Dracula Review – The French Director’s Romantic Revamp of the Gothic Classic is Ridiculous but Engaging

It’s possible audiences aren’t clamoring for a fresh take of Dracula from Luc Besson, the filmmaker known for polished extravagance. And yet, it has to be said: his richly designed love story with vampires boasts bold vision and flair – and in all its Hammer-y cheesiness, I’m not sure I wouldn’t prefer to it to Robert Eggers’s recent, solemnly classy version of Nosferatu. Odd details emerge, including one shot that seems to depict a geographic divide between France and Romania.

Christoph Waltz as a Witty Yet Careworn Clergyman Hunting Vampires

Christoph Waltz portrays a humorous yet burdened cleric fighting vampires – it’s surprising he never took on such a part earlier – who ends up in Paris in 1889 for the French Revolution centenary celebrations. So does the evil Count Dracula, played by the seasoned horror actor Caleb Landry Jones speaking in a twisted regional dialect evoking Steve Carell’s Gru from the Despicable Me comedies. It’s a role he seemed destined to play.

The Narrative: A Tale of Love and Loss

The story is this: the vampire lord has wandered endlessly the globe in torment over four centuries since he became undead, a punishment for his faithless sorrow after the passing of his spouse Elisabeta (a first film part for Zoë Bleu, Rosanna Arquette’s child). the vampire has sought relentlessly for some woman who might be the rebirth of his departed beloved. Unfortunately, the fortunate female is revealed as Mina (also Bleu, of course), the demure fiancee of the count’s timid estate manager, Jonathan Harker (enacted by Ewens Abid), who lately visited to the vampire’s estate to review his property portfolio and the tiny painting of the winsome Mina caught the count’s hooded eye.

The Filmmaker’s Approach and Humorous Style

Besson structures Dracula’s middle-section history of global roaming in various outrageous costumes with a sure hand, and he is not above offering funny bits in the style of Mel Brooks – like the count’s repeated and futile attempts to kill himself after Elisabeta’s death, along with comical sequences that follow Dracula sprays himself with a specific fragrance in historic Florence, that renders him unavoidably attractive to females. Absurd yet engaging.

Dracula is available digitally from 1 December and in disc format from December 22nd. It screens in Australian cinemas starting February 5, 2026.