Dracula Review – Luc Besson’s Passionate Reinterpretation of the Classic Horror Story is Ridiculous but Watchable
Maybe interest is limited for a fresh take of Dracula from Luc Besson, the filmmaker known for polished extravagance. And yet, one must admit: his richly designed love story with vampires has ambition and panache – and with its B-movie charm, I might just favor to it to Robert Eggers’s recent, solemnly classy version of Nosferatu. Odd details emerge, such as a scene that appears to show a land border between France and Romania.
The Veteran Actor as a Humorously Exhausted Vampire-Hunting Priest
Christoph Waltz portrays 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 to mark the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution. So does the malevolent vampire count, brought to life by the seasoned horror actor Caleb Landry Jones with a mangled central European accent reminiscent of Carell’s Gru character from the Despicable Me comedies. It’s a role that he too was born to take on.
The Narrative: A Tale of Love and Loss
Here’s the premise: the vampire lord has been restlessly roaming the globe in sorrow for 400 years after his transformation into a vampire, a penalty for his irreligious grief over the death of his wife, Elisabeta (an inaugural screen appearance for Zoë Bleu, Rosanna Arquette’s child). the vampire has sought relentlessly for a female who would be the return of his departed beloved. Unfortunately, the lucky lady is revealed as Mina (portrayed once more by Bleu), the reserved future wife of the count’s timid estate manager, Jonathan Harker (Ewens Abid), who lately visited to the count’s castle to review his land assets and whose miniature portrait of the charming Mina caught the count’s hooded eye.
Besson’s Direction and Lighthearted Touch
Besson organizes Dracula’s middle-section history of worldwide travels in various outrageous costumes with a sure hand, and he doesn’t shy away from providing some comedy moments in the style of Mel Brooks – like the count’s repeated and futile attempts to commit suicide following Elisabeta’s passing, in addition to comical sequences that result after Dracula douses himself in a certain perfume in historic Florence, which causes him to be compelling to the opposite sex. Absurd yet engaging.
Dracula is on digital platforms from 1 December and on DVD and Blu-ray from 22 December. It screens in Australian cinemas from 5 February 2026.
