Dracula Movie Critique – Besson’s Love-Struck Reinterpretation of the Timeless Gothic Tale is Outlandish but Entertaining

Maybe interest is limited for an updated adaptation of Dracula from Luc Besson, the French maestro for glossiness and bloat. And yet, it’s worth noting: his lavishly upholstered romantic vampire tale has ambition and panache – and with its B-movie charm, I’m not sure I wouldn’t prefer to it to the recent, stately interpretation by Robert Eggers of Nosferatu. Odd details emerge, like a particular moment that seems to depict a geographic divide between France and Romania.

Christoph Waltz as a Clever but Weary Priest Tracking the Undead

Christoph Waltz embodies a humorous yet burdened vampire-hunting priest – it’s surprising he never took on this character previously – who arrives in Paris in 1889 for the French Revolution centenary celebrations. The same goes for the sinister Dracula, played by the seasoned horror actor Caleb Landry Jones speaking in a twisted regional dialect similar to the voice of Gru by Steve Carell of the Despicable Me series. This is a part suits him perfectly.

The Narrative: A Chronicle of Longing

Here’s the premise: Dracula has traveled ceaselessly the world in torment for hundreds of years since he became undead, a punishment for his faithless sorrow over the death of his wife, Elisabeta (an inaugural screen appearance for Zoë Bleu, Rosanna Arquette’s child). The count has sought relentlessly for a female who would be the return of his lost love. Unfortunately, the lucky lady is revealed as Mina (again played by Bleu), the demure fiancee of the count’s timid estate manager, Jonathan Harker (enacted by Ewens Abid), who has recently been to Dracula’s fortress to review his real estate holdings and the small picture of the winsome Mina drew the vampire’s attention.

Besson’s Handling and Comic Flair

Besson structures Dracula’s flashback sequence of global roaming sporting extravagant attire with a sure hand, and he doesn’t shy away from providing funny bits in the style of Mel Brooks – such as the count’s repeated and futile attempts to commit suicide post-Elisabeta’s demise, as well as farcical scenes that occur when Dracula douses himself in a certain perfume in 18th-century Florence, that renders him compelling to the opposite sex. Outlandish but entertaining.

Dracula is on digital platforms starting December 1st and on DVD and Blu-ray starting the twenty-second of December. It will be shown in Australian cinemas starting February 5, 2026.