Dracula Review – The French Director’s Love-Struck Reinterpretation of the Gothic Classic is Ridiculous but Entertaining

Perhaps interest is limited for a new version of Dracula from Luc Besson, the French maestro for stylish excess. However, it’s worth noting: his lavishly upholstered vampire romance has ambition and panache – and with its B-movie charm, it could be preferable 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 land border between France and Romania.

Waltz as a Humorously Exhausted Vampire-Hunting Priest

Christoph Waltz portrays a witty yet careworn 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. The same goes for the evil Count Dracula, played by the seasoned horror actor Caleb Landry Jones using a distorted Eastern European tone evoking the voice of Gru by Steve Carell of the Despicable Me series. This is a part that he too was born to take on.

The Plot: A Saga of Heartbreak

The plot unfolds as follows: the vampire lord has been restlessly roaming the globe in anguish over four centuries since he became undead, a consequence for his faithless sorrow after the passing of his beloved Elisabeta (a first film part for Zoë Bleu, Rosanna Arquette’s child). The count has sought relentlessly for a female who might be the reincarnation of his deceased partner. By cruel fate, the fortunate female is revealed as Mina (again played by Bleu), the reserved future wife of Dracula’s wimpish land agent, Jonathan Harker (Ewens Abid), who has recently been to the vampire’s estate to review his land assets and the small picture of the lovely Mina attracted Dracula’s gaze.

Besson’s Direction and Humorous Style

Besson organizes Dracula’s middle-section history of international journeys wearing flamboyant outfits with a sure hand, and he doesn’t shy away from providing funny bits with a distinctly Mel Brooks flavour – such as the count’s repeated and futile attempts to end his own life after Elisabeta’s death, along with comical sequences that follow Dracula applies to himself using a particular scent in 18th-century Florence, that renders him unavoidably attractive to females. Ridiculous and watchable.

Dracula is on digital platforms from 1 December and in disc format from December 22nd. It plays in Australian cinemas from 5 February 2026.