Dracula Review – Besson’s Love-Struck Reinterpretation of the Timeless Gothic Tale is Absurd but Watchable

Maybe there is no great enthusiasm for a new version of Dracula from Luc Besson, the celebrated French director for stylish excess. And yet, it has to be said: his lavishly upholstered love story with vampires displays creativity and style – and with its B-movie charm, it could be preferable over Robert Eggers’s recent, solemnly classy version of Nosferatu. There are some very bizarre touches, like a particular moment that seems to depict a geographic divide between France and Romania.

Waltz as a Clever but Weary Clergyman Hunting Vampires

Christoph Waltz portrays a humorous yet burdened cleric fighting vampires – I can’t believe he hasn’t played such a part earlier – who ends up in Paris in 1889 to mark the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution. Likewise present is the sinister Dracula, enacted by the body-horror veteran Caleb Landry Jones speaking in a twisted regional dialect reminiscent of Steve Carell’s Gru from the Despicable Me comedies. This character he seemed destined to play.

The Narrative: A Chronicle of Longing

The story is this: the count has traveled ceaselessly the world in anguish for hundreds of years following his rise as one of the undead, a penalty due to his blasphemous mourning after the passing of his spouse Elisabeta (a movie debut role for Zoë Bleu, Rosanna Arquette’s child). The count has looked tirelessly for some woman who could be the return of his lost love. By cruel fate, the chosen woman is revealed as Mina (again played by Bleu), the demure fiancee of Dracula’s wimpish land agent, Jonathan Harker (enacted by Ewens Abid), who lately visited to the count’s castle to discuss his property portfolio and the tiny painting of the charming Mina drew the vampire’s attention.

Besson’s Direction and Lighthearted Touch

Besson arranges Dracula’s flashback sequence of international journeys sporting extravagant attire confidently, and he is not above giving us humorous scenes in the style of Mel Brooks – like Dracula’s ongoing failed efforts to commit suicide following Elisabeta’s passing, as well as farcical scenes that follow Dracula douses himself in a certain perfume in 18th-century Florence, which makes him irresistible to women. Ridiculous and watchable.

Dracula can be streamed online starting December 1st and on DVD and Blu-ray starting the twenty-second of December. It will be shown in Australian cinemas beginning on the fifth of February, 2026.