Dracula Review – The French Director’s Romantic Reimagining of the Classic Horror Story is Outlandish but Engaging

Perhaps interest is limited for a new version of Dracula from Luc Besson, the celebrated French director for polished extravagance. However, one must admit: his lavishly upholstered love story with vampires boasts bold vision and flair – and amid its theatrical camp, I’m not sure I wouldn’t prefer compared with Eggers’s dignified recent take of Nosferatu. Odd details emerge, including one shot that appears to show a land border between France and Romania.

Waltz as a Clever but Weary Priest Tracking the Undead

Christoph Waltz plays a witty yet careworn man of the church pursuing the undead – it feels natural for him to tackle this character previously – who arrives in Paris in 1889 during the centennial of the French Revolution. The same goes for the evil Count Dracula, played by the seasoned horror actor Caleb Landry Jones using a distorted Eastern European tone similar to Carell’s Gru character from the Despicable Me comedies. This is a part that he too was born to take on.

The Narrative: A Tale of Love and Loss

The plot unfolds as follows: Dracula has been restlessly roaming the earth in anguish over four centuries after his transformation into a vampire, a penalty due to his blasphemous mourning over the death of his wife, Elisabeta (an inaugural screen appearance for Zoë Bleu, Rosanna Arquette’s child). Dracula has been searching, searching, searching for a lady who would be the rebirth of his deceased partner. Unfortunately, the lucky lady is revealed as Mina (again played by Bleu), the modest betrothed of the count’s timid estate manager, Jonathan Harker (Ewens Abid), who lately visited to Dracula’s fortress to review his real estate holdings and whose miniature portrait of the lovely Mina attracted Dracula’s gaze.

Besson’s Direction and Comic Flair

Besson organizes Dracula’s flashback sequence of global roaming wearing flamboyant outfits confidently, and he doesn’t shy away from giving us funny bits reminiscent of Mel Brooks – such as Dracula’s ongoing failed efforts to end his own life following Elisabeta’s passing, along with comical sequences that occur when Dracula applies to himself in a certain perfume in 18th-century Florence, which makes him irresistible to women. Absurd yet engaging.

Dracula is on digital platforms from 1 December and on DVD and Blu-ray from December 22nd. It plays in Australian cinemas from 5 February 2026.