Dracula Review – Besson’s Passionate Revamp of the Timeless Gothic Tale is Outlandish but Entertaining

It’s possible interest is limited for an updated adaptation of Dracula from Luc Besson, the filmmaker known for stylish excess. And yet, one must admit: his lavishly upholstered romantic vampire tale has ambition and panache – and amid its theatrical camp, I might just favor compared with Eggers’s dignified recent take of Nosferatu. A few strange elements appear, like a particular moment that looks like it presents a land border between France and Romania.

The Veteran Actor as a Witty Yet Careworn Clergyman Hunting Vampires

Christoph Waltz plays a clever but beleaguered vampire-hunting priest – it feels natural for him to tackle such a part earlier – who ends up in Paris in 1889 during the centennial of the French Revolution. Likewise present is the evil Count Dracula, brought to life by the body-horror veteran Caleb Landry Jones using a distorted Eastern European tone similar to Carell’s Gru character in the Despicable Me films. This character he seemed destined to play.

The Plot: A Chronicle of Longing

Here’s the premise: the count has traveled ceaselessly the globe in sorrow for 400 years after his transformation into a vampire, a consequence for his faithless sorrow following the loss of his beloved Elisabeta (a movie debut role for Zoë Bleu, daughter of Rosanna Arquette). Dracula has looked tirelessly for a lady who would be the rebirth of his deceased partner. As ill fortune would have it, the fortunate female proves to be Mina (also Bleu, of course), the modest betrothed of the count’s timid estate manager, Jonathan Harker (enacted by Ewens Abid), who lately visited to the vampire’s estate to review his real estate holdings and the small picture of the charming Mina drew the vampire’s attention.

Besson’s Handling and Comic Flair

Besson organizes Dracula’s flashback sequence of global roaming wearing flamboyant outfits with a sure hand, and he willingly includes giving us funny bits in the style of Mel Brooks – for example the count’s repeated and futile attempts to commit suicide after Elisabeta’s death, in addition to farcical scenes that result after Dracula douses himself using a particular scent in 18th-century Florence, that renders him irresistible to women. Ridiculous and watchable.

Dracula can be streamed online from 1 December and on DVD and Blu-ray from 22 December. It will be shown in Australian cinemas from 5 February 2026.