Dracula Review – Besson’s Love-Struck Reinterpretation of the Timeless Gothic Tale is Absurd but Engaging

Maybe there is no great enthusiasm for a fresh take of Dracula from Luc Besson, the filmmaker known for glossiness and bloat. Still, it’s worth noting: his richly designed romantic vampire tale has ambition and panache – and in all its Hammer-y cheesiness, I might just favor compared with Eggers’s dignified recent take 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 embodies a witty yet careworn cleric fighting vampires – I can’t believe he hasn’t played such a part earlier – who arrives in Paris in 1889 during the centennial of the French Revolution. So does the evil Count Dracula, played by the seasoned horror actor Caleb Landry Jones speaking in a twisted regional dialect similar to Carell’s Gru character in the Despicable Me films. This is a part he seemed destined to play.

The Narrative: A Saga of Heartbreak

Here’s the premise: Dracula has been restlessly roaming the globe in sorrow for 400 years since he became undead, a punishment for his faithless sorrow over the death of his beloved Elisabeta (a movie debut role for Zoë Bleu, the offspring of Rosanna Arquette). the vampire has been searching, searching, searching for some woman who might be the return of his deceased partner. Unfortunately, the chosen woman is revealed as Mina (again played by Bleu), the modest betrothed of Dracula’s wimpish land agent, Jonathan Harker (enacted by Ewens Abid), who lately visited to Dracula’s fortress to negotiate his real estate holdings and the tiny painting of the charming Mina drew the vampire’s attention.

The Filmmaker’s Approach and Comic Flair

Besson organizes Dracula’s second-act backstory of global roaming wearing flamboyant outfits with a sure hand, and he willingly includes giving us humorous scenes with a distinctly Mel Brooks flavour – for example the count’s repeated and futile attempts to kill himself after Elisabeta’s death, along with absurd moments that occur when Dracula douses himself using a particular scent in historic Florence, which causes him to be compelling to the opposite sex. Absurd yet engaging.

Dracula is available digitally starting December 1st and on DVD and Blu-ray from 22 December. It screens in Australian cinemas from 5 February 2026.