Dracula Movie Critique – The French Director’s Romantic Revamp of the Gothic Classic is Absurd but Watchable

Perhaps audiences aren’t clamoring for an updated adaptation of Dracula from Luc Besson, the celebrated French director for polished extravagance. And yet, it’s worth noting: his richly designed love story with vampires has ambition and panache – and amid its theatrical camp, I might just favor compared with Robert Eggers’s recent, solemnly classy version of Nosferatu. A few strange elements appear, like a particular moment that looks like it presents a land border between France and Romania.

Christoph Waltz as a Clever but Weary Priest Tracking the Undead

Christoph Waltz embodies a humorous yet burdened cleric fighting vampires – it’s surprising he never took on this character previously – who finds himself in Paris in 1889 during the centennial of the French Revolution. So does the malevolent vampire count, brought to life by the expert in grotesque roles Caleb Landry Jones using a distorted Eastern European tone evoking Carell’s Gru character in the Despicable Me films. It’s a role that he too was born to take on.

The Plot: A Saga of Heartbreak

The plot unfolds as follows: the vampire lord has traveled ceaselessly the world in anguish for 400 years following his rise as one of the undead, a punishment for his irreligious grief over the death of his spouse Elisabeta (a first film part for Zoë Bleu, the offspring of Rosanna Arquette). Dracula has sought relentlessly for some woman who could be the return of his lost love. As ill fortune would have it, the chosen woman turns out to be Mina (again played by Bleu), the reserved future wife of the count’s timid estate manager, Jonathan Harker (Ewens Abid), who has recently been to the vampire’s estate to review his real estate holdings and the tiny painting of the lovely Mina caught the count’s hooded eye.

Besson’s Handling and Lighthearted Touch

Besson organizes Dracula’s flashback sequence of international journeys sporting extravagant attire confidently, and he willingly includes giving us some comedy moments in the style of Mel Brooks – for example the count’s repeated and futile attempts to commit suicide after Elisabeta’s death, along with farcical scenes that result after Dracula douses himself using a particular scent in historic Florence, which makes him unavoidably attractive to females. Absurd yet engaging.

Dracula is available digitally beginning on the first of December and for physical purchase from December 22nd. It will be shown in Australian cinemas from 5 February 2026.