Dracula Movie Critique – Besson’s Passionate Reinterpretation of the Classic Horror Story is Absurd but Entertaining

Maybe interest is limited for a fresh take of Dracula from Luc Besson, the French maestro for stylish excess. However, it has to be said: his lavishly upholstered romantic vampire tale has ambition and panache – and with its B-movie charm, I’m not sure I wouldn’t prefer over Robert Eggers’s recent, solemnly classy version of Nosferatu. There are some very bizarre touches, including one shot that looks like it presents a territorial boundary between France and Romania.

Christoph Waltz as a Witty Yet Careworn Clergyman Hunting Vampires

Christoph Waltz plays a humorous yet burdened cleric fighting vampires – I can’t believe he hasn’t played this character previously – who ends up in Paris in 1889 to mark the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution. The same goes for the evil Count Dracula, brought to life by the expert in grotesque roles Caleb Landry Jones speaking in a twisted regional dialect reminiscent of Carell’s Gru character from the Despicable Me comedies. This character that he too was born to take on.

The Narrative: A Tale of Love and Loss

The plot unfolds as follows: the count has wandered endlessly the world in sorrow over four centuries following his rise as one of the undead, 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 count has sought relentlessly for some woman who might be the reincarnation of his deceased partner. As ill fortune would have it, the fortunate female turns out to be Mina (also Bleu, of course), the demure fiancee of Dracula’s wimpish land agent, Jonathan Harker (enacted by Ewens Abid), who just traveled to Dracula’s fortress to negotiate his land assets and whose miniature portrait of the charming Mina attracted Dracula’s gaze.

The Filmmaker’s Approach and Humorous Style

Besson arranges Dracula’s flashback sequence of international journeys sporting extravagant attire skillfully, and he willingly includes giving us humorous scenes reminiscent of Mel Brooks – for example Dracula’s ongoing failed efforts to kill himself after Elisabeta’s death, in addition to absurd moments that follow Dracula applies to himself using a particular scent in 18th-century Florence, which causes him to be compelling to the opposite sex. Absurd yet engaging.

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