Dracula Review – Besson’s Love-Struck Reinterpretation of the Classic Horror Story is Absurd but Engaging

Perhaps audiences aren’t clamoring for an updated adaptation of Dracula from Luc Besson, the celebrated French director for glossiness and bloat. Still, it’s worth noting: his opulently crafted vampire romance has ambition and panache – and with its B-movie charm, it could be preferable compared with Robert Eggers’s recent, solemnly classy version of Nosferatu. There are some very bizarre touches, including one shot that looks like it presents a geographic divide between France and Romania.

The Veteran Actor as a Humorously Exhausted Vampire-Hunting Priest

Christoph Waltz embodies a humorous yet burdened vampire-hunting priest – it’s surprising he never took on such a part earlier – who finds himself in Paris in 1889 during the centennial of the French Revolution. So does the sinister Dracula, brought to life by the expert in grotesque roles Caleb Landry Jones speaking in a twisted regional dialect similar to Carell’s Gru character in the Despicable Me films. This character that he too was born to take on.

The Narrative: A Saga of Heartbreak

Here’s the premise: Dracula has wandered endlessly the globe in anguish over four centuries following his rise as one of the undead, a punishment due to his blasphemous mourning over the death of his beloved Elisabeta (a movie debut role for Zoë Bleu, daughter of Rosanna Arquette). Dracula has been searching, searching, searching for a lady who would be the return of his deceased partner. Unfortunately, the fortunate female is revealed as Mina (portrayed once more by Bleu), the modest betrothed of Dracula’s feeble property handler, Jonathan Harker (played by Ewens Abid), who lately visited to Dracula’s fortress to negotiate his property portfolio and the small picture of the winsome Mina drew the vampire’s attention.

The Filmmaker’s Approach and Comic Flair

Besson organizes Dracula’s flashback sequence of international journeys sporting extravagant attire skillfully, and he willingly includes offering some comedy moments in the style of Mel Brooks – such as the count’s repeated and futile attempts to kill himself after Elisabeta’s death, in addition to farcical scenes that result after Dracula applies to himself with a specific fragrance during the 1700s in Florence, that renders him compelling to the opposite sex. Ridiculous and watchable.

Dracula can be streamed online beginning on the first of December and for physical purchase starting the twenty-second of December. It plays in Australian cinemas beginning on the fifth of February, 2026.