Dracula Movie Critique – The French Director’s Love-Struck Revamp of the Gothic Classic is Absurd but Engaging

Perhaps audiences aren’t clamoring for a new version of Dracula from Luc Besson, the filmmaker known for glossiness and bloat. Still, it has to be said: his richly designed vampire romance displays creativity and style – and in all its Hammer-y cheesiness, I’m not sure I wouldn’t prefer to it to Eggers’s dignified recent take of Nosferatu. There are some very bizarre touches, including one shot that appears to show a land border between France and Romania.

Waltz as a Witty Yet Careworn Vampire-Hunting Priest

Christoph Waltz embodies a humorous yet burdened man of the church pursuing the undead – it feels natural for him to tackle such a part earlier – who arrives 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 speaking in a twisted regional dialect evoking the voice of Gru by Steve Carell from the Despicable Me comedies. This character he seemed destined to play.

The Plot: A Chronicle of Longing

Here’s the premise: Dracula has traveled ceaselessly the globe in anguish for 400 years following his rise as one of the undead, a consequence for his faithless sorrow over the death of his spouse Elisabeta (a first film part for Zoë Bleu, daughter of Rosanna Arquette). the vampire has been searching, searching, searching for some woman who might be the reincarnation of his departed beloved. Unfortunately, the lucky lady proves to be Mina (also Bleu, of course), the demure fiancee of Dracula’s feeble property handler, Jonathan Harker (enacted by Ewens Abid), who just traveled to Dracula’s fortress to review his land assets and the small picture of the charming Mina caught the count’s hooded eye.

The Filmmaker’s Approach and Comic Flair

Besson organizes Dracula’s second-act backstory of worldwide travels wearing flamboyant outfits skillfully, and he is not above giving us some comedy moments with a distinctly Mel Brooks flavour – like the count’s repeated and futile attempts to commit suicide following Elisabeta’s passing, along with absurd moments that occur when Dracula douses himself with a specific fragrance in historic Florence, which causes him to be compelling to the opposite sex. Outlandish but entertaining.

Dracula can be streamed online starting December 1st and for physical purchase from 22 December. It screens in Australian cinemas from 5 February 2026.