Dracula Review – The French Director’s Passionate Reimagining of the Classic Horror Story is Ridiculous but Watchable

Maybe interest is limited for an updated adaptation of Dracula from Luc Besson, the French maestro for glossiness and bloat. Still, it has to be said: his lavishly upholstered vampire romance displays creativity and style – and with its B-movie charm, I’m not sure I wouldn’t prefer compared with the recent, stately interpretation by Robert Eggers of Nosferatu. A few strange elements appear, like a particular moment that looks like it presents a land border between France and Romania.

Waltz as a Humorously Exhausted Priest Tracking the Undead

Christoph Waltz embodies a clever but beleaguered cleric fighting vampires – it’s surprising he never took on such a part earlier – who ends up in Paris in 1889 for the French Revolution centenary celebrations. So does the sinister Dracula, played by the body-horror veteran Caleb Landry Jones speaking in a twisted regional dialect reminiscent of Steve Carell’s Gru of the Despicable Me series. This is a part that he too was born to take on.

The Narrative: A Chronicle of Longing

The plot unfolds as follows: the vampire lord has been restlessly roaming the globe in sorrow for hundreds of years after his transformation into a vampire, a punishment for his faithless sorrow following the loss of his spouse Elisabeta (a first film part for Zoë Bleu, daughter of Rosanna Arquette). The count has looked tirelessly for some woman who might be the reincarnation of his lost love. By cruel fate, the chosen woman proves to be Mina (again played by Bleu), the demure fiancee of the count’s timid estate manager, Jonathan Harker (played by Ewens Abid), who just traveled to the vampire’s estate to discuss his real estate holdings and the small picture of the lovely Mina drew the vampire’s attention.

The Filmmaker’s Approach and Lighthearted Touch

Besson arranges Dracula’s middle-section history of international journeys sporting extravagant attire with a sure hand, and he willingly includes offering humorous scenes with a distinctly Mel Brooks flavour – like Dracula’s ongoing failed efforts to end his own life after Elisabeta’s death, along with comical sequences that result after Dracula applies to himself with a specific fragrance during the 1700s in Florence, which causes him to be compelling to the opposite sex. Ridiculous and watchable.

Dracula can be streamed online from 1 December and on DVD and Blu-ray from December 22nd. It screens in Australian cinemas beginning on the fifth of February, 2026.