DRACULA (2025)

4 stars

Signature Entertainment. Digital 1st December and DVD & Blu-ray 22nd December.

Aka: Dracula: A Love Tale

We recently had director Robert Eggers version of the prince of darkness in the shape of NOSFERATU and now we have an equally different take on the much filmed Bram Stoker book from visionary director Luc Besson (The Big Blue, The Fifth Element).

It opens in Eastern Europe in 1480. A couple are having a rollicking good time, making love, play fighting, eating – Prince Vlad (Caleb Landry Jones) and his beloved wife Elisabeta (Zoë Blue Sidel – daughter of Rosanna Arquette).

They are rudely interrupted during their latest lovemaking by his men – dressed in snazzy, stylised armour – as he is needed on the battleground. Their kingdom is the last bastion against the encroachment of the Muslims. The prince is blessed by the priest, and Vlad implores that God will spare his wife’s life.

As battle ensues, Elisabeta is being taken to safety when the men protecting her are attacked and killed – escaping across a snowy landscape she becomes trapped. Her husband rides to her rescue but she is sadly killed in the melee. Enraged by what has happened, he guts the priest, as his God has failed him…

Cut to 400 years later in Paris. Dr Dumont (Guillaume de Tonquédec) runs an asylum and he has a new, highly aggressive, female patient chained up in the depths of the facility. He takes a Priest (the ever reliable Christophe Waltz, his character remaining nameless, but clearly our Van Helsing substitute) to meet the ferocious Maria (Matilda de Angelis giving a full blooded performance) – her notes indicate she was born 130 years ago despite looking about 25 years old.

Before long our man of the cloth realises her master, who his order have been searching for for hundreds of years, is nearby and he has an opportunity to finally put an end to him.

This is a very distinctive version of the Dracula tale – whilst elements are familiar this goes its own way – a gothic romance, with the vampire lord developing a scent, as he travelled the world, in order to track down his wife, who he believes will be reincarnated. We even get a dance number as he is pursued by numerous females in the hope of finding his beloved. Then he is visited by Jonathan Harker (Ewens Abid), and he sees a picture of the solicitor’s fiancée…

With echoes of Coppola’s version, and maybe a soupçon of DANCE OF THE VAMPIRES, I suspect this latest interpretation will prove divisive – with interludes like Vlad trying to kill himself –unsuccessfully – and gargoyles coming to life as his servants, giving it an almost comical edge. Caleb Landry Jones makes for an imposing, creepy and tragic figure as the centuries old lord of darkness. Often visually stunning, this is a stylish re-imagination from Besson, who also wrote the script, underpinned with an at times over the top, at times lyrical score by Danny Elfman. More a tale of lost love than an out and out horror this does cross into terror territory in the finale. It has gorgeous cinematography by Colin Wandersman, capturing the often breathtaking scenery, art direction, sets and costumes.

Steve Kirkham