Dracula Movie Critique – The French Director’s Passionate Reimagining of the Classic Horror Story is Absurd but Engaging

Perhaps there is no great enthusiasm for a fresh take of Dracula from Luc Besson, the celebrated French director for stylish excess. However, it has to be said: his richly designed romantic vampire tale has ambition and panache – and with its B-movie charm, it could be preferable compared with Robert Eggers’s recent, solemnly classy version of Nosferatu. There are some very bizarre touches, including one shot that appears to show a territorial boundary between France and Romania.

The Veteran Actor as a Humorously Exhausted Clergyman Hunting Vampires

Christoph Waltz plays a witty yet careworn vampire-hunting priest – it feels natural for him to tackle such a part earlier – who arrives in Paris in 1889 for the French Revolution centenary celebrations. The same goes for the malevolent vampire count, enacted by the body-horror veteran Caleb Landry Jones using a distorted Eastern European tone similar to Carell’s Gru character from the Despicable Me comedies. It’s a role suits him perfectly.

The Story: A Chronicle of Longing

The plot unfolds as follows: Dracula has been restlessly roaming the earth in torment over four centuries following his rise as one of the undead, a penalty for his faithless sorrow following the loss of his spouse Elisabeta (a movie debut role for Zoë Bleu, the offspring of Rosanna Arquette). Dracula has sought relentlessly for a female who could be the reincarnation of his departed beloved. As ill fortune would have it, the lucky lady is revealed as Mina (also Bleu, of course), the demure fiancee of Dracula’s wimpish land agent, Jonathan Harker (enacted by Ewens Abid), who has recently been to the vampire’s estate to review his land assets and whose miniature portrait of the lovely Mina drew the vampire’s attention.

The Filmmaker’s Approach and Lighthearted Touch

Besson arranges Dracula’s second-act backstory of worldwide travels in various outrageous costumes skillfully, and he willingly includes providing humorous scenes reminiscent of Mel Brooks – such as the vampire’s constant unsuccessful tries to kill himself post-Elisabeta’s demise, as well as comical sequences that result after Dracula sprays himself with a specific fragrance in historic Florence, which makes him unavoidably attractive to females. Outlandish but entertaining.

Dracula is on digital platforms starting December 1st and for physical purchase from December 22nd. It plays in Australian cinemas beginning on the fifth of February, 2026.