Dracula Movie Critique – Luc Besson’s Romantic Revamp of the Timeless Gothic Tale is Absurd but Entertaining

It’s possible interest is limited for a fresh take of Dracula from Luc Besson, the celebrated French director for glossiness and bloat. However, one must admit: his richly designed love story with vampires has ambition and panache – and with its B-movie charm, I might just favor over the recent, stately interpretation by Robert Eggers of Nosferatu. Odd details emerge, including one shot that seems to depict a geographic divide between France and Romania.

Christoph Waltz as a Clever but Weary Clergyman Hunting Vampires

Christoph Waltz plays a humorous yet burdened cleric fighting vampires – 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. Likewise present is the evil Count Dracula, played by the body-horror veteran Caleb Landry Jones speaking in a twisted regional dialect reminiscent of Carell’s Gru character from the Despicable Me comedies. It’s a role that he too was born to take on.

The Plot: A Chronicle of Longing

Here’s the premise: the count has traveled ceaselessly the earth in torment over four centuries following his rise as one of the undead, a consequence for his irreligious grief following the loss of his beloved Elisabeta (a movie debut role for Zoë Bleu, the offspring of Rosanna Arquette). The count has sought relentlessly for a female who could be the return of his departed beloved. Unfortunately, the lucky lady proves to be Mina (again played by Bleu), the modest betrothed of Dracula’s wimpish land agent, Jonathan Harker (Ewens Abid), who lately visited to the vampire’s estate to review his land assets and the tiny painting of the winsome Mina drew the vampire’s attention.

The Filmmaker’s Approach and Lighthearted Touch

Besson arranges Dracula’s second-act backstory of international journeys in various outrageous costumes with a sure hand, and he willingly includes providing funny bits in the style of Mel Brooks – like the count’s repeated and futile attempts to end his own life following Elisabeta’s passing, in addition to farcical scenes that follow Dracula applies to himself in a certain perfume in 18th-century Florence, that renders him unavoidably attractive to females. Absurd yet engaging.

Dracula is available digitally from 1 December and on DVD and Blu-ray starting the twenty-second of December. It screens in Australian cinemas beginning on the fifth of February, 2026.