Dracula Movie Critique – The French Director’s Romantic Revamp of the Classic Horror Story is Absurd but Entertaining

Maybe interest is limited for a fresh take of Dracula from Luc Besson, the filmmaker known for polished extravagance. However, it has to be said: his opulently crafted vampire romance has ambition and panache – and with its B-movie charm, I might just favor over Robert Eggers’s recent, solemnly classy version of Nosferatu. Odd details emerge, such as a scene that looks like it presents a geographic divide between France and Romania.

The Veteran Actor as a Humorously Exhausted Clergyman Hunting Vampires

Christoph Waltz plays a humorous yet burdened vampire-hunting priest – it feels natural for him to tackle this character previously – who arrives in Paris in 1889 for the French Revolution centenary celebrations. Likewise present is the evil Count Dracula, brought to life by the expert in grotesque roles Caleb Landry Jones with a mangled central European accent evoking Carell’s Gru character from the Despicable Me comedies. This is a part he seemed destined to play.

The Story: A Saga of Heartbreak

Here’s the premise: Dracula has wandered endlessly the earth in torment for 400 years following his rise as one of the undead, a punishment due to his blasphemous mourning over the death of his beloved Elisabeta (a movie debut role for Zoë Bleu, the offspring of Rosanna Arquette). Dracula has looked tirelessly for a lady who might be the return of his lost love. As ill fortune would have it, the chosen woman turns out to be Mina (portrayed once more by Bleu), the reserved future wife of the count’s timid estate manager, Jonathan Harker (enacted by Ewens Abid), who has recently been to Dracula’s fortress to negotiate his property portfolio and the small picture of the lovely Mina attracted Dracula’s gaze.

The Filmmaker’s Approach and Humorous Style

Besson arranges Dracula’s second-act backstory of global roaming wearing flamboyant outfits skillfully, and he is not above giving us humorous scenes in the style of Mel Brooks – such as the vampire’s constant unsuccessful tries to kill himself following Elisabeta’s passing, along with comical sequences that follow Dracula applies to himself with a specific fragrance in 18th-century Florence, which makes him irresistible to women. Outlandish but entertaining.

Dracula is on digital platforms starting December 1st and in disc format starting the twenty-second of December. It screens in Australian cinemas beginning on the fifth of February, 2026.