Dracula Review – The French Director’s Romantic Revamp of the Gothic Classic is Absurd but Engaging

Perhaps there is no great enthusiasm for a new version of Dracula from Luc Besson, the celebrated French director for glossiness and bloat. And yet, it’s worth noting: his richly designed vampire romance boasts bold vision and flair – and in all its Hammer-y cheesiness, I might just favor over Eggers’s dignified recent take of Nosferatu. Odd details emerge, such as a scene that looks like it presents a geographic divide between France and Romania.

Christoph Waltz as a Witty Yet Careworn Vampire-Hunting Priest

Christoph Waltz embodies a witty yet careworn man of the church pursuing the undead – I can’t believe he hasn’t played this character previously – who arrives in Paris in 1889 for the French Revolution centenary celebrations. Likewise present is the malevolent vampire count, played by the body-horror veteran Caleb Landry Jones speaking in a twisted regional dialect reminiscent of Carell’s Gru character of the Despicable Me series. This character he seemed destined to play.

The Story: A Tale of Love and Loss

The story is this: the vampire lord has wandered endlessly the earth in torment for 400 years since he became undead, a consequence due to his blasphemous mourning following the loss of his spouse Elisabeta (an inaugural screen appearance for Zoë Bleu, the offspring of Rosanna Arquette). the vampire has been searching, searching, searching for some woman who could be the rebirth of his deceased partner. By cruel fate, the fortunate female is revealed as Mina (portrayed once more by Bleu), the demure fiancee of Dracula’s wimpish land agent, Jonathan Harker (enacted by Ewens Abid), who lately visited to Dracula’s fortress to negotiate his real estate holdings and the tiny painting of the winsome Mina caught the count’s hooded eye.

Besson’s Direction and Comic Flair

Besson arranges Dracula’s flashback sequence of international journeys sporting extravagant attire with a sure hand, and he is not above offering humorous scenes with a distinctly Mel Brooks flavour – such as the vampire’s constant unsuccessful tries to kill himself following Elisabeta’s passing, along with farcical scenes that result after Dracula applies to himself with a specific fragrance in 18th-century Florence, that renders him irresistible to women. Absurd yet engaging.

Dracula is on digital platforms from 1 December and in disc format from December 22nd. It plays in Australian cinemas from 5 February 2026.