Luc Besson's Dracula, 2025

[00:00:00][music] >> Give me this.

[00:00:05]>> Welcome back to Dark Corners Streaming.

[00:00:07]>> Count Dracula, at your service.

[00:00:10]>> By popular request, we're having a look at Luc Besson's Dracula, which is very much Luc Besson's wild, visually flashy, >> Is anybody here?

[00:00:24]>> and more camp than the Caravan Club.

[00:00:27]>> More blood, please.

[00:00:29]>> And your response to this largely depends on your taste. I found it a mixed bag, but let's get my main issue out of the way up top.

[00:00:38]Besson said that the original novel is a love story about a man who loses his wife and waits 400 years for her, strongly suggesting he hasn't read the novel, but he has seen Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula and really liked it.

[00:00:55]Seriously.

[00:00:58]Initially, this does seem like a straight remake. So, Luc Besson's Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula. Opening with the origins of Vlad Drakul as he tragically loses his beloved wife Elizabeta.

[00:01:13]And although this happens right at the start, I'm not going to reveal how she dies because firstly, it's hilarious, and secondly, it undermines the whole rest of the film. Anyway, as per >> Tell your god that until he brings me back my wife, my life no longer belongs to him.

[00:01:33]>> 400 years later, Christoph Waltz is priest, vampire hunter, >> What exactly did I capture?

[00:01:40]>> A vampire.

[00:01:41]>> and Van Helsing by any other name, faced with a captured vampire who is bride and Renfield rolled into one.

[00:01:51]And in case you think I have nothing good to say, I love this scene. I think Waltz is great throughout, and if this was a reboot of Van Helsing rather than Dracula, I would be on board.

[00:02:02]>> In another book it's mentioned that cloves of garlic will cause it to flee.

[00:02:06]I doubt this method is effective.

[00:02:08]>> You must be doing it wrong. What you need is garlic, a lot of garlic, garlic up to your ass.

[00:02:13]>> Do you have a crucifix with you?

[00:02:14]>> Returning to Dracula and the best loved part of that story, Jonathan Harker hits the usual moments.

[00:02:21]>> God Dracula >> before taking a sharp left-hand turn.

[00:02:28]>> Tell me your story.

[00:02:30]>> If you're going to try to do an original version of one of cinema's most ubiquitous names, then why not look at a period that no one ever covers? How did Dracula end up a lonely old man in a castle? What was he doing beforehand?

[00:02:43]>> There's a fragrance that I developed for over a century.

[00:02:47]>> I bet nobody guessed perfume maker. And it's hard not to wonder if this is a reference to Bela Lugosi in The Devil Bat. Sidebar, I also wondered if this is a reference [music] to The Show, a less well-known film from 1931 Dracula director Tod Browning.

[00:03:04]Just a thought.

[00:03:06]The perfume attracts women and >> [music] >> now it's become the favorite.

[00:03:15]I thought this section was great. Sadly, we're soon back to remaking Coppola.

[00:03:21]>> Mina Mina Murray >> and the across-the-centuries love story that I always find so tedious.

[00:03:30]>> Have we met before?

[00:03:31]In a dream, perhaps.

[00:03:33]>> And irritating because love is always used as a reason I should invest in and sympathize with this mass murderer and I don't. Dracula is a monster, not a romantic hero.

[00:03:47]The madness does return, but it's no fun this time.

[00:03:50]>> Do you think God will forgive us for loving each other so much?

[00:03:54]>> In summary, this starts as Bram Stoker's Dracula, pivots into period vampire romp, back to Coppola, then tacks on the climax of A MARVEL FILM.

[00:04:07]IRONICALLY, I DO wish this was more Luc Besson's Dracula. When it's just his ideas, then it's mad and all the better for it. But when it's his dubious interpretation of Stoker, then it's dull.

[00:04:21]>> That man is a hematophagous.

[00:04:23]>> I would happily watch Christoph Waltz's vampire hunter for 90 minutes, especially accompanied by Matilda De Angelis, who is pleasingly bonkers.

[00:04:35]Equally, the untold history of Dracula would be great if it was this insane rather than Universal's po-faced attempt to, again, make him sympathetic. There was also a moment at the start when I thought Vlad and Elizabeth were going to be psychopaths.

[00:04:53]>> [screaming] >> That might have worked. It's the forcing sympathy that ruins it every time.

[00:04:59]>> And my beloved, was the purest of them all.

[00:05:04]>> My problem with Luc Besson's Dracula is that every time it feels the need to be Dracula, it reveals that he never read the book but skimmed a synopsis of a film that wasn't that close to it, either.

[00:05:15]>> I'm just a poor soul condemned by God.

[00:05:17]>> There's always room for another Dracula and to each their own. This one mostly wasn't for me.

[00:05:24]>> [laughter] >> Thanks for watching. Please like and subscribe. I think I'm right in saying there is still no cinematic Dracula that sticks to Stoker, which is weird when there are so many films. What are your thoughts on this latest one and any other favorites? Let us know in the comments below.