Dracula Movie Critique – Luc Besson’s Passionate Revamp of the Timeless Gothic Tale is Outlandish but Entertaining

Perhaps audiences aren’t clamoring for a new version of Dracula from Luc Besson, the celebrated French director for glossiness and bloat. And yet, one must admit: his lavishly upholstered vampire romance boasts bold vision and flair – and with its B-movie charm, it could be preferable to it to Eggers’s dignified recent take of Nosferatu. A few strange elements appear, like a particular moment that appears to show a geographic divide between France and Romania.

The Veteran Actor as a Clever but Weary Priest Tracking the Undead

Christoph Waltz embodies a humorous yet burdened man of the church pursuing the undead – it feels natural for him to tackle this character previously – who ends up in Paris in 1889 during the centennial of the French Revolution. So does the evil Count Dracula, brought to life by the body-horror veteran Caleb Landry Jones with a mangled central European accent reminiscent of Steve Carell’s Gru from the Despicable Me comedies. This character that he too was born to take on.

The Plot: A Saga of Heartbreak

Here’s the premise: Dracula has been restlessly roaming the world in sorrow for 400 years after his transformation into a vampire, a penalty for his faithless sorrow over the death of his beloved Elisabeta (a movie debut role for Zoë Bleu, Rosanna Arquette’s child). The count has sought relentlessly for a female who could be the return of his deceased partner. Unfortunately, the fortunate female turns out to be Mina (also Bleu, of course), the reserved future wife of Dracula’s wimpish land agent, Jonathan Harker (Ewens Abid), who lately visited to the count’s castle to discuss his land assets and whose miniature portrait of the winsome Mina caught the count’s hooded eye.

Besson’s Direction and Humorous Style

Besson organizes Dracula’s second-act backstory of global roaming sporting extravagant attire confidently, and he is not above offering some comedy moments with a distinctly Mel Brooks flavour – like the count’s repeated and futile attempts to commit suicide after Elisabeta’s death, in addition to comical sequences that follow Dracula applies to himself in a certain perfume in 18th-century Florence, which makes him compelling to the opposite sex. Ridiculous and watchable.

Dracula is available digitally beginning on the first of December and in disc format from 22 December. It will be shown in Australian cinemas starting February 5, 2026.