Dracula Movie Critique – Besson’s Romantic Reinterpretation of the Classic Horror Story is Ridiculous but Engaging

Maybe there is no great enthusiasm for a fresh take of Dracula from Luc Besson, the celebrated French director for glossiness and bloat. Still, it’s worth noting: his lavishly upholstered love story with vampires boasts bold vision and flair – and amid its theatrical camp, I might just favor to it to Robert Eggers’s recent, solemnly classy version of Nosferatu. There are some very bizarre touches, such as a scene that looks like it presents a land border between France and Romania.

Christoph Waltz as a Humorously Exhausted Vampire-Hunting Priest

Christoph Waltz plays a clever but beleaguered cleric fighting vampires – it feels natural for him to tackle this role before – who arrives in Paris in 1889 to mark the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution. The same goes for the malevolent vampire count, played by the seasoned horror actor Caleb Landry Jones with a mangled central European accent reminiscent of Steve Carell’s Gru in the Despicable Me films. It’s a role that he too was born to take on.

The Plot: A Saga of Heartbreak

Here’s the premise: the count has traveled ceaselessly the earth in anguish for hundreds of years since he became undead, a consequence due to his blasphemous mourning over the death of his wife, Elisabeta (a first film part for Zoë Bleu, daughter of Rosanna Arquette). The count has sought relentlessly for a lady who could be the return of his deceased partner. By cruel fate, the chosen woman is revealed as Mina (again played by Bleu), the reserved future wife of Dracula’s feeble property handler, Jonathan Harker (Ewens Abid), who has recently been to the count’s castle to discuss his real estate holdings and whose miniature portrait of the winsome Mina caught the count’s hooded eye.

Besson’s Direction and Humorous Style

Besson structures Dracula’s second-act backstory of worldwide travels wearing flamboyant outfits confidently, and he is not above giving us humorous scenes in the style of Mel Brooks – for example the vampire’s constant unsuccessful tries to commit suicide following Elisabeta’s passing, along with farcical scenes that follow Dracula applies to himself in a certain perfume in historic Florence, which causes him to be irresistible to women. Absurd yet engaging.

Dracula is available digitally from 1 December and on DVD and Blu-ray from December 22nd. It screens in Australian cinemas starting February 5, 2026.