Dracula Review – The French Director’s Love-Struck Revamp of the Gothic Classic is Ridiculous but Engaging

Maybe interest is limited for a new version of Dracula from Luc Besson, the French maestro for glossiness and bloat. And yet, it has to be said: his opulently crafted love story with vampires displays creativity and style – and with its B-movie charm, I’m not sure I wouldn’t prefer to it to Eggers’s dignified recent take of Nosferatu. Odd details emerge, like a particular moment that seems to depict a land border between France and Romania.

Waltz as a Clever but Weary Vampire-Hunting Priest

Christoph Waltz portrays a witty yet careworn man of the church pursuing the undead – I can’t believe he hasn’t played such a part earlier – who ends up in Paris in 1889 during the centennial of the French Revolution. The same goes for the malevolent vampire count, brought to life by the expert in grotesque roles Caleb Landry Jones speaking in a twisted regional dialect reminiscent of Steve Carell’s Gru from the Despicable Me comedies. This is a part suits him perfectly.

The Plot: A Chronicle of Longing

Here’s the premise: the count has traveled ceaselessly the world in sorrow for 400 years after his transformation into a vampire, a penalty for his irreligious grief after the passing of his beloved Elisabeta (a movie debut role for Zoë Bleu, daughter of Rosanna Arquette). Dracula has been searching, searching, searching for some woman who might be the rebirth of his lost love. By cruel fate, the lucky lady proves to be Mina (again played by Bleu), the modest betrothed of the count’s timid estate manager, Jonathan Harker (enacted by Ewens Abid), who has recently been to the vampire’s estate to negotiate his property portfolio and whose miniature portrait of the charming Mina caught the count’s hooded eye.

Besson’s Handling and Comic Flair

Besson arranges Dracula’s flashback sequence of global roaming in various outrageous costumes confidently, and he doesn’t shy away from giving us funny bits in the style of Mel Brooks – like the count’s repeated and futile attempts to kill himself post-Elisabeta’s demise, in addition to absurd moments that follow Dracula sprays himself using a particular scent in 18th-century Florence, which makes him unavoidably attractive to females. Ridiculous and watchable.

Dracula is available digitally beginning on the first of December and for physical purchase from 22 December. It plays in Australian cinemas starting February 5, 2026.