Dracula Review – The French Director’s Romantic Revamp of the Classic Horror Story is Ridiculous but Watchable

Perhaps audiences aren’t clamoring for a fresh take of Dracula from Luc Besson, the filmmaker known for glossiness and bloat. And yet, it’s worth noting: his richly designed romantic vampire tale boasts bold vision and flair – and with its B-movie charm, I’m not sure I wouldn’t prefer compared with Eggers’s dignified recent take of Nosferatu. A few strange elements appear, including one shot that seems to depict a territorial boundary between France and Romania.

The Veteran Actor as a Clever but Weary Clergyman Hunting Vampires

Christoph Waltz embodies a humorous yet burdened vampire-hunting priest – I can’t believe he hasn’t played such a part earlier – who arrives in Paris in 1889 during the centennial of the French Revolution. The same goes for the evil Count Dracula, brought to life by the expert in grotesque roles Caleb Landry Jones speaking in a twisted regional dialect reminiscent of the voice of Gru by Steve Carell from the Despicable Me comedies. This is a part he seemed destined to play.

The Story: A Saga of Heartbreak

Here’s the premise: the count has wandered endlessly the world in torment for hundreds of years after his transformation into a vampire, a consequence due to his blasphemous mourning after the passing of his spouse Elisabeta (a first film part for Zoë Bleu, daughter of Rosanna Arquette). The count has sought relentlessly for a female who could be the rebirth of his lost love. As ill fortune would have it, the chosen woman turns out to be Mina (also Bleu, of course), the demure fiancee of Dracula’s wimpish land agent, Jonathan Harker (Ewens Abid), who lately visited to the vampire’s estate to negotiate his land assets and whose miniature portrait of the winsome Mina caught the count’s hooded eye.

Besson’s Direction and Humorous Style

Besson arranges Dracula’s second-act backstory of global roaming sporting extravagant attire confidently, and he doesn’t shy away from offering some comedy moments with a distinctly Mel Brooks flavour – like the vampire’s constant unsuccessful tries to end his own life following Elisabeta’s passing, as well as farcical scenes that occur when Dracula sprays himself using a particular scent during the 1700s in Florence, which makes him unavoidably attractive to females. Absurd yet engaging.

Dracula is on digital platforms from 1 December and on DVD and Blu-ray starting the twenty-second of December. It plays in Australian cinemas beginning on the fifth of February, 2026.