Dracula Review – Besson’s Love-Struck Revamp of the Gothic Classic is Ridiculous but Watchable

Perhaps audiences aren’t clamoring for a new version of Dracula from Luc Besson, the celebrated French director for polished extravagance. However, it’s worth noting: his richly designed love story with vampires displays creativity and style – and in all its Hammer-y cheesiness, I’m not sure I wouldn’t prefer over Eggers’s dignified recent take of Nosferatu. A few strange elements appear, such as a scene that appears to show a geographic divide between France and Romania.

Waltz as a Clever but Weary Vampire-Hunting Priest

Christoph Waltz embodies a witty yet careworn vampire-hunting priest – it’s surprising he never took on this character previously – who ends up in Paris in 1889 during the centennial of the French Revolution. Likewise present is the evil Count Dracula, brought to life by the seasoned horror actor Caleb Landry Jones speaking in a twisted regional dialect evoking Steve Carell’s Gru in the Despicable Me films. This character suits him perfectly.

The Story: A Saga of Heartbreak

Here’s the premise: the count has wandered endlessly the earth in torment over four centuries after his transformation into a vampire, a penalty for his irreligious grief following the loss of his spouse Elisabeta (a movie debut role for Zoë Bleu, the offspring of Rosanna Arquette). Dracula has sought relentlessly for a female who might be the reincarnation of his lost love. By cruel fate, the fortunate female is revealed as Mina (again played by Bleu), the reserved future wife of Dracula’s feeble property handler, Jonathan Harker (Ewens Abid), who lately visited to Dracula’s fortress to discuss his land assets and whose miniature portrait of the winsome Mina caught the count’s hooded eye.

Besson’s Handling and Comic Flair

Besson arranges Dracula’s second-act backstory of international journeys sporting extravagant attire with a sure hand, and he doesn’t shy away from offering humorous scenes with a distinctly Mel Brooks flavour – for example the vampire’s constant unsuccessful tries to end his own life following Elisabeta’s passing, along with farcical scenes that follow Dracula applies to himself with a specific fragrance during the 1700s in Florence, that renders him irresistible to women. Outlandish but entertaining.

Dracula is available digitally beginning on the first of December and for physical purchase from 22 December. It will be shown in Australian cinemas starting February 5, 2026.