Dracula Review – Besson’s Love-Struck Reinterpretation of the Classic Horror Story is Absurd but Engaging

It’s possible interest is limited for an updated adaptation of Dracula from Luc Besson, the celebrated French director for stylish excess. Still, one must admit: his richly designed love story with vampires displays creativity and style – and with its B-movie charm, it could be preferable to it to Robert Eggers’s recent, solemnly classy version of Nosferatu. Odd details emerge, like a particular moment that seems to depict a geographic divide between France and Romania.

The Veteran Actor as a Clever but Weary Priest Tracking the Undead

Christoph Waltz embodies a witty yet careworn man of the church pursuing the undead – it feels natural for him to tackle such a part earlier – who arrives in Paris in 1889 to mark the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution. Likewise present is the evil Count Dracula, brought to life by the expert in grotesque roles Caleb Landry Jones with a mangled central European accent evoking the voice of Gru by Steve Carell from the Despicable Me comedies. This is a part that he too was born to take on.

The Plot: A Saga of Heartbreak

The story is this: Dracula has wandered endlessly the world in anguish for hundreds of years following his rise as one of the undead, a consequence for his faithless sorrow after the passing of his spouse Elisabeta (an inaugural screen appearance for Zoë Bleu, Rosanna Arquette’s child). The count has been searching, searching, searching for a lady who might be the return of his lost love. By cruel fate, the lucky lady 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 vampire’s estate to discuss his property portfolio and the tiny painting of the winsome Mina attracted Dracula’s gaze.

Besson’s Handling and Lighthearted Touch

Besson arranges Dracula’s middle-section history of global roaming sporting extravagant attire skillfully, and he is not above providing some comedy moments with a distinctly Mel Brooks flavour – such as Dracula’s ongoing failed efforts to commit suicide following Elisabeta’s passing, as well as comical sequences that occur when Dracula applies to himself in a certain perfume during the 1700s in Florence, which makes him unavoidably attractive to females. Ridiculous and watchable.

Dracula is on digital platforms starting December 1st and in disc format starting the twenty-second of December. It will be shown in Australian cinemas beginning on the fifth of February, 2026.