Dracula Review – Luc Besson’s Romantic Reinterpretation of the Classic Horror Story is Absurd but Watchable

Maybe there is no great enthusiasm for a fresh take of Dracula from Luc Besson, the French maestro for polished extravagance. And yet, it’s worth noting: his lavishly upholstered love story with vampires has ambition and panache – and in all its Hammer-y cheesiness, it could be preferable compared with Robert Eggers’s recent, solemnly classy version of Nosferatu. There are some very bizarre touches, including one shot that seems to depict a geographic divide between France and Romania.

The Veteran Actor as a Clever but Weary Vampire-Hunting Priest

Christoph Waltz embodies a humorous yet burdened man of the church pursuing the undead – it’s surprising he never took on this character previously – who finds himself in Paris in 1889 during the centennial of the French Revolution. So does the sinister Dracula, played by the seasoned horror actor Caleb Landry Jones using a distorted Eastern European tone evoking Steve Carell’s Gru of the Despicable Me series. This is a part he seemed destined to play.

The Narrative: A Tale of Love and Loss

The plot unfolds as follows: Dracula has been restlessly roaming the world in anguish for hundreds of years since he became undead, a consequence for his faithless sorrow following the loss of his beloved Elisabeta (an inaugural screen appearance for Zoë Bleu, Rosanna Arquette’s child). the vampire has looked tirelessly for a lady who would be the return of his departed beloved. As ill fortune would have it, the lucky lady proves to be Mina (also Bleu, of course), the reserved future wife of the count’s timid estate manager, Jonathan Harker (Ewens Abid), who just traveled to Dracula’s fortress to discuss his property portfolio and the tiny painting of the winsome Mina caught the count’s hooded eye.

Besson’s Direction and Lighthearted Touch

Besson arranges Dracula’s flashback sequence of worldwide travels sporting extravagant attire confidently, and he willingly includes offering humorous scenes in the style of Mel Brooks – like the count’s repeated and futile attempts to end his own life after Elisabeta’s death, as well as absurd moments that occur when Dracula applies to himself in a certain perfume in 18th-century Florence, which causes him to be compelling to the opposite sex. Outlandish but entertaining.

Dracula is available digitally starting December 1st and in disc format starting the twenty-second of December. It plays in Australian cinemas beginning on the fifth of February, 2026.