Dracula Review – Besson’s Romantic Revamp of the Gothic Classic is Outlandish but Engaging

Perhaps interest is limited for a fresh take of Dracula from Luc Besson, the celebrated French director for polished extravagance. And yet, it has to be said: his opulently crafted romantic vampire tale has ambition and panache – and in all its Hammer-y cheesiness, it could be preferable compared with the recent, stately interpretation by Robert Eggers of Nosferatu. There are some very bizarre touches, including one shot that appears to show a geographic divide between France and Romania.

Waltz as a Humorously Exhausted Priest Tracking the Undead

Christoph Waltz plays a humorous yet burdened man of the church pursuing the undead – it’s surprising he never took on this role before – who arrives in Paris in 1889 during the centennial of the French Revolution. The same goes for the sinister Dracula, brought to life by the body-horror veteran Caleb Landry Jones speaking in a twisted regional dialect evoking Carell’s Gru character of the Despicable Me series. This character that he too was born to take on.

The Narrative: A Saga of Heartbreak

The story is this: the count has wandered endlessly the earth in sorrow for hundreds of years after his transformation into a vampire, a consequence due to his blasphemous mourning after the passing of his wife, Elisabeta (a first film part for Zoë Bleu, daughter of Rosanna Arquette). the vampire has been searching, searching, searching for some woman who could be the reincarnation of his lost love. As ill fortune would have it, the lucky lady turns out to be Mina (also Bleu, of course), the demure fiancee of Dracula’s wimpish land agent, Jonathan Harker (Ewens Abid), who lately visited to Dracula’s fortress to review his land assets and the tiny painting of the charming Mina caught the count’s hooded eye.

The Filmmaker’s Approach and Humorous Style

Besson structures Dracula’s flashback sequence of global roaming sporting extravagant attire skillfully, and he willingly includes giving us humorous scenes with a distinctly Mel Brooks flavour – such as the count’s repeated and futile attempts to kill himself following Elisabeta’s passing, in addition to comical sequences that result after Dracula sprays himself in a certain perfume in 18th-century Florence, which makes him irresistible to women. Ridiculous and watchable.

Dracula is on digital platforms from 1 December and in disc format from December 22nd. It screens in Australian cinemas from 5 February 2026.