The sleep of reason gives birth to an monster, according to the title of one of the best -known works of the Spanish exceptional francisco de Goya. If you look at the political major weather situation and the increasing breaking of the regular post-war order, one should hardly be surprised that in the horror cinema, irrational monsters, vampires and mixed beings are currently being ranked of the slasher film that is optimized late capitalistically. Even “Weapons”, probably the horror hype of 2025, is no longer looking for the horror in hard economic realities, but in a diffuse omnipresent, irrational and primeval threat.
Robert Eggers heralded the return of the classic monsters at the end of 2024 with his beer-serial monochrome surprise hit “Nosferatu-the undead”. As we have known since the universal monster films of the 1930s, the hammer studios productions from the late 1950s or the big budget articles of the 1990s, a monster rarely comes alone: At the end of August, Guillermo del Toros celebrates shot for Netflix at the film festival in Venice World Premiere, “Nosferatu” directors Eggers takes the next step to a werewolf fabric, and with “Dracula” by the author filmmaker Radu Jude, the first Romanian version of the fabric is in the house.
Prince Vladimir alias Graf Dracula (Caleb Landry Jones) mourned after centuries to his adored Elisabeta (Zoë Bleu).
But before that, Luc Besson sends his “Dracula – The Resurrection” into the race. The “León-The Professional” director was financially struck after the flop of “Valerian-the city of the thousand planets” (2017) and was then confronted with allegations of rape, of which he was acquitted. In 2023 he reported relatively successfully with the outsider ballad “Dogman”. The collaboration with main actor Caleb Landry Jones went so well that he can now put himself in the more or less illustrious series of the Dracula interpreter.
The story is known and quickly told: At the behest of the church, Prince Vladimir is fighting against Christian enemies in Romania, which his adored Elisabeta (Zoë Bleu) cannot protect against death. Disappointed by the church and abandoned by the cross, he renounces God and turns into an eternally sibling blood sucker. When he believes the reincarnation of the deceased lover in the fiance of his lawyer 400 years later in his castle as part of a real estate deal in the fiancee of his lawyer, he packs his suitcase towards Paris.
Francis Ford Coppolas “Dracula” was obviously the inspiration
Already in the very first seconds of this new film adaptation, the impression that you already had after the trailer is confirmed: Besson probably looked too much Francis Ford Coppola's “Dracula” film from 1992. Costumes, pictures, colors, course of action, even Danny Elfman's booming orchestral score seem to be punched off from Coppola's film, thrown into the blender and stirred indiscriminately. The fact that this does not only result in inedible mud is due to the energy, the vigor and a beneficial carefree, with which Besson mixes the well -known ingredients. If Coppola's film was a highly stylized, strictly composed baroque opera, Besson pulls the fabric as an operetta or a musical, always between pathos and parody, serious and complete madness.
The first appearance of Dracula in the castle is symbolized, where he greets Harker standing in Spotlight, like a drag queen with wig problems that starts with her lipsynch appearance. Besson is to be kept in this context that he is not afraid of contact with Camp and, free and happy, simply slams everything on the canvas, which he just comes up with. In his fantasy world, Romania borders on France, loosens from stone facades to combat Dracula's pursuers, and masses of bare nuns unite into an organism that grabs Dracula.
As a van-Helsing-Stand-in, one of its best achievements has been delivered in a long time: Oscar winner and “Inglourious Basterds” star Christoph Waltz.
Even if dramaturgical and aesthetic stringz are missing, he always succeeds impressive pictures. In times when even fantastic fabrics indulge in a often misguided realism, this is refreshing. The actors have no easy stand in the rather undisciplined direction. Landry Jones adapts well to the frayed rhythm of the film in the course of the plot, even if he does not succeed in the leading role. The love interests remain pale. Christoph Waltz as a priest and van-Helsing-stand in one of his best roles has been convincing for some time.
Here the two-time Oscar winner (“Inglourious Basterds”, “Django Unchained”) looks a bit like an English lord that fell into a continental paths and does not really know whether he should participate, have fun or sneak away. Despite the bloody insoles and bizarre pictures, Besson's “Dracula” is not a particularly terrifying film. As with Coppola, the cross-border and time love Besson's topic is, and- despite weaknesses in the action, he declines it seriously, touching and passionate. It is precisely this kind of almost naive passion without malice that makes his film worth seeing despite all the fractures and shows that elementary topics and questions can be watered in colorful genre films full of imaginative Schabernacks.
Conclusion: Luc Besson was obviously inspired by Francis Ford Coppola's opulent 90s version for his “Dracula”. What he lacks in narrative stringz, he makes up for the camp with pleasure at the camp, staging energy and limitless Wahnwitz.