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

Maybe audiences aren’t clamoring for a new version of Dracula from Luc Besson, the filmmaker known for stylish excess. However, it has to be said: his richly designed love story with vampires boasts bold vision and flair – and in all its Hammer-y cheesiness, I might just favor compared with Eggers’s dignified recent take of Nosferatu. A few strange elements appear, including one shot that appears to show a territorial boundary between France and Romania.

The Veteran Actor as a Humorously Exhausted Priest Tracking the Undead

Christoph Waltz embodies a clever but beleaguered vampire-hunting priest – I can’t believe he hasn’t played this role before – who arrives in Paris in 1889 to mark the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution. So does the evil Count Dracula, played by the expert in grotesque roles Caleb Landry Jones with a mangled central European accent similar to Carell’s Gru character from the Despicable Me comedies. It’s a role that he too was born to take on.

The Plot: A Saga of Heartbreak

The story is this: Dracula has wandered endlessly the world in anguish for hundreds of years since he became undead, a punishment for his irreligious grief over the death of his wife, Elisabeta (a movie debut role for Zoë Bleu, the offspring of Rosanna Arquette). The count has sought relentlessly for a lady who might be the return of his departed beloved. By cruel fate, the chosen woman proves to be Mina (also Bleu, of course), the modest betrothed of the count’s timid estate manager, Jonathan Harker (played by Ewens Abid), who lately visited to the count’s castle to discuss his land assets and the small picture of the winsome Mina caught the count’s hooded eye.

Besson’s Handling and Comic Flair

Besson structures Dracula’s middle-section history of international journeys in various outrageous costumes skillfully, and he doesn’t shy away from providing humorous scenes with a distinctly Mel Brooks flavour – like Dracula’s ongoing failed efforts to commit suicide following Elisabeta’s passing, as well as absurd moments that result after Dracula douses himself using a particular scent in 18th-century Florence, that renders him irresistible to women. Outlandish but entertaining.

Dracula is available digitally beginning on the first of December and in disc format from December 22nd. It screens in Australian cinemas starting February 5, 2026.