Dracula Review – The French Director’s Romantic Reimagining of the Gothic Classic is Outlandish but Entertaining

Maybe interest is limited for a new version of Dracula from Luc Besson, the filmmaker known for glossiness and bloat. However, one must admit: his lavishly upholstered love story with vampires displays creativity and style – and with its B-movie charm, I’m not sure I wouldn’t prefer compared with Eggers’s dignified recent take of Nosferatu. Odd details emerge, such as a scene that looks like it presents a land border between France and Romania.

The Veteran Actor as a Humorously Exhausted Vampire-Hunting Priest

Christoph Waltz embodies a clever but beleaguered man of the church pursuing the undead – it feels natural for him to tackle this role before – who arrives in Paris in 1889 for the French Revolution centenary celebrations. So does the evil Count Dracula, played by the expert in grotesque roles Caleb Landry Jones speaking in a twisted regional dialect similar to Carell’s Gru character of the Despicable Me series. This is a part he seemed destined to play.

The Plot: A Tale of Love and Loss

The plot unfolds as follows: Dracula has wandered endlessly the earth in anguish for 400 years after his transformation into a vampire, a penalty for his irreligious grief following the loss of his beloved Elisabeta (a first film part for Zoë Bleu, Rosanna Arquette’s child). The count has sought relentlessly for a female who would be the reincarnation of his departed beloved. As ill fortune would have it, the lucky lady turns out to be Mina (also Bleu, of course), the modest betrothed of Dracula’s wimpish land agent, Jonathan Harker (Ewens Abid), who just traveled to Dracula’s fortress to review his property portfolio and the small picture of the charming Mina drew the vampire’s attention.

The Filmmaker’s Approach and Comic Flair

Besson organizes Dracula’s second-act backstory of global roaming in various outrageous costumes confidently, and he is not above giving us some comedy moments with a distinctly Mel Brooks flavour – like the vampire’s constant unsuccessful tries to commit suicide after Elisabeta’s death, along with farcical scenes that result after Dracula douses himself with a specific fragrance during the 1700s in Florence, which causes him to be irresistible to women. Outlandish but entertaining.

Dracula can be streamed online beginning on the first of December and on DVD and Blu-ray from 22 December. It plays in Australian cinemas starting February 5, 2026.