Dracula Review – Luc Besson’s Love-Struck Revamp of the Timeless Gothic Tale is Outlandish but Watchable

Maybe audiences aren’t clamoring for a new version of Dracula from Luc Besson, the celebrated French director for stylish excess. Still, one must admit: his opulently crafted love story with vampires boasts bold vision and flair – and amid its theatrical camp, I might just favor compared with Eggers’s dignified recent take of Nosferatu. A few strange elements appear, including one shot that appears to show a land border between France and Romania.

Christoph Waltz as a Humorously Exhausted Vampire-Hunting Priest

Christoph Waltz portrays a clever but beleaguered cleric fighting vampires – it’s surprising he never took on this character previously – who finds himself in Paris in 1889 to mark the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution. The same goes for the sinister Dracula, enacted by the body-horror veteran Caleb Landry Jones using a distorted Eastern European tone evoking Steve Carell’s Gru of the Despicable Me series. This character he seemed destined to play.

The Narrative: A Tale of Love and Loss

The story is this: Dracula has been restlessly roaming the world in sorrow over four centuries following his rise as one of the undead, a punishment for his irreligious grief after the passing of his spouse Elisabeta (a movie debut role for Zoë Bleu, Rosanna Arquette’s child). The count has been searching, searching, searching for some woman who might be the reincarnation of his lost love. By cruel fate, the chosen woman proves to be Mina (portrayed once more by Bleu), the modest betrothed of Dracula’s feeble property handler, Jonathan Harker (enacted by Ewens Abid), who lately visited to the count’s castle to negotiate his land assets and the tiny painting of the charming Mina caught the count’s hooded eye.

The Filmmaker’s Approach and Comic Flair

Besson organizes Dracula’s second-act backstory of international journeys wearing flamboyant outfits with a sure hand, and he is not above offering some comedy moments with a distinctly Mel Brooks flavour – for example the count’s repeated and futile attempts to kill himself post-Elisabeta’s demise, along with farcical scenes that occur when Dracula applies to himself using a particular scent in 18th-century Florence, which makes him irresistible to women. Absurd yet engaging.

Dracula is available digitally starting December 1st and in disc format starting the twenty-second of December. It screens in Australian cinemas starting February 5, 2026.