Dracula Review – Luc Besson’s Love-Struck Revamp of the Gothic Classic is Ridiculous but Entertaining

It’s possible audiences aren’t clamoring for a new version of Dracula from Luc Besson, the French maestro for stylish excess. However, one must admit: his richly designed romantic vampire tale has ambition and panache – and with its B-movie charm, I might just favor over the recent, stately interpretation by Robert Eggers of Nosferatu. A few strange elements appear, like a particular moment that appears to show a territorial boundary between France and Romania.

Waltz as a Witty Yet Careworn Clergyman Hunting Vampires

Christoph Waltz embodies a clever but beleaguered vampire-hunting priest – it’s surprising he never took on this character previously – who finds himself in Paris in 1889 for the French Revolution centenary celebrations. So does the malevolent vampire count, played by the body-horror veteran Caleb Landry Jones speaking in a twisted regional dialect similar to Steve Carell’s Gru 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 traveled ceaselessly the earth in torment over four centuries since he became undead, a penalty due to his blasphemous mourning over the death of his beloved Elisabeta (an inaugural screen appearance for Zoë Bleu, Rosanna Arquette’s child). The count has looked tirelessly for a lady who might be the rebirth of his lost love. As ill fortune would have it, the lucky lady proves to be Mina (portrayed once more by Bleu), the demure fiancee of Dracula’s wimpish land agent, Jonathan Harker (Ewens Abid), who has recently been to Dracula’s fortress to negotiate his land assets and whose miniature portrait of the charming Mina caught the count’s hooded eye.

Besson’s Direction and Humorous Style

Besson arranges Dracula’s middle-section history of worldwide travels sporting extravagant attire skillfully, and he willingly includes giving us humorous scenes with a distinctly Mel Brooks flavour – like the count’s repeated and futile attempts to commit suicide following Elisabeta’s passing, along with comical sequences that result after Dracula douses himself using a particular scent in 18th-century Florence, which causes him to be unavoidably attractive to females. Absurd yet engaging.

Dracula is on digital platforms from 1 December and in disc format starting the twenty-second of December. It screens in Australian cinemas beginning on the fifth of February, 2026.