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

It’s possible interest is limited for a new version of Dracula from Luc Besson, the filmmaker known for glossiness and bloat. However, one must admit: his opulently crafted romantic vampire tale boasts bold vision and flair – and amid its theatrical camp, it could be preferable compared with the recent, stately interpretation by Robert Eggers of Nosferatu. Odd details emerge, including one shot that appears to show a land border between France and Romania.

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

Christoph Waltz portrays a witty yet careworn man of the church pursuing the undead – I can’t believe he hasn’t played this character previously – who finds himself in Paris in 1889 to mark the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution. So does the sinister Dracula, enacted by the body-horror veteran Caleb Landry Jones speaking in a twisted regional dialect similar to Steve Carell’s Gru from the Despicable Me comedies. This is a part he seemed destined to play.

The Narrative: A Chronicle of Longing

The plot unfolds as follows: the count has been restlessly roaming the globe in torment over four centuries since he became undead, a punishment for his irreligious grief over the death of his spouse Elisabeta (a movie debut role for Zoë Bleu, Rosanna Arquette’s child). The count has sought relentlessly for a lady who would be the rebirth of his lost love. As ill fortune would have it, the lucky lady 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 just traveled to Dracula’s fortress to negotiate his property portfolio and the tiny painting of the winsome Mina caught the count’s hooded eye.

Besson’s Direction and Comic Flair

Besson structures Dracula’s second-act backstory of global roaming wearing flamboyant outfits confidently, and he willingly includes providing some comedy moments reminiscent of Mel Brooks – for example Dracula’s ongoing failed efforts to end his own life post-Elisabeta’s demise, in addition to farcical scenes that follow Dracula douses himself in a certain perfume in 18th-century Florence, that renders him compelling to the opposite sex. Ridiculous and watchable.

Dracula is available digitally from 1 December and on DVD and Blu-ray from 22 December. It screens in Australian cinemas beginning on the fifth of February, 2026.