Dracula Review – Besson’s Passionate Reinterpretation of the Classic Horror Story is Outlandish but Engaging

It’s possible audiences aren’t clamoring for a new version of Dracula from Luc Besson, the French maestro for glossiness and bloat. However, it’s worth noting: his richly designed love story with vampires displays creativity and style – and in all its Hammer-y cheesiness, I might just favor to it to Robert Eggers’s recent, solemnly classy version of Nosferatu. Odd details emerge, including one shot that looks like it presents a territorial boundary between France and Romania.

Christoph Waltz as a Witty Yet Careworn Priest Tracking the Undead

Christoph Waltz embodies a humorous yet burdened cleric fighting vampires – it’s surprising he never took on this character previously – who finds himself in Paris in 1889 for the French Revolution centenary celebrations. So does the malevolent vampire count, brought to life by the body-horror veteran Caleb Landry Jones using a distorted Eastern European tone reminiscent of Carell’s Gru character of the Despicable Me series. This character that he too was born to take on.

The Story: A Saga of Heartbreak

The plot unfolds as follows: the count has been restlessly roaming the world in anguish for hundreds of years after his transformation into a vampire, a consequence due to his blasphemous mourning over the death of his wife, Elisabeta (a first film part for Zoë Bleu, Rosanna Arquette’s child). The count has sought relentlessly for a female who could be the reincarnation of his lost love. Unfortunately, the chosen woman turns out to be Mina (portrayed once more by Bleu), the demure fiancee of the count’s timid estate manager, Jonathan Harker (enacted by Ewens Abid), who has recently been to the count’s castle to negotiate his real estate holdings and the tiny painting of the lovely Mina attracted Dracula’s gaze.

Besson’s Handling and Humorous Style

Besson structures Dracula’s flashback sequence of worldwide travels in various outrageous costumes with a sure hand, and he willingly includes offering some comedy moments reminiscent of Mel Brooks – for example Dracula’s ongoing failed efforts to commit suicide post-Elisabeta’s demise, as well as absurd moments that result after Dracula applies to himself using a particular scent in 18th-century Florence, that renders him irresistible to women. Outlandish but entertaining.

Dracula can be streamed online starting December 1st and for physical purchase from 22 December. It will be shown in Australian cinemas beginning on the fifth of February, 2026.