by Katrina Woelke
A vampire who spent hundreds of years trying to find his wife who had died?!
I first heard about the new French Dracula: A Love Tale movie on TikTok. Lots of short edits set to various songs were showing up on my For You page. I knew that I couldn’t judge the movie based on these edits because the clips were each one second long, and any amount of editing can make a movie look bad or good. However, they gave me the urge to see it when it was released in early February.
I’ve always enjoyed romance as a subplot in movies and TV shows. The ones where two characters are friends for a long time and finally admit their feelings for each other. What I didn’t expect was to enjoy a full-on romance movie. While my overall rating is positive, this movie had its not-so-great moments. It starts with a montage of Prince Vladimir and his wife Elisabeta, which made me cringe and want to walk out of the theater. I decided to stick it out and watch the entire movie since I was already there.
One thing I didn’t expect to find in this movie was humor. A couple of laugh-out-loud moments happened that increased my faith that it was a watchable movie. At one point, Jonathan Harker is imprisoned in Dracula’s castle and the gargoyles abruptly drop the chain holding him in the air. He falls to the ground. Another moment that made me laugh was when Elisabeta told Dracula to leave and he moved to jump out the window, knowing that he’s immortal.
The music in the movie is fantastic. Danny Elfman, who has composed for movies like Edward Scissorhands, Alice in Wonderland, and The Nightmare Before Christmas, composed this soundtrack. He does a wonderful job creating a dark atmosphere with his music, adding a gothic ambience to the visuals.
The recurring theme of the music box gives the film a heartwarming vibe. Caleb Landry Jones and Zoë Bleu gave standout performances as Dracula and Elisabeta. I would never have guessed that Caleb is from Texas and has a southern accent. Both actors had to sort of play two different characters in this movie and I definitely felt that they were the two different characters.
Dracula: A Love Tale is available now in select theaters.
