Dracula Movie Critique – Besson’s Romantic Reimagining of the Classic Horror Story is Outlandish but Watchable

Maybe interest is limited for a fresh take of Dracula from Luc Besson, the French maestro for glossiness and bloat. And yet, it’s worth noting: his lavishly upholstered romantic vampire tale has ambition and panache – and amid its theatrical camp, I might just favor over Eggers’s dignified recent take of Nosferatu. Odd details emerge, including one shot that appears to show a land border between France and Romania.

Waltz as a Witty Yet Careworn Vampire-Hunting Priest

Christoph Waltz embodies a humorous yet burdened man of the church pursuing the undead – I can’t believe he hasn’t played such a part earlier – who ends up in Paris in 1889 for the French Revolution centenary celebrations. The same goes for the sinister Dracula, played by the seasoned horror actor Caleb Landry Jones speaking in a twisted regional dialect evoking Steve Carell’s Gru of the Despicable Me series. It’s a role suits him perfectly.

The Plot: A Tale of Love and Loss

The story is this: the vampire lord has been restlessly roaming the globe in sorrow for 400 years following his rise as one of the undead, a punishment for his irreligious grief after the passing of his wife, Elisabeta (a first film part for Zoë Bleu, the offspring of Rosanna Arquette). Dracula has sought relentlessly for a lady who could be the return of his lost love. As ill fortune would have it, the chosen woman is revealed as Mina (again played by Bleu), the demure fiancee of the count’s timid estate manager, Jonathan Harker (played by Ewens Abid), who just traveled to the vampire’s estate to negotiate his land assets and the small picture of the charming Mina caught the count’s hooded eye.

Besson’s Handling and Comic Flair

Besson arranges Dracula’s middle-section history of international journeys sporting extravagant attire skillfully, and he is not above providing some comedy moments reminiscent of Mel Brooks – for example Dracula’s ongoing failed efforts to kill himself post-Elisabeta’s demise, in addition to comical sequences that follow Dracula sprays himself with a specific fragrance during the 1700s in Florence, which makes him compelling to the opposite sex. Outlandish but entertaining.

Dracula can be streamed online from 1 December and for physical purchase from December 22nd. It will be shown in Australian cinemas from 5 February 2026.