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

Perhaps interest is limited for a fresh take of Dracula from Luc Besson, the filmmaker known for stylish excess. However, one must admit: his lavishly upholstered romantic vampire tale boasts bold vision and flair – 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, including one shot that looks like it presents a land border between France and Romania.

Christoph Waltz as a Clever but Weary Priest Tracking the Undead

Christoph Waltz plays a witty yet careworn cleric fighting vampires – it feels natural for him to tackle such a part earlier – who arrives in Paris in 1889 during the centennial of the French Revolution. Likewise present is the evil Count Dracula, enacted by the seasoned horror actor Caleb Landry Jones speaking in a twisted regional dialect similar to Steve Carell’s Gru from the Despicable Me comedies. This is a part suits him perfectly.

The Narrative: A Chronicle of Longing

Here’s the premise: the count has traveled ceaselessly the earth in sorrow for hundreds of years since he became undead, a penalty for his faithless sorrow following the loss of his wife, Elisabeta (a movie debut role for Zoë Bleu, daughter of Rosanna Arquette). Dracula has been searching, searching, searching for a female who might be the rebirth of his deceased partner. Unfortunately, the chosen woman proves to be Mina (also Bleu, of course), the modest betrothed of Dracula’s wimpish land agent, Jonathan Harker (enacted by Ewens Abid), who just traveled to Dracula’s fortress to review his real estate holdings and whose miniature portrait of the winsome Mina drew the vampire’s attention.

Besson’s Handling and Comic Flair

Besson structures Dracula’s middle-section history of worldwide travels wearing flamboyant outfits skillfully, and he doesn’t shy away from offering some comedy moments with a distinctly Mel Brooks flavour – such as the vampire’s constant unsuccessful tries to end his own life following Elisabeta’s passing, along with farcical scenes that result after Dracula sprays himself in a certain perfume in 18th-century Florence, that renders him unavoidably attractive to females. Outlandish but entertaining.

Dracula can be streamed online starting December 1st and on DVD and Blu-ray from 22 December. It will be shown in Australian cinemas beginning on the fifth of February, 2026.