Dracula Review – The French Director’s Romantic Reimagining of the Classic Horror Story is Absurd but Engaging

Perhaps interest is limited for an updated adaptation of Dracula from Luc Besson, the filmmaker known for polished extravagance. Still, one must admit: his lavishly upholstered romantic vampire tale has ambition and panache – and amid its theatrical camp, I might just favor over Eggers’s dignified recent take of Nosferatu. There are some very bizarre touches, such as a scene that looks like it presents a land border between France and Romania.

Waltz as a Humorously Exhausted Clergyman Hunting Vampires

Christoph Waltz plays a witty yet careworn vampire-hunting priest – it feels natural for him to tackle such a part earlier – who finds himself in Paris in 1889 during the centennial of the French Revolution. So does the evil Count 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. This character suits him perfectly.

The Plot: A Tale of Love and Loss

Here’s the premise: the vampire lord has traveled ceaselessly the globe in anguish over four centuries after his transformation into a vampire, a consequence due to his blasphemous mourning 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 some woman who could be the reincarnation of his departed beloved. By cruel fate, the chosen woman turns out to be Mina (also Bleu, of course), the modest betrothed of the count’s timid estate manager, Jonathan Harker (Ewens Abid), who has recently been to the vampire’s estate to review his real estate holdings and whose miniature portrait of the winsome Mina attracted Dracula’s gaze.

Besson’s Direction and Comic Flair

Besson arranges Dracula’s flashback sequence of international journeys in various outrageous costumes with a sure hand, and he doesn’t shy away from providing funny bits in the style of Mel Brooks – such as the vampire’s constant unsuccessful tries to kill himself following Elisabeta’s passing, along with farcical scenes that follow Dracula douses himself with a specific fragrance during the 1700s in Florence, which makes him irresistible to women. Outlandish but entertaining.

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