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

Maybe interest is limited for a fresh take of Dracula from Luc Besson, the celebrated French director for glossiness and bloat. Still, it’s worth noting: his richly designed love story with vampires displays creativity and style – and in all its Hammer-y cheesiness, I’m not sure I wouldn’t prefer compared with the recent, stately interpretation by Robert Eggers of Nosferatu. Odd details emerge, like a particular moment that seems to depict a land border between France and Romania.

Waltz as a Humorously Exhausted Vampire-Hunting Priest

Christoph Waltz plays a witty yet careworn cleric fighting vampires – I can’t believe he hasn’t played such a part earlier – who ends up in Paris in 1889 for the French Revolution centenary celebrations. So does the sinister Dracula, enacted by the seasoned horror actor Caleb Landry Jones with a mangled central European accent reminiscent of Carell’s Gru character from the Despicable Me comedies. It’s a role suits him perfectly.

The Narrative: A Chronicle of Longing

The story is this: Dracula has wandered endlessly the world in anguish for 400 years following his rise as one of the undead, a consequence for his faithless sorrow over the death of his spouse Elisabeta (an inaugural screen appearance for Zoë Bleu, the offspring of Rosanna Arquette). Dracula has sought relentlessly for some woman who would be the rebirth of his lost love. As ill fortune would have it, the lucky lady is revealed as Mina (portrayed once more by Bleu), the modest betrothed of Dracula’s feeble property handler, Jonathan Harker (Ewens Abid), who just traveled to the vampire’s estate to negotiate his land assets and the small picture of the charming Mina caught the count’s hooded eye.

The Filmmaker’s Approach and Humorous Style

Besson structures Dracula’s flashback sequence of worldwide travels wearing flamboyant outfits skillfully, and he is not above giving us some comedy moments in the style of Mel Brooks – for example the vampire’s constant unsuccessful tries to commit suicide following Elisabeta’s passing, in addition to farcical scenes that follow Dracula douses himself using a particular scent in historic Florence, that renders him compelling to the opposite sex. Ridiculous and watchable.

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