Dracula Movie Critique – The French Director’s Love-Struck Reinterpretation of the Timeless Gothic Tale is Ridiculous but Engaging

Perhaps audiences aren’t clamoring for an updated adaptation of Dracula from Luc Besson, the French maestro for stylish excess. However, it has to be said: his lavishly upholstered vampire romance boasts bold vision and flair – and with its B-movie charm, I’m not sure I wouldn’t prefer to it to the recent, stately interpretation by Robert Eggers of Nosferatu. There are some very bizarre touches, like a particular moment that seems to depict a territorial boundary between France and Romania.

The Veteran Actor as a Clever but Weary Clergyman Hunting Vampires

Christoph Waltz portrays a humorous yet burdened cleric fighting vampires – I can’t believe he hasn’t played this character previously – who finds himself in Paris in 1889 during the centennial of the French Revolution. The same goes for the sinister Dracula, enacted by the body-horror veteran Caleb Landry Jones speaking in a twisted regional dialect similar to the voice of Gru by Steve Carell of the Despicable Me series. It’s a role suits him perfectly.

The Story: A Tale of Love and Loss

Here’s the premise: the count has traveled ceaselessly the globe in torment for 400 years since he became undead, a punishment due to his blasphemous mourning following the loss of his spouse Elisabeta (a movie debut role for Zoë Bleu, daughter of Rosanna Arquette). Dracula has been searching, searching, searching for a female who might be the reincarnation of his departed beloved. Unfortunately, the fortunate female proves to be Mina (again played by Bleu), the modest betrothed of Dracula’s wimpish land agent, Jonathan Harker (played by Ewens Abid), who just traveled to Dracula’s fortress to negotiate his land assets and the small picture of the winsome Mina caught the count’s hooded eye.

Besson’s Direction and Lighthearted Touch

Besson organizes Dracula’s middle-section history of worldwide travels in various outrageous costumes with a sure hand, and he is not above giving us humorous scenes in the style of Mel Brooks – like the vampire’s constant unsuccessful tries to end his own life post-Elisabeta’s demise, along with absurd moments that occur when Dracula sprays himself in a certain perfume in historic Florence, which makes him compelling to the opposite sex. Ridiculous and watchable.

Dracula can be streamed online starting December 1st and on DVD and Blu-ray from 22 December. It screens in Australian cinemas from 5 February 2026.