Dracula Movie Critique – Besson’s Love-Struck Revamp of the Classic Horror Story is Absurd but Engaging

Maybe there is no great enthusiasm for a new version of Dracula from Luc Besson, the celebrated French director for polished extravagance. However, it’s worth noting: his lavishly upholstered vampire romance displays creativity and style – and with its B-movie charm, I’m not sure I wouldn’t prefer to it to Eggers’s dignified recent take of Nosferatu. Odd details emerge, such as a scene that seems to depict a territorial boundary between France and Romania.

Christoph Waltz as a Witty Yet Careworn Priest Tracking the Undead

Christoph Waltz portrays a humorous yet burdened man of the church pursuing the undead – I can’t believe he hasn’t played this role before – who ends up in Paris in 1889 for the French Revolution centenary celebrations. Likewise present is the evil Count Dracula, played by the body-horror veteran Caleb Landry Jones with a mangled central European accent evoking Steve Carell’s Gru in the Despicable Me films. It’s a role suits him perfectly.

The Narrative: A Saga of Heartbreak

The story is this: the count has wandered endlessly the globe in torment for 400 years following his rise as one of the undead, a consequence due to his blasphemous mourning after the passing of his beloved Elisabeta (a first film part for Zoë Bleu, Rosanna Arquette’s child). Dracula has been searching, searching, searching for some woman who would be the rebirth of his departed beloved. As ill fortune would have it, the chosen woman turns out to be Mina (also Bleu, of course), the reserved future wife of the count’s timid estate manager, Jonathan Harker (Ewens Abid), who lately visited to the vampire’s estate to negotiate his land assets and the small picture of the charming Mina drew the vampire’s attention.

Besson’s Handling and Humorous Style

Besson arranges Dracula’s second-act backstory of worldwide travels in various outrageous costumes skillfully, and he willingly includes offering humorous scenes reminiscent of Mel Brooks – for example the count’s repeated and futile attempts to kill himself post-Elisabeta’s demise, as well as absurd moments that occur when Dracula douses himself with a specific fragrance in 18th-century Florence, that renders him unavoidably attractive to females. Outlandish but entertaining.

Dracula is on digital platforms starting December 1st and for physical purchase from 22 December. It plays in Australian cinemas starting February 5, 2026.