Dracula Review – Luc Besson’s Romantic Revamp of the Gothic Classic is Absurd but Watchable

Perhaps interest is limited for an updated adaptation of Dracula from Luc Besson, the filmmaker known for stylish excess. Still, one must admit: his lavishly upholstered love story with vampires has ambition and panache – and with its B-movie charm, it could be preferable over Robert Eggers’s recent, solemnly classy version of Nosferatu. There are some very bizarre touches, including one shot that appears to show a land border between France and Romania.

The Veteran Actor as a Humorously Exhausted Priest Tracking the Undead

Christoph Waltz embodies a humorous yet burdened man of the church pursuing the undead – I can’t believe he hasn’t played this character previously – who arrives in Paris in 1889 to mark the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution. So does the malevolent vampire count, brought to life by the body-horror veteran Caleb Landry Jones using a distorted Eastern European tone reminiscent of the voice of Gru by Steve Carell from the Despicable Me comedies. This character that he too was born to take on.

The Story: A Saga of Heartbreak

The plot unfolds as follows: the vampire lord has been restlessly roaming the earth in sorrow for hundreds of years after his transformation into a vampire, a consequence for his faithless sorrow over the death of his spouse Elisabeta (an inaugural screen appearance for Zoë Bleu, the offspring of Rosanna Arquette). Dracula has sought relentlessly for some woman who would be the reincarnation of his lost love. Unfortunately, the fortunate female proves to be Mina (also Bleu, of course), the demure fiancee of Dracula’s feeble property handler, Jonathan Harker (played by Ewens Abid), who has recently been to the count’s castle to review his land assets and whose miniature portrait of the winsome Mina caught the count’s hooded eye.

Besson’s Direction and Comic Flair

Besson structures Dracula’s middle-section history of international journeys sporting extravagant attire with a sure hand, and he is not above providing funny bits reminiscent of Mel Brooks – such as the count’s repeated and futile attempts to kill himself after Elisabeta’s death, along with farcical scenes that occur when Dracula douses himself with a specific fragrance during the 1700s in Florence, that renders him irresistible to women. Ridiculous and watchable.

Dracula can be streamed online beginning on the first of December and on DVD and Blu-ray starting the twenty-second of December. It screens in Australian cinemas beginning on the fifth of February, 2026.