Dracula Review – Besson’s Romantic Revamp of the Classic Horror Story is Outlandish but Entertaining

Maybe audiences aren’t clamoring for a new version of Dracula from Luc Besson, the celebrated French director for polished extravagance. And yet, one must admit: his opulently crafted love story with vampires displays creativity and style – and in all its Hammer-y cheesiness, I might just favor compared with Robert Eggers’s recent, solemnly classy version of Nosferatu. A few strange elements appear, like a particular moment that appears to show a territorial boundary between France and Romania.

Christoph Waltz as a Witty Yet Careworn Priest Tracking the Undead

Christoph Waltz embodies a witty yet careworn vampire-hunting priest – it’s surprising he never took on this character previously – who finds himself in Paris in 1889 during the centennial of the French Revolution. The same goes for the sinister Dracula, brought to life by the seasoned horror actor Caleb Landry Jones with a mangled central European accent similar to Steve Carell’s Gru in the Despicable Me films. This character he seemed destined to play.

The Plot: A Tale of Love and Loss

The story is this: the vampire lord has traveled ceaselessly the globe in anguish over four centuries since he became undead, a penalty for his irreligious grief over the death of his spouse Elisabeta (an inaugural screen appearance for Zoë Bleu, Rosanna Arquette’s child). The count has looked tirelessly for a lady who could be the return of his departed beloved. By cruel fate, the lucky lady turns out to be Mina (also Bleu, of course), the reserved future wife of Dracula’s feeble property handler, Jonathan Harker (enacted by Ewens Abid), who just traveled to Dracula’s fortress to review his real estate holdings and the small picture of the lovely Mina caught the count’s hooded eye.

Besson’s Handling and Comic Flair

Besson arranges Dracula’s second-act backstory of worldwide travels wearing flamboyant outfits with a sure hand, and he doesn’t shy away from offering funny bits with a distinctly Mel Brooks flavour – such as the count’s repeated and futile attempts to end his own life after Elisabeta’s death, in addition to comical sequences that result after Dracula sprays himself with a specific fragrance in 18th-century Florence, that renders him unavoidably attractive to females. Absurd yet engaging.

Dracula can be streamed online beginning on the first of December and on DVD and Blu-ray starting the twenty-second of December. It plays in Australian cinemas from 5 February 2026.