Dracula Review – Luc Besson’s Passionate Revamp of the Timeless Gothic Tale is Ridiculous but Entertaining

It’s possible there is no great enthusiasm for a fresh take of Dracula from Luc Besson, the celebrated French director for glossiness and bloat. However, it has to be said: his opulently crafted love story with vampires has ambition and panache – and in all its Hammer-y cheesiness, I might just favor to it to the recent, stately interpretation by Robert Eggers of Nosferatu. There are some very bizarre touches, like a particular moment that looks like it presents a geographic divide between France and Romania.

Waltz as a Humorously Exhausted Clergyman Hunting Vampires

Christoph Waltz portrays a witty yet careworn vampire-hunting priest – it feels natural for him to tackle such a part earlier – who arrives in Paris in 1889 to mark the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution. The same goes for 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 from the Despicable Me comedies. This is a part he seemed destined to play.

The Narrative: A Chronicle of Longing

The story is this: the count has been restlessly roaming the world in torment for hundreds of years following his rise as one of the undead, a punishment due to his blasphemous mourning after the passing of his beloved Elisabeta (an inaugural screen appearance for Zoë Bleu, Rosanna Arquette’s child). Dracula has sought relentlessly for a female who might be the rebirth of his lost love. By cruel fate, the chosen woman turns out to be Mina (also Bleu, of course), the reserved future wife of Dracula’s feeble property handler, Jonathan Harker (played by Ewens Abid), who has recently been to Dracula’s fortress to discuss his property portfolio and whose miniature portrait of the winsome Mina caught the count’s hooded eye.

Besson’s Direction and Comic Flair

Besson structures Dracula’s second-act backstory of global roaming sporting extravagant attire with a sure hand, and he doesn’t shy away from giving us some comedy moments reminiscent of Mel Brooks – such as the vampire’s constant unsuccessful tries to end his own life after Elisabeta’s death, as well as farcical scenes that result after Dracula sprays himself with a specific fragrance in 18th-century Florence, that renders him irresistible to women. Ridiculous and watchable.

Dracula is on digital platforms starting December 1st and in disc format from December 22nd. It screens in Australian cinemas from 5 February 2026.