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

Maybe audiences aren’t clamoring for a fresh take of Dracula from Luc Besson, the French maestro for glossiness and bloat. Still, it’s worth noting: his opulently crafted romantic vampire tale has ambition and panache – and amid its theatrical camp, I might just favor compared with Robert Eggers’s recent, solemnly classy version of Nosferatu. There are some very bizarre touches, 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 plays a clever but beleaguered vampire-hunting priest – 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 sinister Dracula, enacted by the expert in grotesque roles Caleb Landry Jones with a mangled central European accent similar to the voice of Gru by Steve Carell in the Despicable Me films. This is a part that he too was born to take on.

The Plot: A Saga of Heartbreak

Here’s the premise: Dracula has wandered endlessly the world in anguish over four centuries since he became undead, a punishment for his irreligious grief following the loss of his beloved Elisabeta (an inaugural screen appearance for Zoë Bleu, the offspring of Rosanna Arquette). the vampire has looked tirelessly for a female who might be the return of his lost love. As ill fortune would have it, the lucky lady is revealed as Mina (also Bleu, of course), the modest betrothed of the count’s timid estate manager, Jonathan Harker (played by Ewens Abid), who lately visited to the vampire’s estate to negotiate his real estate holdings and the small picture of the winsome Mina drew the vampire’s attention.

The Filmmaker’s Approach and Comic Flair

Besson organizes Dracula’s second-act backstory of global roaming wearing flamboyant outfits with a sure hand, and he doesn’t shy away from giving us funny bits with a distinctly Mel Brooks flavour – like the count’s repeated and futile attempts to commit suicide following Elisabeta’s passing, in addition to absurd moments that occur when Dracula douses himself with a specific fragrance in historic Florence, that renders him unavoidably attractive to females. Outlandish but entertaining.

Dracula is on digital platforms from 1 December and on DVD and Blu-ray from 22 December. It screens in Australian cinemas beginning on the fifth of February, 2026.