So here’s the thing about Luc Besson’s Dracula. It’s not bad. In fact, as you would expect from Besson, the film has stunning visuals and impressive performances. Yet something is missing. Besson gives the story what he can in the way of freshness, switching London for Paris, and adding a new sense of magic, and stressing the romance. But the film still struggles to bring new life to the story.
The story opens in the 15th century with Vlad (Caleb Landry Jones) returning to his castle after fighting a war in the name of God. While quick to demand his creation go to war, God neglects to watch over Vlad’s wife Elisabeta (Zoë Bleu) who dies during the conflict. Upon hearing this news, Vlad denounces God, is cursed, gains eternal life, and vows to find his beloved once more. This is the part in the story that always lost me. To his credit, Besson spends the time to explain Vlad’s belief in reincarnation and the recycling of souls which would, hopefully, allow Vlad to circumvent nature and reunite with his love. Besson excels in highlighting the mad romance that courses through the heart of this tired story. It’s not enough to make it feel new, but you at least kind of get it.
Centuries fly by and Vlad has been sustaining himself on the blood of the living in his remote castle. After Vlad purchases a new piece of Real Estate in Paris, Jonathan (Ewens Abid) is sent to Vlad’s remote abode to have documents signed. When Vlad discovers that Jonathan’s fiancé, Mina, resembles his long lost love Elisabeta, He locks Jonathan up and heads to Paris to reclaim his reincarnated love. The story is loopy as all hell but it is classic gothic romance and a classic.
In Paris the real action commences. Vlad arrives in the city of love and begins stalking Jonathan’s beloved in hopes of jarring a memory of her past life. He bites and infects Mina’s best friend Maria (Matilda De Angelis) in hopes of using Maria as a wingman, as it were. Meanwhile a Priest (Christoph Waltz), assisted by Dumont (Guillaume de Tonquédec) have begun tracking Vlad to stop him from harming anyone further and infecting the world with his blood-sucking curse.
There are a few “interesting” changes to the story. Here Dracula is given magical powers that transform anyone under his spell into whatever he pleases. For instance, there is an inexplicable collection of gargoyles that roam the castle, doing Vlad’s bidding. It’s weird, it echo’s Disney’s Beauty and the Beast and Hunchback, and brings an unwelcome silliness to the story. The other new rule is that once the main vampire, Vlad, is killed his magic and his curse dies with him. Forgive me but, WTF? This almost completely destroys the stakes (sorry) of getting bitten and becoming a vampire.
The real curse here is that the story of Dracula is so familiar, so overdone, that it would take a miracle to make it exciting. Besson does deliver a beautiful film. Jones is, honestly, chilling as the latest version of Dracula. Waltz is Waltz, and the makeup effects are wonderfully designed, crafted, and photographed. Yet this Dracula is still, for better or worse, Dracula. It’s bloody, familiar, beautiful to look at, but hardly as visceral as a fresh story.
