Dracula Movie Critique – Besson’s Love-Struck Reinterpretation of the Classic Horror Story is Ridiculous but Entertaining

It’s possible there is no great enthusiasm for an updated adaptation 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 over the recent, stately interpretation by Robert Eggers 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 Witty Yet Careworn Clergyman Hunting Vampires

Christoph Waltz portrays a witty yet careworn cleric fighting vampires – I can’t believe he hasn’t played this character previously – who finds himself in Paris in 1889 for the French Revolution centenary celebrations. The same goes for the evil Count Dracula, enacted by the expert in grotesque roles Caleb Landry Jones speaking in a twisted regional dialect evoking Steve Carell’s Gru from the Despicable Me comedies. It’s a role that he too was born to take on.

The Story: A Chronicle of Longing

The story is this: the vampire lord has been restlessly roaming the globe in torment for 400 years following his rise as one of the undead, a consequence for his faithless sorrow after the passing of his wife, Elisabeta (a movie debut role for Zoë Bleu, the offspring of Rosanna Arquette). Dracula has been searching, searching, searching for a lady who could be the return of his deceased partner. Unfortunately, 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 Dracula’s fortress to negotiate his real estate holdings and the tiny painting of the lovely Mina attracted Dracula’s gaze.

The Filmmaker’s Approach and Comic Flair

Besson arranges Dracula’s middle-section history of international journeys sporting extravagant attire with a sure hand, and he doesn’t shy away from offering humorous scenes in the style of Mel Brooks – for example the count’s repeated and futile attempts to kill himself after Elisabeta’s death, along with absurd moments that result after Dracula sprays himself in a certain perfume in 18th-century Florence, which causes him to be irresistible to women. Outlandish but entertaining.

Dracula can be streamed online starting December 1st and in disc format starting the twenty-second of December. It will be shown in Australian cinemas beginning on the fifth of February, 2026.