Dracula Movie Critique – The French Director’s Love-Struck Reimagining of the Classic Horror Story is Ridiculous but Watchable

Perhaps audiences aren’t clamoring for a fresh take of Dracula from Luc Besson, the French maestro for stylish excess. However, it has to be said: his opulently crafted vampire romance displays creativity and style – and amid its theatrical camp, I’m not sure I wouldn’t prefer to it to Eggers’s dignified recent take of Nosferatu. There are some very bizarre touches, like a particular moment that appears to show a geographic divide between France and Romania.

The Veteran Actor as a Humorously Exhausted Clergyman Hunting Vampires

Christoph Waltz plays a clever but beleaguered vampire-hunting priest – I can’t believe he hasn’t played such a part earlier – who finds himself in Paris in 1889 to mark the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution. So does the malevolent vampire count, played by the expert in grotesque roles Caleb Landry Jones with a mangled central European accent evoking Carell’s Gru character in the Despicable Me films. 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 world in sorrow for hundreds of years after his transformation into a vampire, a consequence for his irreligious grief following the loss of his beloved Elisabeta (an inaugural screen appearance for Zoë Bleu, the offspring of Rosanna Arquette). The count has been searching, searching, searching for a female who could be the return of his deceased partner. By cruel fate, the chosen woman proves to be Mina (also Bleu, of course), the reserved future wife of Dracula’s wimpish land agent, Jonathan Harker (enacted by Ewens Abid), who just traveled to the vampire’s estate to review his real estate holdings and the tiny painting of the lovely Mina drew the vampire’s attention.

Besson’s Handling and Comic Flair

Besson organizes Dracula’s flashback sequence of international journeys in various outrageous costumes skillfully, and he willingly includes giving us some comedy moments with a distinctly Mel Brooks flavour – such as the vampire’s constant unsuccessful tries to commit suicide after Elisabeta’s death, as well as absurd moments that result after Dracula sprays himself in a certain perfume in 18th-century Florence, that renders him unavoidably attractive to females. Outlandish but entertaining.

Dracula can be streamed online from 1 December and for physical purchase starting the twenty-second of December. It screens in Australian cinemas beginning on the fifth of February, 2026.