Dracula Movie Critique – The French Director’s Romantic Reinterpretation of the Gothic Classic is Outlandish but Engaging

Maybe interest is limited for a new version of Dracula from Luc Besson, the celebrated French director for glossiness and bloat. And yet, one must admit: his opulently crafted vampire romance has ambition and panache – and with its B-movie charm, I’m not sure I wouldn’t prefer compared with Robert Eggers’s recent, solemnly classy version of Nosferatu. A few strange elements appear, like a particular moment that seems to depict a land border between France and Romania.

Christoph Waltz as a Witty Yet Careworn Vampire-Hunting Priest

Christoph Waltz plays a witty yet careworn cleric fighting vampires – it’s surprising he never took on this character previously – who ends up in Paris in 1889 for the French Revolution centenary celebrations. The same goes for the malevolent vampire count, brought to life by the body-horror veteran Caleb Landry Jones with a mangled central European accent similar to Steve Carell’s Gru in the Despicable Me films. It’s a role he seemed destined to play.

The Plot: A Chronicle of Longing

The story is this: the count has traveled ceaselessly the globe in sorrow for hundreds of years following his rise as one of the undead, a penalty for his faithless sorrow following the loss of his spouse Elisabeta (a movie debut role for Zoë Bleu, daughter of Rosanna Arquette). Dracula has sought relentlessly for a lady who would be the reincarnation of his departed beloved. As ill fortune would have it, the fortunate female is revealed as Mina (also Bleu, of course), the modest betrothed of Dracula’s feeble property handler, Jonathan Harker (enacted by Ewens Abid), who just traveled to the count’s castle to negotiate his land assets and whose miniature portrait of the lovely Mina drew the vampire’s attention.

Besson’s Handling and Humorous Style

Besson organizes Dracula’s middle-section history of international journeys wearing flamboyant outfits with a sure hand, and he is not above giving us some comedy moments reminiscent of Mel Brooks – such as the vampire’s constant unsuccessful tries to commit suicide after Elisabeta’s death, in addition to comical sequences that follow Dracula sprays himself with a specific fragrance in historic Florence, which makes him unavoidably attractive to females. Ridiculous and watchable.

Dracula is available digitally starting December 1st and in disc format starting the twenty-second of December. It screens in Australian cinemas from 5 February 2026.