Dracula Review – Luc Besson’s Passionate Reinterpretation of the Classic Horror Story is Ridiculous but Watchable

Maybe audiences aren’t clamoring for a new version of Dracula from Luc Besson, the celebrated French director for glossiness and bloat. Still, it has to be said: his richly designed romantic vampire tale displays creativity and style – and with its B-movie charm, I’m not sure I wouldn’t prefer compared with Eggers’s dignified recent take of Nosferatu. Odd details emerge, like a particular moment that looks like it presents a territorial boundary between France and Romania.

Christoph Waltz as a Humorously Exhausted Vampire-Hunting Priest

Christoph Waltz portrays a clever but beleaguered 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 during the centennial of the French Revolution. So does the malevolent vampire count, enacted by the expert in grotesque roles Caleb Landry Jones speaking in a twisted regional dialect evoking the voice of Gru by Steve Carell from the Despicable Me comedies. This is a part that he too was born to take on.

The Plot: A Saga of Heartbreak

The story is this: Dracula has wandered endlessly the world in torment for hundreds of years since he became 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). The count has been searching, searching, searching for a lady who could be the reincarnation of his lost love. Unfortunately, the chosen woman proves to be Mina (portrayed once more by Bleu), the modest betrothed of the count’s timid estate manager, Jonathan Harker (enacted by Ewens Abid), who just traveled to Dracula’s fortress to discuss his property portfolio and whose miniature portrait of the charming Mina caught the count’s hooded eye.

Besson’s Direction and Humorous Style

Besson arranges Dracula’s flashback sequence of global roaming wearing flamboyant outfits confidently, and he is not above offering humorous scenes in the style of Mel Brooks – like the vampire’s constant unsuccessful tries to end his own life post-Elisabeta’s demise, in addition to absurd moments that follow Dracula applies to himself with a specific fragrance in historic Florence, which causes him to be unavoidably attractive to females. Ridiculous and watchable.

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