Dracula Movie Critique – Luc Besson’s Passionate Revamp of the Classic Horror Story is Outlandish but Entertaining

Perhaps audiences aren’t clamoring for a new version of Dracula from Luc Besson, the filmmaker known for glossiness and bloat. And yet, one must admit: his opulently crafted vampire romance displays creativity and style – and amid its theatrical camp, I’m not sure I wouldn’t prefer to it to Eggers’s dignified recent take of Nosferatu. Odd details emerge, including one shot that looks like it presents a land border between France and Romania.

Waltz as a Clever but Weary Vampire-Hunting Priest

Christoph Waltz plays a humorous yet burdened vampire-hunting priest – it feels natural for him to tackle such a part earlier – who ends up in Paris in 1889 during the centennial of the French Revolution. So does the malevolent vampire count, played by the body-horror veteran Caleb Landry Jones with a mangled central European accent evoking Carell’s Gru character of the Despicable Me series. This is a part he seemed destined to play.

The Narrative: A Chronicle of Longing

Here’s the premise: the vampire lord has wandered endlessly the earth in torment for 400 years after his transformation into a vampire, a punishment for his irreligious grief after the passing of his wife, Elisabeta (a movie debut role for Zoë Bleu, the offspring of Rosanna Arquette). The count has been searching, searching, searching for some woman who might be the reincarnation of his departed beloved. As ill fortune would have it, the fortunate female turns out to be Mina (also Bleu, of course), the reserved future wife of the count’s timid estate manager, Jonathan Harker (Ewens Abid), who just traveled to the count’s castle to negotiate his real estate holdings and the small picture of the winsome Mina attracted Dracula’s gaze.

The Filmmaker’s Approach and Humorous Style

Besson organizes Dracula’s flashback sequence of global roaming wearing flamboyant outfits confidently, and he is not above offering some comedy moments in the style of Mel Brooks – like the vampire’s constant unsuccessful tries to kill himself following Elisabeta’s passing, in addition to absurd moments that follow Dracula applies to himself with a specific fragrance during the 1700s in Florence, that renders him unavoidably attractive to females. Ridiculous and watchable.

Dracula is on digital platforms from 1 December and in disc format from December 22nd. It plays in Australian cinemas from 5 February 2026.