Dracula Movie Critique – Besson’s Love-Struck Reimagining of the Timeless Gothic Tale is Outlandish but Engaging

It’s possible interest is limited for a new version of Dracula from Luc Besson, the celebrated French director for glossiness and bloat. And yet, it’s worth noting: his lavishly upholstered love story with vampires boasts bold vision and flair – and with its B-movie charm, I might just favor to it to the recent, stately interpretation by Robert Eggers of Nosferatu. Odd details emerge, such as a scene that seems to depict a territorial boundary between France and Romania.

Christoph Waltz as a Clever but Weary Clergyman Hunting Vampires

Christoph Waltz embodies a witty yet careworn man of the church pursuing the undead – I can’t believe he hasn’t played this role before – who arrives in Paris in 1889 during the centennial of the French Revolution. So does the sinister Dracula, enacted by the expert in grotesque roles Caleb Landry Jones speaking in a twisted regional dialect evoking Steve Carell’s Gru in the Despicable Me films. It’s a role that he too was born to take on.

The Story: A Chronicle of Longing

The story is this: Dracula has wandered endlessly the earth in anguish over four centuries since he became undead, a punishment due to his blasphemous mourning after the passing of his wife, Elisabeta (a movie debut role for Zoë Bleu, Rosanna Arquette’s child). The count has looked tirelessly for a female who might be the reincarnation of his lost love. By cruel fate, the chosen woman turns out to be Mina (also Bleu, of course), the reserved future wife of Dracula’s feeble property handler, Jonathan Harker (Ewens Abid), who lately visited to the vampire’s estate to negotiate his property portfolio and the tiny painting of the lovely Mina caught the count’s hooded eye.

Besson’s Handling and Humorous Style

Besson organizes Dracula’s middle-section history of global roaming wearing flamboyant outfits with a sure hand, and he willingly includes giving us funny bits in the style of Mel Brooks – like the vampire’s constant unsuccessful tries to commit suicide following Elisabeta’s passing, as well as farcical scenes that result after Dracula douses himself using a particular scent during the 1700s in Florence, that renders him compelling to the opposite sex. Outlandish but entertaining.

Dracula can be streamed online from 1 December and in disc format starting the twenty-second of December. It screens in Australian cinemas from 5 February 2026.