Dracula Review – Luc Besson’s Passionate Reimagining of the Timeless Gothic Tale is Absurd but Engaging

Maybe audiences aren’t clamoring for a fresh take of Dracula from Luc Besson, the French maestro for stylish excess. And yet, it’s worth noting: his lavishly upholstered romantic vampire tale has ambition and panache – and with its B-movie charm, it could be preferable to it to Robert Eggers’s recent, solemnly classy version of Nosferatu. A few strange elements appear, such as a scene that seems to depict a territorial boundary between France and Romania.

The Veteran Actor as a Witty Yet Careworn Clergyman Hunting Vampires

Christoph Waltz plays 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. So does the malevolent vampire count, enacted by the body-horror veteran Caleb Landry Jones using a distorted Eastern European tone evoking Steve Carell’s Gru in the Despicable Me films. This is a part suits him perfectly.

The Plot: A Saga of Heartbreak

The story is this: Dracula has traveled ceaselessly the earth in sorrow for 400 years following his rise as one of the undead, a punishment due to his blasphemous mourning after the passing of his beloved Elisabeta (a first film part for Zoë Bleu, Rosanna Arquette’s child). The count has been searching, searching, searching for some woman who could be the return of his deceased partner. Unfortunately, the chosen woman turns out to be Mina (again played by Bleu), the demure fiancee of the count’s timid estate manager, Jonathan Harker (enacted by Ewens Abid), who has recently been to the count’s castle to negotiate his property portfolio and the small picture of the lovely Mina attracted Dracula’s gaze.

Besson’s Handling and Humorous Style

Besson organizes Dracula’s flashback sequence of worldwide travels sporting extravagant attire confidently, and he is not above providing funny bits in the style of Mel Brooks – like Dracula’s ongoing failed efforts to kill himself post-Elisabeta’s demise, as well as comical sequences that result after Dracula douses himself in a certain perfume in historic Florence, which causes him to be compelling to the opposite sex. Outlandish but entertaining.

Dracula is available digitally starting December 1st and for physical purchase starting the twenty-second of December. It will be shown in Australian cinemas from 5 February 2026.