Dracula Review – Luc Besson’s Love-Struck Reimagining of the Classic Horror Story is Outlandish but Engaging

Maybe audiences aren’t clamoring for a new version of Dracula from Luc Besson, the French maestro for glossiness and bloat. And yet, it has to be said: his opulently crafted love story with vampires has ambition and panache – and with its B-movie charm, I might just favor to it to the recent, stately interpretation by Robert Eggers of Nosferatu. A few strange elements appear, including one shot that looks like it presents a geographic divide between France and Romania.

The Veteran Actor as a Clever but Weary Clergyman Hunting Vampires

Christoph Waltz plays a witty yet careworn cleric fighting vampires – it feels natural for him to tackle this role before – who finds himself in Paris in 1889 for the French Revolution centenary celebrations. Likewise present is the evil Count Dracula, brought to life by the seasoned horror actor Caleb Landry Jones with a mangled central European accent reminiscent of Steve Carell’s Gru from the Despicable Me comedies. It’s a role that he too was born to take on.

The Plot: A Tale of Love and Loss

Here’s the premise: the vampire lord has been restlessly roaming the earth in torment over four centuries following his rise as one of the undead, a punishment for his irreligious grief after the passing of his spouse Elisabeta (a first film part for Zoë Bleu, the offspring of Rosanna Arquette). the vampire has been searching, searching, searching for a lady who could be the reincarnation of his departed beloved. As ill fortune would have it, the chosen woman turns out to be Mina (also Bleu, of course), the modest betrothed of Dracula’s wimpish land agent, Jonathan Harker (Ewens Abid), who lately visited to the count’s castle to discuss his land assets and the small picture of the lovely Mina attracted Dracula’s gaze.

The Filmmaker’s Approach and Comic Flair

Besson structures Dracula’s middle-section history of worldwide travels in various outrageous costumes skillfully, and he willingly includes offering humorous scenes with a distinctly Mel Brooks flavour – for example Dracula’s ongoing failed efforts to kill himself following Elisabeta’s passing, as well as comical sequences that follow Dracula applies to himself with a specific fragrance during the 1700s in Florence, which makes him irresistible to women. Absurd yet engaging.

Dracula can be streamed online from 1 December and on DVD and Blu-ray from December 22nd. It will be shown in Australian cinemas beginning on the fifth of February, 2026.