferatu. There are some very bizarre touches, including one shot 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 clever but beleaguered vampire-hunting priest – it’s surprising he never took on this character previously – who finds himself in Paris in 1889 for the French Revolution centenary celebrations. Likewise present is the evil Count Dracula, brought to life by the expert in grotesque roles Caleb Landry Jones speaking in a twisted regional dialect evoking the voice of Gru by Steve Carell of the Despicable Me series. This character that he too was born to take on.

The Story: A Saga of Heartbreak

The story is this: the count has been restlessly roaming the earth in anguish over four centuries since he became undead, a consequence for his irreligious grief over the death of his beloved Elisabeta (an inaugural screen appearance for Zoë Bleu, Rosanna Arquette’s child). the vampire has looked tirelessly for some woman who could be the return of his lost love. By cruel fate, the chosen woman is revealed as Mina (also Bleu, of course), the modest betrothed of Dracula’s feeble property handler, Jonathan Harker (Ewens Abid), who lately visited to the count’s castle to review his real estate holdings and whose miniature portrait of the winsome Mina drew the vampire’s attention.

Besson’s Handling and Comic Flair

Besson arranges Dracula’s second-act backstory of worldwide travels in various outrageous costumes skillfully, and he willingly includes offering some comedy moments in the style of Mel Brooks – like Dracula’s ongoing failed efforts to commit suicide after Elisabeta’s death, as well as comical sequences that result after Dracula applies to himself with a specific fragrance in 18th-century Florence, that renders him compelling to the opposite sex. Absurd yet engaging.

Dracula can be streamed online beginning on the first of December and on DVD and Blu-ray starting the twenty-second of December. It will be shown in Australian cinemas beginning on the fifth of February, 2026.