Dracula Review – Besson’s Romantic Reimagining of the Classic Horror Story is Absurd but Entertaining

Perhaps interest is limited for an updated adaptation of Dracula from Luc Besson, the filmmaker known for stylish excess. Still, it has to be said: his richly designed love story with vampires displays creativity and style – and amid its theatrical camp, I might just favor to it to the recent, stately interpretation by Robert Eggers of Nosferatu. Odd details emerge, including one shot that looks like it presents a territorial boundary between France and Romania.

Waltz as a Humorously Exhausted Clergyman Hunting Vampires

Christoph Waltz embodies a witty yet careworn vampire-hunting priest – it feels natural for him to tackle this role before – who finds himself in Paris in 1889 to mark the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution. So does the sinister Dracula, brought to life by the body-horror veteran Caleb Landry Jones speaking in a twisted regional dialect evoking the voice of Gru by Steve Carell in the Despicable Me films. It’s a role he seemed destined to play.

The Story: A Saga of Heartbreak

The plot unfolds as follows: the vampire lord has traveled ceaselessly the globe in anguish for 400 years after his transformation into a vampire, a punishment for his irreligious grief following the loss of his wife, Elisabeta (an inaugural screen appearance for Zoë Bleu, the offspring of Rosanna Arquette). The count has looked tirelessly for some woman who would be the return of his lost love. As ill fortune would have it, the chosen woman turns out to be Mina (also Bleu, of course), the modest betrothed of Dracula’s wimpish land agent, Jonathan Harker (enacted by Ewens Abid), who just traveled to Dracula’s fortress to review his land assets and whose miniature portrait of the winsome Mina caught the count’s hooded eye.

Besson’s Direction and Humorous Style

Besson structures Dracula’s flashback sequence of international journeys wearing flamboyant outfits with a sure hand, and he doesn’t shy away from giving us some comedy moments in the style of Mel Brooks – such as Dracula’s ongoing failed efforts to commit suicide after Elisabeta’s death, as well as absurd moments that follow Dracula sprays himself using a particular scent in 18th-century Florence, which makes him irresistible to women. Outlandish but entertaining.

Dracula is available digitally starting December 1st and for physical purchase starting the twenty-second of December. It screens in Australian cinemas from 5 February 2026.