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

Maybe there is no great enthusiasm for an updated adaptation of Dracula from Luc Besson, the celebrated French director for polished extravagance. However, it’s worth noting: his lavishly upholstered love story with vampires displays creativity and style – and with its B-movie charm, it could be preferable to it to Eggers’s dignified recent take of Nosferatu. Odd details emerge, including one shot that looks like it presents a territorial boundary between France and Romania.

Waltz as a Witty Yet Careworn Vampire-Hunting Priest

Christoph Waltz embodies a humorous yet burdened cleric fighting vampires – it feels natural for him to tackle this character previously – who ends up in Paris in 1889 during the centennial of the French Revolution. So does the evil Count Dracula, played by the expert in grotesque roles Caleb Landry Jones speaking in a twisted regional dialect evoking Carell’s Gru character in the Despicable Me films. This is a part suits him perfectly.

The Plot: A Saga of Heartbreak

The plot unfolds as follows: Dracula has traveled ceaselessly the world in sorrow for hundreds of years since he became undead, a penalty for his faithless sorrow over the death of his spouse Elisabeta (an inaugural screen appearance for Zoë Bleu, Rosanna Arquette’s child). Dracula has looked tirelessly for a lady who would be the return of his departed beloved. As ill fortune would have it, the lucky lady proves to be Mina (also Bleu, of course), the reserved future wife of the count’s timid estate manager, Jonathan Harker (enacted by Ewens Abid), who just traveled to the count’s castle to review his real estate holdings and the small picture of the winsome Mina caught the count’s hooded eye.

The Filmmaker’s Approach and Humorous Style

Besson arranges Dracula’s second-act backstory of global roaming in various outrageous costumes with a sure hand, and he is not above offering some comedy moments in the style of Mel Brooks – for example the vampire’s constant unsuccessful tries to commit suicide after Elisabeta’s death, in addition to absurd moments that occur when Dracula applies to himself using a particular scent in 18th-century Florence, which makes him unavoidably attractive to females. Absurd yet engaging.

Dracula is available digitally from 1 December and on DVD and Blu-ray from December 22nd. It will be shown in Australian cinemas beginning on the fifth of February, 2026.