Dracula Review – Besson’s Love-Struck Reinterpretation of the Timeless Gothic Tale is Ridiculous but Watchable

Perhaps interest is limited for an updated adaptation of Dracula from Luc Besson, the French maestro for glossiness and bloat. Still, one must admit: his richly designed vampire romance has ambition and panache – and amid its theatrical camp, I might just favor over the recent, stately interpretation by Robert Eggers of Nosferatu. There are some very bizarre touches, like a particular moment that looks like it presents a territorial boundary between France and Romania.

Christoph Waltz as a Humorously Exhausted Clergyman Hunting Vampires

Christoph Waltz plays a humorous yet burdened vampire-hunting priest – I can’t believe he hasn’t played this role before – who ends up in Paris in 1889 during the centennial of the French Revolution. So does the malevolent vampire count, played by the seasoned horror actor Caleb Landry Jones using a distorted Eastern European tone evoking the voice of Gru by Steve Carell in the Despicable Me films. It’s a role he seemed destined to play.

The Narrative: A Chronicle of Longing

The story is this: the count has been restlessly roaming the globe in anguish for hundreds of years since he became undead, a consequence for his irreligious grief following the loss of his spouse Elisabeta (a first film part for Zoë Bleu, daughter of Rosanna Arquette). The count has looked tirelessly for a female who could be the rebirth of his lost love. As ill fortune would have it, the fortunate female turns out to be Mina (also Bleu, of course), the modest betrothed of Dracula’s wimpish land agent, Jonathan Harker (enacted by Ewens Abid), who just traveled to the vampire’s estate to discuss his property portfolio and the tiny painting of the charming Mina attracted Dracula’s gaze.

Besson’s Direction and Humorous Style

Besson organizes Dracula’s flashback sequence of international journeys in various outrageous costumes confidently, and he willingly includes providing funny bits with a distinctly Mel Brooks flavour – like the vampire’s constant unsuccessful tries to end his own life following Elisabeta’s passing, as well as farcical scenes that result after Dracula sprays himself using a particular scent in historic Florence, which makes him compelling to the opposite sex. Ridiculous and watchable.

Dracula is on digital platforms beginning on the first of December and in disc format starting the twenty-second of December. It plays in Australian cinemas from 5 February 2026.