Dracula Review – Luc Besson’s Love-Struck Reinterpretation of the Classic Horror Story is Outlandish but Entertaining

It’s possible audiences aren’t clamoring for a new version of Dracula from Luc Besson, the French maestro for stylish excess. However, it’s worth noting: his opulently crafted vampire romance displays creativity and style – and amid its theatrical camp, it could be preferable over Eggers’s dignified recent take of Nosferatu. There are some very bizarre touches, such as a scene that seems to depict a geographic divide between France and Romania.

Christoph Waltz as a Clever but Weary Vampire-Hunting Priest

Christoph Waltz embodies a humorous yet burdened man of the church pursuing the undead – it feels natural for him to tackle this role before – who finds himself in Paris in 1889 for the French Revolution centenary celebrations. Likewise present is the sinister Dracula, played by the expert in grotesque roles Caleb Landry Jones speaking in a twisted regional dialect reminiscent of Carell’s Gru character of the Despicable Me series. It’s a role that he too was born to take on.

The Story: A Chronicle of Longing

Here’s the premise: the vampire lord has traveled ceaselessly the earth in anguish for hundreds of years after his transformation into a vampire, a consequence for his faithless sorrow over the death of his beloved Elisabeta (a first film part for Zoë Bleu, the offspring of Rosanna Arquette). The count has sought relentlessly for a female who would be the rebirth of his deceased partner. By cruel fate, the fortunate female is revealed as Mina (also Bleu, of course), the modest betrothed of Dracula’s wimpish land agent, Jonathan Harker (enacted by Ewens Abid), who lately visited to the count’s castle to discuss his real estate holdings and whose miniature portrait of the winsome Mina caught the count’s hooded eye.

Besson’s Handling and Comic Flair

Besson structures Dracula’s flashback sequence of international journeys in various outrageous costumes with a sure hand, and he willingly includes giving us some comedy moments with a distinctly Mel Brooks flavour – for example Dracula’s ongoing failed efforts to kill himself following Elisabeta’s passing, along with absurd moments that occur when Dracula applies to himself using a particular scent in historic Florence, which makes him irresistible to women. Absurd yet engaging.

Dracula is available digitally from 1 December and in disc format starting the twenty-second of December. It plays in Australian cinemas from 5 February 2026.