Dracula Movie Critique – Luc Besson’s Love-Struck Revamp of the Timeless Gothic Tale is Absurd but Watchable

It’s possible audiences aren’t clamoring for a new version of Dracula from Luc Besson, the French maestro for stylish excess. However, it has to be said: his opulently crafted romantic vampire tale has ambition and panache – and with its B-movie charm, I’m not sure I wouldn’t prefer compared with Eggers’s dignified recent take of Nosferatu. There are some very bizarre touches, such as a scene that appears to show a land border between France and Romania.

Waltz as a Humorously Exhausted Clergyman Hunting Vampires

Christoph Waltz embodies a witty yet careworn vampire-hunting priest – 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. So does the malevolent vampire count, played by the body-horror veteran Caleb Landry Jones with a mangled central European accent reminiscent of Carell’s Gru character of the Despicable Me series. This is a part that he too was born to take on.

The Plot: A Chronicle of Longing

Here’s the premise: the vampire lord has been restlessly roaming the world in torment for 400 years since he became undead, a consequence due to his blasphemous mourning after the passing of his spouse Elisabeta (a movie debut role for Zoë Bleu, Rosanna Arquette’s child). Dracula has been searching, searching, searching for a female who could be the rebirth of his deceased partner. Unfortunately, the lucky lady proves to be Mina (also Bleu, of course), the reserved future wife of Dracula’s feeble property handler, Jonathan Harker (played by Ewens Abid), who lately visited to Dracula’s fortress to negotiate his real estate holdings and the tiny painting of the winsome Mina attracted Dracula’s gaze.

Besson’s Direction and Lighthearted Touch

Besson structures Dracula’s second-act backstory of global roaming sporting extravagant attire skillfully, 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 after Elisabeta’s death, in addition to comical sequences that follow Dracula applies to himself in a certain perfume in historic Florence, which makes him compelling to the opposite sex. Outlandish but entertaining.

Dracula is on digital platforms from 1 December and on DVD and Blu-ray from 22 December. It will be shown in Australian cinemas beginning on the fifth of February, 2026.