Dracula Movie Critique – Luc Besson’s Love-Struck Revamp of the Classic Horror Story is Absurd but Watchable

Perhaps 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 opulently crafted love story with vampires displays creativity and style – and with its B-movie charm, I might just favor to it to Eggers’s dignified recent take of Nosferatu. Odd details emerge, like a particular moment that looks like it presents a territorial boundary between France and Romania.

The Veteran Actor as a Witty Yet Careworn Clergyman Hunting Vampires

Christoph Waltz plays a witty yet careworn cleric fighting vampires – it’s surprising he never took on this character previously – who ends up in Paris in 1889 during the centennial of the French Revolution. The same goes for the malevolent vampire count, enacted by the seasoned horror actor Caleb Landry Jones using a distorted Eastern European tone evoking the voice of Gru by Steve Carell of the Despicable Me series. It’s a role suits him perfectly.

The Narrative: A Chronicle of Longing

The story is this: the count has wandered endlessly the earth in anguish over four centuries after his transformation into a vampire, a punishment for his irreligious grief following the loss of his wife, Elisabeta (a first film part for Zoë Bleu, Rosanna Arquette’s child). The count has looked tirelessly for a female who could be the rebirth of his departed beloved. Unfortunately, the fortunate female proves to be Mina (portrayed once more by Bleu), the reserved future wife of Dracula’s wimpish land agent, Jonathan Harker (played by Ewens Abid), who lately visited to the count’s castle to negotiate his property portfolio and the tiny painting of the lovely Mina drew the vampire’s attention.

The Filmmaker’s Approach and Comic Flair

Besson arranges Dracula’s second-act backstory of international journeys sporting extravagant attire with a sure hand, and he doesn’t shy away from giving us funny bits reminiscent of Mel Brooks – for example the count’s repeated and futile attempts to kill himself following Elisabeta’s passing, in addition to comical sequences that follow Dracula applies to himself with a specific fragrance in 18th-century Florence, that renders him compelling to the opposite sex. Absurd yet engaging.

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