Dracula Review – The French Director’s Romantic Reinterpretation of the Classic Horror Story is Absurd but Watchable

Maybe interest is limited for an updated adaptation of Dracula from Luc Besson, the celebrated French director for polished extravagance. Still, it’s worth noting: his lavishly upholstered vampire romance has ambition and panache – and with its B-movie charm, I might just favor to it to Eggers’s dignified recent take of Nosferatu. Odd details emerge, such as a scene that appears to show a geographic divide between France and Romania.

Waltz as a Witty Yet Careworn Priest Tracking the Undead

Christoph Waltz plays a humorous yet burdened vampire-hunting priest – it’s surprising he never took on this role before – who ends up in Paris in 1889 for the French Revolution centenary celebrations. So does the evil Count Dracula, played by the expert in grotesque roles Caleb Landry Jones with a mangled central European accent reminiscent of Carell’s Gru character from the Despicable Me comedies. This is a part that he too was born to take on.

The Story: A Saga of Heartbreak

The plot unfolds as follows: the vampire lord has wandered endlessly the globe in anguish over four centuries since he became undead, a consequence due to his blasphemous mourning over the death of his wife, Elisabeta (a movie debut role for Zoë Bleu, the offspring of Rosanna Arquette). The count has been searching, searching, searching for a lady who would be the return of his lost love. By cruel fate, the fortunate female proves to be Mina (again played by Bleu), the reserved future wife of Dracula’s feeble property handler, Jonathan Harker (enacted by Ewens Abid), who lately visited to Dracula’s fortress to discuss his real estate holdings and whose miniature portrait of the lovely Mina attracted Dracula’s gaze.

Besson’s Direction and Comic Flair

Besson arranges Dracula’s middle-section history of worldwide travels sporting extravagant attire confidently, and he doesn’t shy away from offering humorous scenes reminiscent of Mel Brooks – like the count’s repeated and futile attempts to end his own life after Elisabeta’s death, in addition to farcical scenes that result after Dracula sprays himself with a specific fragrance in 18th-century Florence, which makes him irresistible to women. Outlandish but entertaining.

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