Dracula review

DRACULA (DRACULA: A LOVE TALE): 

LUC BESSON CRAFTS A DECENT CREATURE OF THE NIGHT! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

VERTICAL ENTERTAINMENT

Caleb Landry Jones is Dracula

 

            Director Luc Besson (The Fifth Element, Léon: The Professional, Lucy) brings his take on the iconic vampire to the screen in his film version of Dracula or known as Dracula: A Love Tale in other territories. There have been countless adaptations of Bram Stoker’s novel over the past several decades with easily the most famous one being the classic 1931 Universal Monsters film version starring Bela Lugosi. 

            However, other film adaptations of Dracula have become icons in their own rights such as Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula from 1992 with Gary Oldman portraying the titular vampire and was closer to the book than other versions. I guess Luc Besson felt the need to throw his hat into the ring in terms of Dracula reimaginings especially after Guillermo del Toro’s masterful reimagining of Frankenstein last year or Robert Eggers’ adaptation of Nosferatu with this being my first review of a Besson movie since 2017’s Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets if you could believe it. 

            So, how does this imaginative and ambitious albeit hit-or-miss filmmaker do on bringing Dracula to life…it’s not bad! I don’t think this is a great film or one of the all-time best Dracula adaptations, but I admire a lot of what Besson put into it. 

            When a 15^th century prince (Caleb Landry Jones-X-Men: First Class, Get Out, The Florida Project) witnesses the brutal murder of his wife (Zoë Bleu-Battle for Terra, The Institute, Gonzo Girl), he renounces God and damns heaven itself resulting in him being cursed to become an eternal bloodthirsty creature of the night known as Count Dracula. As Dracula begins a blood-soaked crusade to bring his love back from the dead, he is hunted by a relentless priest (Christoph Waltz-Inglourious Basterds, Django Unchained, Big Eyes) who is sworn to end the Count’s immortal rage. 

            Overall, Dracula doesn’t really add much new blood to the classic story, but it’s a decently crafted retelling with impressive production design and solid performances by Jones and Waltz. However, unlike other Dracula adaptations, this one focuses more on the love story than the horror…normally I would call this unique if Bram Stoker’s Draculadidn’t already do this in 1992, Hell, Caleb Landry Jones even looks like Gary Oldman’s Dracula early on in the film. 

            Okay, it’s not a new idea, but I’m willing to let that slide if it’s done well and for the most part it is. I was invested in what was going on and didn’t fully know where the film was going even though it does hit a lot of the same beats as other Dracula adaptations with Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula being the obvious inspiration for it in terms of look, style, and tone. 

            What kept me intrigued was the introduction of a woman 400 years after the prince renounces God who looks exactly like his dead wife (Also played by Bleu) whom Dracula sets his eyes on. Throughout the movie, I wasn’t sure what angle or approach they would take with this if she would just be a doppelganger or a reincarnation of the deceased princess, kind of like when Patricia Velasquez played a reincarnation of her Mummy character in the sequel to that. 

            The production design is very impressive and dripping with gothic atmosphere, the scenes set either inside or outside Dracula’s castle are my favorites as I was relishing in the craftsmanship and scale of those scenes. Bottom line, Dracula’s castle looked great on the big screen…can’t say the same for the green screens and CGI gargoyles though! 

            Dracula’s gargoyles were computer generated and they look awful in both animation and design. With this gritty and dreary Dracula movie and all of a sudden there are cartoon gargoyles that look like they’re ripped straight out of Disney’s Gargoyles series or even their film version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, I get this isn’t a major Hollywood production and from an independent distributor but look at A24’s Ex-Machina, indie film with a smaller budget compared to big blockbusters yet it still has far more convincing CGI than this. 

            The movie is also too long and there are times where it drags and takes a long time to get to the point. It’s a 2 hour and 9 minute movie, but you can easily shave 30 minutes off of it and fix up the pacing. 

            Despite its shortcomings, Caleb Landry Jones and Christoph Waltz are great as Dracula and the Priest (Essentially the Van Helsing stand-in). Jones gives a solid performance as Dracula and brings that tragic angst and sophisticated charm you’d associate with the character even if his portrayal does come off as an imitation of Gary Oldman from Bram Stoker’s Dracula, he’s good in the movie but the comparisons to Oldman are kind of a disservice to him despite his efforts. 

            Christoph Waltz as the Van Helsing-type character was THE reason for me to go see it, he is one of my favorite actors and I got excited the moment I saw him in the trailer. I thought he was perfectly cast in the role as this cool and confident priest who’s determined to uncover the vampires’ lore that’s been hidden in the world for 400 years. 

            Luc Besson’s Dracula is a perfectly fine take on the vampire that probably won’t sit among the all-time best adaptations of Dracula, but if you’re curious about it (Like I was), I’d say it’s worth sinking your teeth into at least once. However, if you’re looking for a really unique take on Dracula that takes the story in new directions, might I recommend Dracula 2000 or The Last Voyage of the Demeter?