Dracula Review – Besson’s Romantic Revamp of the Classic Horror Story is Ridiculous but Entertaining

Perhaps audiences aren’t clamoring for a fresh take of Dracula from Luc Besson, the celebrated French director for glossiness and bloat. Still, it’s worth noting: his opulently crafted romantic vampire tale has ambition and panache – and in all its Hammer-y cheesiness, it could be preferable compared with Eggers’s dignified recent take of Nosferatu. A few strange elements appear, such as a scene that appears to show a land border between France and Romania.

Waltz as a Witty Yet Careworn Priest Tracking the Undead

Christoph Waltz embodies a clever but beleaguered cleric fighting vampires – 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. Likewise present is the malevolent vampire count, enacted by the body-horror veteran Caleb Landry Jones with a mangled central European accent similar to Steve Carell’s Gru from the Despicable Me comedies. This is a part that he too was born to take on.

The Story: A Tale of Love and Loss

Here’s the premise: Dracula has wandered endlessly the world in sorrow for hundreds of years after his transformation into a vampire, a punishment due to his blasphemous mourning over the death of his wife, Elisabeta (a movie debut role for Zoë Bleu, the offspring of Rosanna Arquette). The count has looked tirelessly for a lady who could be the reincarnation of his lost love. Unfortunately, the fortunate female is revealed as Mina (again played by Bleu), the reserved future wife of Dracula’s wimpish land agent, Jonathan Harker (enacted by Ewens Abid), who lately visited to the count’s castle to discuss his real estate holdings and whose miniature portrait of the charming Mina caught the count’s hooded eye.

Besson’s Handling and Comic Flair

Besson arranges Dracula’s second-act backstory of global roaming wearing flamboyant outfits skillfully, and he doesn’t shy away from providing some comedy moments in the style of Mel Brooks – for example the vampire’s constant unsuccessful tries to commit suicide post-Elisabeta’s demise, as well as farcical scenes that occur when Dracula applies to himself using a particular scent in historic Florence, which causes him to be unavoidably attractive to females. Outlandish but entertaining.

Dracula is on digital platforms starting December 1st and for physical purchase starting the twenty-second of December. It plays in Australian cinemas from 5 February 2026.