Dracula Review – The French Director’s Romantic Reinterpretation of the Gothic Classic is Outlandish but Engaging

Perhaps audiences aren’t clamoring for an updated adaptation of Dracula from Luc Besson, the celebrated French director for stylish excess. However, it has to be said: his opulently crafted vampire romance 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, such as a scene that seems to depict a land border between France and Romania.

The Veteran Actor as a Clever but Weary Clergyman Hunting Vampires

Christoph Waltz embodies a witty yet careworn cleric fighting vampires – it feels natural for him to tackle this character previously – who finds himself in Paris in 1889 to mark the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution. The same goes for the malevolent vampire count, enacted by the body-horror veteran Caleb Landry Jones speaking in a twisted regional dialect evoking Steve Carell’s Gru of the Despicable Me series. It’s a role suits him perfectly.

The Plot: A Tale of Love and Loss

Here’s the premise: the vampire lord has been restlessly roaming the globe in sorrow for hundreds of years following his rise as one of the undead, a punishment for his irreligious grief over the death of his beloved Elisabeta (an inaugural screen appearance for Zoë Bleu, daughter of Rosanna Arquette). Dracula has sought relentlessly for some woman who might be the rebirth of his departed beloved. By cruel fate, the lucky lady proves to be Mina (again played by Bleu), the reserved future wife of the count’s timid estate manager, Jonathan Harker (enacted by Ewens Abid), who has recently been to Dracula’s fortress to negotiate his property portfolio and the tiny painting of the charming Mina drew the vampire’s attention.

Besson’s Direction and Humorous Style

Besson arranges Dracula’s flashback sequence of worldwide travels in various outrageous costumes with a sure hand, and he doesn’t shy away from providing funny bits in the style of Mel Brooks – such as Dracula’s ongoing failed efforts to end his own life after Elisabeta’s death, as well as farcical scenes that occur when Dracula applies to himself in a certain perfume during the 1700s in Florence, which causes him to be compelling to the opposite sex. Absurd yet engaging.

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