Dracula Movie Critique – Besson’s Romantic Reimagining of the Gothic Classic is Absurd but Entertaining

Maybe there is no great enthusiasm for a new version of Dracula from Luc Besson, the celebrated French director for stylish excess. And yet, it has to be said: his lavishly upholstered romantic vampire tale has ambition and panache – and in all its Hammer-y cheesiness, it could be preferable compared with the recent, stately interpretation by Robert Eggers of Nosferatu. There are some very bizarre touches, like a particular moment that appears to show a territorial boundary between France and Romania.

The Veteran Actor as a Humorously Exhausted Vampire-Hunting Priest

Christoph Waltz plays a witty yet careworn cleric fighting vampires – I can’t believe he hasn’t played this character previously – who ends up in Paris in 1889 during the centennial of the French Revolution. Likewise present is the evil Count Dracula, brought to life by the seasoned horror actor Caleb Landry Jones using a distorted Eastern European tone similar to the voice of Gru by Steve Carell of the Despicable Me series. This character suits him perfectly.

The Narrative: A Chronicle of Longing

The story is this: the count has traveled ceaselessly the earth in anguish for hundreds of years after his transformation into a vampire, a punishment for his faithless sorrow after the passing of his wife, Elisabeta (an inaugural screen appearance for Zoë Bleu, the offspring of Rosanna Arquette). The count has looked tirelessly for a lady who could be the rebirth of his departed beloved. As ill fortune would have it, the fortunate female proves to be Mina (again played by Bleu), the modest betrothed of the count’s timid estate manager, Jonathan Harker (played by Ewens Abid), who lately visited to the vampire’s estate to review his property portfolio and the tiny painting of the lovely Mina drew the vampire’s attention.

Besson’s Direction and Lighthearted Touch

Besson structures Dracula’s middle-section history of global roaming wearing flamboyant outfits confidently, and he willingly includes giving us some comedy moments in the style of Mel Brooks – like Dracula’s ongoing failed efforts to commit suicide post-Elisabeta’s demise, as well as farcical scenes that occur when Dracula douses himself using a particular scent in historic Florence, which makes him compelling to the opposite sex. Ridiculous and watchable.

Dracula is available digitally beginning on the first of December and on DVD and Blu-ray starting the twenty-second of December. It plays in Australian cinemas beginning on the fifth of February, 2026.