Dracula Movie Critique – Besson’s Passionate Reinterpretation of the Timeless Gothic Tale is Ridiculous but Entertaining

Maybe interest is limited for a fresh take of Dracula from Luc Besson, the filmmaker known for polished extravagance. And yet, one must admit: his richly designed vampire romance has ambition and panache – and with its B-movie charm, it could be preferable to it to Robert Eggers’s recent, solemnly classy version of Nosferatu. Odd details emerge, like a particular moment that looks like it presents a territorial boundary between France and Romania.

Christoph Waltz as a Clever but Weary Clergyman Hunting Vampires

Christoph Waltz portrays a witty yet careworn man of the church pursuing the undead – I can’t believe he hasn’t played this character previously – who arrives in Paris in 1889 for the French Revolution centenary celebrations. The same goes for the sinister Dracula, played by the seasoned horror actor Caleb Landry Jones speaking in a twisted regional dialect reminiscent of Steve Carell’s Gru from the Despicable Me comedies. It’s a role that he too was born to take on.

The Narrative: A Chronicle of Longing

Here’s the premise: the vampire lord has been restlessly roaming the globe in anguish for hundreds of years after his transformation into a vampire, a consequence due to his blasphemous mourning following the loss of his spouse Elisabeta (a movie debut role for Zoë Bleu, the offspring of Rosanna Arquette). The count has sought relentlessly for a female who would be the reincarnation of his lost love. Unfortunately, the lucky lady is revealed as Mina (again played by Bleu), the reserved future wife of Dracula’s wimpish land agent, Jonathan Harker (enacted by Ewens Abid), who has recently been to Dracula’s fortress to review his land assets and whose miniature portrait of the winsome Mina caught the count’s hooded eye.

Besson’s Direction and Humorous Style

Besson organizes Dracula’s flashback sequence of worldwide travels wearing flamboyant outfits confidently, and he doesn’t shy away from offering humorous scenes reminiscent of Mel Brooks – for example Dracula’s ongoing failed efforts to commit suicide following Elisabeta’s passing, along with comical sequences that follow Dracula sprays himself in a certain perfume in 18th-century Florence, which causes him to be compelling to the opposite sex. Ridiculous and watchable.

Dracula is on digital platforms beginning on the first of December and in disc format from 22 December. It will be shown in Australian cinemas from 5 February 2026.