Dracula Movie Critique – The French Director’s Love-Struck Revamp of the Timeless Gothic Tale is Absurd but Watchable

It’s possible interest is limited for an updated adaptation of Dracula from Luc Besson, the celebrated French director for polished extravagance. And yet, it has to be said: his opulently crafted vampire romance has ambition and panache – and in all its Hammer-y cheesiness, it could be preferable over Robert Eggers’s recent, solemnly classy version of Nosferatu. There are some very bizarre touches, such as a scene that seems to depict a territorial boundary between France and Romania.

Christoph Waltz as a Humorously Exhausted Vampire-Hunting Priest

Christoph Waltz portrays a humorous yet burdened man of the church pursuing the undead – I can’t believe he hasn’t played this character previously – who ends up in Paris in 1889 for the French Revolution centenary celebrations. So does the malevolent vampire count, played by the body-horror veteran Caleb Landry Jones with a mangled central European accent reminiscent of the voice of Gru by Steve Carell in the Despicable Me films. This character that he too was born to take on.

The Plot: A Chronicle of Longing

The plot unfolds as follows: Dracula has wandered endlessly the globe in anguish for hundreds of years following his rise as one of the undead, a punishment due to his blasphemous mourning over the death of his wife, Elisabeta (a first film part for Zoë Bleu, the offspring of Rosanna Arquette). Dracula has sought relentlessly for some woman who might be the return of his deceased partner. Unfortunately, the fortunate female is revealed as Mina (portrayed once more by Bleu), the modest betrothed of Dracula’s feeble property handler, Jonathan Harker (Ewens Abid), who just traveled to the count’s castle to negotiate his real estate holdings and whose miniature portrait of the lovely Mina caught the count’s hooded eye.

The Filmmaker’s Approach and Comic Flair

Besson arranges Dracula’s flashback sequence of worldwide travels in various outrageous costumes with a sure hand, and he willingly includes giving us humorous scenes reminiscent of Mel Brooks – for example the count’s repeated and futile attempts to end his own life after Elisabeta’s death, as well as comical sequences that follow Dracula sprays himself using a particular scent during the 1700s in Florence, which causes him to be unavoidably attractive to females. Outlandish but entertaining.

Dracula is available digitally beginning on the first of December and on DVD and Blu-ray from December 22nd. It screens in Australian cinemas starting February 5, 2026.