Dracula Movie Critique – Luc Besson’s Passionate Reinterpretation of the Timeless Gothic Tale is Absurd but Watchable

Maybe there is no great enthusiasm for a new version of Dracula from Luc Besson, the celebrated French director for stylish excess. However, it’s worth noting: his opulently crafted romantic vampire tale has ambition and panache – and in all its Hammer-y cheesiness, I’m not sure I wouldn’t prefer to it to Robert Eggers’s recent, solemnly classy version of Nosferatu. There are some very bizarre touches, including one shot that seems to depict a geographic divide between France and Romania.

Christoph Waltz as a Humorously Exhausted Priest Tracking the Undead

Christoph Waltz embodies a witty yet careworn man of the church pursuing the undead – it’s surprising he never took on such a part earlier – who finds himself in Paris in 1889 during the centennial of the French Revolution. Likewise present is the malevolent vampire count, brought to life by the seasoned horror actor Caleb Landry Jones with a mangled central European accent evoking Carell’s Gru character in the Despicable Me films. This character he seemed destined to play.

The Narrative: A Saga of Heartbreak

Here’s the premise: Dracula has been restlessly roaming the world in torment over four centuries after his transformation into a vampire, a punishment due to his blasphemous mourning following the loss of his spouse Elisabeta (an inaugural screen appearance for Zoë Bleu, the offspring of Rosanna Arquette). The count has been searching, searching, searching for a female who would be the reincarnation of his departed beloved. As ill fortune would have it, the fortunate female proves to be Mina (also Bleu, of course), the modest betrothed of Dracula’s wimpish land agent, Jonathan Harker (played by Ewens Abid), who lately visited to the vampire’s estate to discuss his land assets and whose miniature portrait of the winsome Mina attracted Dracula’s gaze.

Besson’s Direction and Humorous Style

Besson arranges Dracula’s second-act backstory of global roaming sporting extravagant attire with a sure hand, and he is not above offering funny bits in the style of Mel Brooks – like Dracula’s ongoing failed efforts to end his own life post-Elisabeta’s demise, as well as comical sequences that follow Dracula sprays himself using a particular scent in 18th-century Florence, that renders him unavoidably attractive to females. Outlandish but entertaining.

Dracula is on digital platforms beginning on the first of December and for physical purchase from 22 December. It plays in Australian cinemas starting February 5, 2026.