Dracula Review – The French Director’s Romantic Reinterpretation of the Classic Horror Story is Outlandish but Watchable
Perhaps there is no great enthusiasm for an updated adaptation of Dracula from Luc Besson, the French maestro for stylish excess. However, it has to be said: his richly designed romantic vampire tale displays creativity and style – and with its B-movie charm, I’m not sure I wouldn’t prefer to it to the recent, stately interpretation by Robert Eggers of Nosferatu. A few strange elements appear, including one shot that seems to depict a geographic divide between France and Romania.
Waltz as a Humorously Exhausted Vampire-Hunting Priest
Christoph Waltz embodies a humorous yet burdened cleric fighting vampires – it’s surprising he never took on such a part earlier – who ends up in Paris in 1889 during the centennial of the French Revolution. Likewise present is the malevolent vampire count, played by the body-horror veteran Caleb Landry Jones speaking in a twisted regional dialect reminiscent of Steve Carell’s Gru of the Despicable Me series. It’s a role suits him perfectly.
The Plot: A Saga of Heartbreak
The plot unfolds as follows: the count has traveled ceaselessly the world in torment for hundreds of years after his transformation into a vampire, a consequence for his faithless sorrow after the passing of his wife, Elisabeta (a movie debut role for Zoë Bleu, daughter of Rosanna Arquette). Dracula has been searching, searching, searching for a female who would be the rebirth of his departed beloved. By cruel fate, the chosen woman turns out to be Mina (also Bleu, of course), the reserved future wife of Dracula’s feeble property handler, Jonathan Harker (enacted by Ewens Abid), who just traveled to the count’s castle to negotiate his real estate holdings and the tiny painting of the lovely Mina drew the vampire’s attention.
Besson’s Direction and Lighthearted Touch
Besson organizes Dracula’s second-act backstory of worldwide travels wearing flamboyant outfits confidently, and he doesn’t shy away from providing humorous scenes with a distinctly Mel Brooks flavour – like Dracula’s ongoing failed efforts to commit suicide post-Elisabeta’s demise, along with farcical scenes that follow Dracula applies to himself with a specific fragrance in historic Florence, which causes him to be irresistible to women. Absurd yet engaging.
Dracula is available digitally starting December 1st and for physical purchase starting the twenty-second of December. It plays in Australian cinemas starting February 5, 2026.