Dracula Movie Critique – The French Director’s Passionate Reinterpretation of the Gothic Classic is Absurd but Entertaining

It’s possible interest is limited for a new version of Dracula from Luc Besson, the celebrated French director for stylish excess. And yet, it’s worth noting: his lavishly upholstered romantic vampire tale has ambition and panache – and in all its Hammer-y cheesiness, I might just favor over Robert Eggers’s recent, solemnly classy version of Nosferatu. Odd details emerge, like a particular moment that appears to show a territorial boundary between France and Romania.

Christoph Waltz as a Humorously Exhausted Clergyman Hunting Vampires

Christoph Waltz embodies a clever but beleaguered cleric fighting vampires – it’s surprising he never took on this role before – who ends up in Paris in 1889 during the centennial of the French Revolution. So does the sinister Dracula, enacted by the body-horror veteran Caleb Landry Jones using a distorted Eastern European tone reminiscent of Carell’s Gru character in the Despicable Me films. This character that he too was born to take on.

The Plot: A Saga of Heartbreak

Here’s the premise: the count has wandered endlessly the earth in anguish over four centuries following his rise as one of the undead, a penalty for his faithless sorrow over the death of his spouse Elisabeta (a movie debut role for Zoë Bleu, Rosanna Arquette’s child). Dracula has been searching, searching, searching for a lady who could be the reincarnation of his deceased partner. By cruel fate, the fortunate female turns out to be Mina (also Bleu, of course), the demure fiancee of Dracula’s wimpish land agent, Jonathan Harker (played by Ewens Abid), who just traveled to Dracula’s fortress to negotiate his property portfolio and whose miniature portrait of the winsome Mina attracted Dracula’s gaze.

The Filmmaker’s Approach and Lighthearted Touch

Besson organizes Dracula’s flashback sequence of worldwide travels in various outrageous costumes skillfully, and he willingly includes giving us humorous scenes reminiscent of Mel Brooks – for example the count’s repeated and futile attempts to commit suicide following Elisabeta’s passing, as well as farcical scenes that occur when Dracula sprays himself using a particular scent during the 1700s in Florence, which causes him to be compelling to the opposite sex. Absurd yet engaging.

Dracula is available digitally starting December 1st and in disc format from December 22nd. It plays in Australian cinemas from 5 February 2026.