Dracula Review – The French Director’s Love-Struck Reinterpretation of the Classic Horror Story is Ridiculous but Watchable

Perhaps audiences aren’t clamoring for a fresh take of Dracula from Luc Besson, the filmmaker known for stylish excess. Still, it has to be said: his opulently crafted vampire romance displays creativity and style – and with its B-movie charm, I might just favor to it to the recent, stately interpretation by Robert Eggers of Nosferatu. A few strange elements appear, such as a scene that looks like it presents a geographic divide between France and Romania.

Christoph Waltz as a Clever but Weary Clergyman Hunting Vampires

Christoph Waltz portrays a humorous yet burdened man of the church pursuing the undead – it feels natural for him to tackle this role before – who ends up in Paris in 1889 for the French Revolution centenary celebrations. The same goes for the sinister Dracula, brought to life by the body-horror veteran Caleb Landry Jones using a distorted Eastern European tone similar to Steve Carell’s Gru of the Despicable Me series. It’s a role suits him perfectly.

The Plot: A Chronicle of Longing

The story is this: the vampire lord has wandered endlessly the world in sorrow for hundreds of years after his transformation into a vampire, a consequence due to his blasphemous mourning over the death of his beloved Elisabeta (an inaugural screen appearance for Zoë Bleu, Rosanna Arquette’s child). the vampire has sought relentlessly for a lady who would be the return of his deceased partner. By cruel fate, the chosen woman is revealed as Mina (again played by Bleu), the reserved future wife of Dracula’s wimpish land agent, Jonathan Harker (Ewens Abid), who lately visited to Dracula’s fortress to negotiate his property portfolio and the small picture of the charming Mina attracted Dracula’s gaze.

The Filmmaker’s Approach and Comic Flair

Besson organizes Dracula’s middle-section history of global roaming in various outrageous costumes skillfully, and he is not above giving us some comedy moments reminiscent of Mel Brooks – for example Dracula’s ongoing failed efforts to end his own life following Elisabeta’s passing, as well as comical sequences that follow Dracula douses himself with a specific fragrance in 18th-century Florence, that renders him irresistible to women. Ridiculous and watchable.

Dracula can be streamed online beginning on the first of December and for physical purchase from 22 December. It plays in Australian cinemas beginning on the fifth of February, 2026.