Dracula Review – The French Director’s Romantic Reinterpretation of the Classic Horror Story is Absurd but Engaging

Maybe audiences aren’t clamoring for a new version of Dracula from Luc Besson, the filmmaker known for stylish excess. However, it has to be said: his opulently crafted love story with vampires has ambition and panache – and in all its Hammer-y cheesiness, I might just favor over Robert Eggers’s recent, solemnly classy version of Nosferatu. There are some very bizarre touches, like a particular moment that appears to show a land border between France and Romania.

Christoph Waltz as a Witty Yet Careworn Priest Tracking the Undead

Christoph Waltz portrays a humorous yet burdened cleric fighting vampires – I can’t believe he hasn’t played such a part earlier – who ends up in Paris in 1889 during the centennial of the French Revolution. So does the sinister Dracula, brought to life by the body-horror veteran Caleb Landry Jones with a mangled central European accent similar to Steve Carell’s Gru in the Despicable Me films. It’s a role that he too was born to take on.

The Story: A Tale of Love and Loss

The story is this: the vampire lord has been restlessly roaming the earth in sorrow for 400 years after his transformation into a vampire, a punishment for his irreligious grief after the passing of his spouse Elisabeta (a movie debut role for Zoë Bleu, the offspring of Rosanna Arquette). The count has sought relentlessly for some woman who might be the rebirth of his departed beloved. Unfortunately, the fortunate female proves to be Mina (again played by Bleu), the reserved future wife of the count’s timid estate manager, Jonathan Harker (enacted by Ewens Abid), who lately visited to the vampire’s estate to negotiate his property portfolio and the tiny painting of the lovely Mina drew the vampire’s attention.

The Filmmaker’s Approach and Lighthearted Touch

Besson organizes Dracula’s middle-section history of international journeys sporting extravagant attire skillfully, and he doesn’t shy away from giving us funny bits with a distinctly Mel Brooks flavour – for example the count’s repeated and futile attempts to commit suicide post-Elisabeta’s demise, along with absurd moments that follow Dracula applies to himself using a particular scent during the 1700s in Florence, that renders him unavoidably attractive to females. Outlandish but entertaining.

Dracula is available digitally from 1 December and in disc format starting the twenty-second of December. It plays in Australian cinemas from 5 February 2026.