Dracula Movie Critique – Luc Besson’s Passionate Reimagining of the Timeless Gothic Tale is Ridiculous but Engaging

Maybe audiences aren’t clamoring for an updated adaptation of Dracula from Luc Besson, the French maestro for polished extravagance. And yet, it’s worth noting: his opulently crafted romantic vampire tale displays creativity and style – and in all its Hammer-y cheesiness, it could be preferable over Eggers’s dignified recent take of Nosferatu. A few strange elements appear, such as a scene that seems to depict a land border between France and Romania.

Waltz as a Clever but Weary Clergyman Hunting Vampires

Christoph Waltz embodies a humorous yet burdened vampire-hunting priest – it’s surprising he never took on this role before – who finds himself in Paris in 1889 for the French Revolution centenary celebrations. The same goes for the malevolent vampire count, brought to life by the body-horror veteran Caleb Landry Jones speaking in a twisted regional dialect evoking Carell’s Gru character from the Despicable Me comedies. It’s a role that he too was born to take on.

The Plot: A Chronicle of Longing

Here’s the premise: Dracula has wandered endlessly the globe in anguish over four centuries after his transformation into a vampire, a consequence for his irreligious grief over the death of his beloved Elisabeta (an inaugural screen appearance for Zoë Bleu, daughter of Rosanna Arquette). Dracula has been searching, searching, searching for a female who would be the reincarnation of his lost love. As ill fortune would have it, the fortunate female is revealed as Mina (portrayed once more by Bleu), the modest betrothed of the count’s timid estate manager, Jonathan Harker (played by Ewens Abid), who has recently been to the count’s castle to review his land assets and whose miniature portrait of the winsome Mina caught the count’s hooded eye.

The Filmmaker’s Approach and Humorous Style

Besson structures Dracula’s middle-section history of global roaming sporting extravagant attire confidently, and he doesn’t shy away from providing funny bits with a distinctly Mel Brooks flavour – for example the count’s repeated and futile attempts to commit suicide following Elisabeta’s passing, along with comical sequences that result after Dracula douses himself using a particular scent during the 1700s in Florence, which makes him irresistible to women. Absurd yet engaging.

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