Maybe interest is limited for a new version of Dracula from Luc Besson, the French maestro for stylish excess. Still, one must admit: his lavishly upholstered vampire romance boasts bold vision and flair – and in all its Hammer-y cheesiness, I might just favor over Robert Eggers’s recent, solemnly classy version of Nosferatu. There are some very bizarre touches, including one shot that seems to depict a geographic divide between France and Romania.
Christoph Waltz plays a clever but beleaguered vampire-hunting priest – it’s surprising he never took on this character previously – who ends up in Paris in 1889 for the French Revolution centenary celebrations. Likewise present is the evil Count Dracula, played by the seasoned horror actor Caleb Landry Jones with a mangled central European accent evoking Steve Carell’s Gru from the Despicable Me comedies. This is a part that he too was born to take on.
The plot unfolds as follows: the vampire lord has wandered endlessly the globe in anguish over four centuries following his rise as one of the undead, a punishment due to his blasphemous mourning following the loss of his spouse Elisabeta (a first film part for Zoë Bleu, daughter of Rosanna Arquette). the vampire has looked tirelessly for a lady who might be the rebirth of his lost love. By cruel fate, the chosen woman is revealed as Mina (also Bleu, of course), the reserved future wife of Dracula’s wimpish land agent, Jonathan Harker (played by Ewens Abid), who just traveled to Dracula’s fortress to negotiate his property portfolio and whose miniature portrait of the charming Mina drew the vampire’s attention.
Besson arranges Dracula’s middle-section history of international journeys sporting extravagant attire confidently, and he doesn’t shy away from giving us humorous scenes in the style of Mel Brooks – such as the count’s repeated and futile attempts to commit suicide after Elisabeta’s death, as well as comical sequences that result after Dracula sprays himself with a specific fragrance during the 1700s in Florence, which causes him to be unavoidably attractive to females. Absurd yet engaging.
Dracula is on digital platforms starting December 1st and for physical purchase from December 22nd. It will be shown in Australian cinemas from 5 February 2026.
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