Dracula Review – The French Director’s Passionate Revamp of the Timeless Gothic Tale is Outlandish but Engaging

Maybe audiences aren’t clamoring for a fresh take of Dracula from Luc Besson, the French maestro for polished extravagance. And yet, one must admit: his opulently crafted vampire romance displays creativity and style – and in all its Hammer-y cheesiness, I might just favor compared with Eggers’s dignified recent take of Nosferatu. A few strange elements appear, including one shot that seems to depict a territorial boundary between France and Romania.

The Veteran Actor as a Witty Yet Careworn Vampire-Hunting Priest

Christoph Waltz plays a clever but beleaguered man of the church pursuing the undead – it feels natural for him to tackle this character previously – who ends up in Paris in 1889 to mark the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution. So does the sinister Dracula, played by the body-horror veteran Caleb Landry Jones speaking in a twisted regional dialect reminiscent of Steve Carell’s Gru from the Despicable Me comedies. It’s a role he seemed destined to play.

The Plot: A Tale of Love and Loss

The plot unfolds as follows: the count has been restlessly roaming the earth in sorrow for hundreds of years after his transformation into a vampire, a penalty for his faithless sorrow following the loss of his wife, Elisabeta (an inaugural screen appearance for Zoë Bleu, the offspring of Rosanna Arquette). Dracula has sought relentlessly for a lady who could be the reincarnation of his deceased partner. As ill fortune would have it, the chosen woman turns out to be Mina (also Bleu, of course), the demure fiancee of Dracula’s wimpish land agent, Jonathan Harker (enacted by Ewens Abid), who just traveled to the vampire’s estate to negotiate his property portfolio and the small picture of the lovely Mina attracted Dracula’s gaze.

Besson’s Direction and Humorous Style

Besson structures Dracula’s second-act backstory of worldwide travels sporting extravagant attire skillfully, and he willingly includes giving us humorous scenes reminiscent of Mel Brooks – for example Dracula’s ongoing failed efforts to commit suicide after Elisabeta’s death, as well as farcical scenes that result after Dracula applies to himself in a certain perfume in 18th-century Florence, that renders him unavoidably attractive to females. Outlandish but entertaining.

Dracula is available digitally beginning on the first of December and for physical purchase from 22 December. It plays in Australian cinemas starting February 5, 2026.