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

Perhaps audiences aren’t clamoring for a fresh take of Dracula from Luc Besson, the celebrated French director for glossiness and bloat. However, it has to be said: his richly designed vampire romance displays creativity and style – and amid its theatrical camp, I might just favor over Eggers’s dignified recent take of Nosferatu. There are some very bizarre touches, such as a scene that looks like it presents a land border between France and Romania.

Waltz as a Humorously Exhausted Vampire-Hunting Priest

Christoph Waltz plays a humorous yet burdened man of the church pursuing the undead – 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. Likewise present is the malevolent vampire count, enacted by the body-horror veteran Caleb Landry Jones speaking in a twisted regional dialect similar to Steve Carell’s Gru of the Despicable Me series. It’s a role that he too was born to take on.

The Story: A Tale of Love and Loss

Here’s the premise: the count has been restlessly roaming the world in torment over four centuries after his transformation into a vampire, a penalty for his irreligious grief over the death of his wife, Elisabeta (an inaugural screen appearance for Zoë Bleu, the offspring of Rosanna Arquette). the vampire has been searching, searching, searching for a female who might be the return of his lost love. By cruel fate, the fortunate female proves to be Mina (portrayed once more by Bleu), the reserved future wife of Dracula’s wimpish land agent, Jonathan Harker (Ewens Abid), who has recently been to Dracula’s fortress to negotiate his property portfolio and the tiny painting of the winsome Mina caught the count’s hooded eye.

Besson’s Handling and Humorous Style

Besson arranges Dracula’s middle-section history of international journeys wearing flamboyant outfits skillfully, and he doesn’t shy away from giving us humorous scenes in the style of Mel Brooks – such as the count’s repeated and futile attempts to commit suicide post-Elisabeta’s demise, in addition to absurd moments that follow Dracula douses himself with a specific fragrance during the 1700s in Florence, which causes him to be compelling to the opposite sex. Outlandish but entertaining.

Dracula can be streamed online starting December 1st and in disc format from 22 December. It screens in Australian cinemas from 5 February 2026.