Dracula Movie Critique – Luc Besson’s Love-Struck Reimagining of the Classic Horror Story is Outlandish but Entertaining

Perhaps audiences aren’t clamoring for an updated adaptation of Dracula from Luc Besson, the French maestro for stylish excess. However, it’s worth noting: his opulently crafted romantic vampire tale has ambition and panache – and amid its theatrical camp, I might just favor to it to the recent, stately interpretation by Robert Eggers of Nosferatu. Odd details emerge, including one shot that looks like it presents a geographic divide between France and Romania.

Christoph Waltz as a Humorously Exhausted Priest Tracking the Undead

Christoph Waltz embodies a humorous yet burdened vampire-hunting priest – I can’t believe he hasn’t played such a part earlier – who finds himself in Paris in 1889 for the French Revolution centenary celebrations. So does the evil Count Dracula, brought to life by the expert in grotesque roles Caleb Landry Jones speaking in a twisted regional dialect similar to the voice of Gru by Steve Carell of the Despicable Me series. This character suits him perfectly.

The Story: A Tale of Love and Loss

Here’s the premise: the vampire lord has wandered endlessly the globe in sorrow over four centuries after his transformation into a vampire, a punishment for his irreligious grief over the death of his beloved Elisabeta (an inaugural screen appearance for Zoë Bleu, the offspring of Rosanna Arquette). Dracula has been searching, searching, searching for some woman who might be the return of his deceased partner. Unfortunately, the lucky lady proves to be Mina (again played by Bleu), the modest betrothed of the count’s timid estate manager, Jonathan Harker (played by Ewens Abid), who lately visited to Dracula’s fortress to review his real estate holdings and the small picture of the winsome Mina caught the count’s hooded eye.

The Filmmaker’s Approach and Humorous Style

Besson arranges Dracula’s middle-section history of international journeys wearing flamboyant outfits with a sure hand, and he is not above offering humorous scenes with a distinctly Mel Brooks flavour – like Dracula’s ongoing failed efforts to commit suicide after Elisabeta’s death, along with comical sequences that occur when Dracula douses himself in a certain perfume during the 1700s in Florence, which causes him to be irresistible to women. Absurd yet engaging.

Dracula can be streamed online from 1 December and in disc format from 22 December. It plays in Australian cinemas starting February 5, 2026.