Dracula Review – Luc Besson’s Passionate Reinterpretation of the Timeless Gothic Tale is Absurd but Entertaining

Maybe there is no great enthusiasm for a new version of Dracula from Luc Besson, the filmmaker known for stylish excess. However, one must admit: his richly designed romantic vampire tale has ambition and panache – and amid its theatrical camp, I’m not sure I wouldn’t prefer to it to Eggers’s dignified recent take of Nosferatu. Odd details emerge, including one shot that seems to depict a territorial boundary between France and Romania.

The Veteran Actor as a Witty Yet Careworn Vampire-Hunting Priest

Christoph Waltz plays a clever but beleaguered cleric fighting vampires – I can’t believe he hasn’t played this role before – who finds himself in Paris in 1889 for the French Revolution centenary celebrations. Likewise present is the malevolent vampire count, brought to life by the body-horror veteran Caleb Landry Jones with a mangled central European accent evoking Carell’s Gru character in the Despicable Me films. It’s a role that he too was born to take on.

The Story: A Tale of Love and Loss

Here’s the premise: Dracula has been restlessly roaming the world in sorrow over four centuries following his rise as one of the undead, a penalty for his irreligious grief over the death of his wife, Elisabeta (an inaugural screen appearance for Zoë Bleu, Rosanna Arquette’s child). Dracula has been searching, searching, searching for some woman who might be the return of his lost love. By cruel fate, the lucky lady turns out to be Mina (portrayed once more by Bleu), the reserved future wife of Dracula’s feeble property handler, Jonathan Harker (Ewens Abid), who just traveled to the vampire’s estate to review his real estate holdings and the tiny painting of the lovely Mina drew the vampire’s attention.

Besson’s Handling and Comic Flair

Besson structures Dracula’s flashback sequence of international journeys in various outrageous costumes confidently, and he willingly includes providing funny bits reminiscent of Mel Brooks – for example Dracula’s ongoing failed efforts to kill himself post-Elisabeta’s demise, along with absurd moments that follow Dracula applies to himself using a particular scent in 18th-century Florence, which causes him to be irresistible to women. Absurd yet engaging.

Dracula can be streamed online starting December 1st and on DVD and Blu-ray starting the twenty-second of December. It plays in Australian cinemas beginning on the fifth of February, 2026.