Dracula Film Analysis – Besson’s Romantic Revamp of the Timeless Gothic Tale is Ridiculous but Watchable

Maybe there is no great enthusiasm for a fresh take of Dracula from Luc Besson, the celebrated French director for glossiness and bloat. Still, it has to be said: his lavishly upholstered love story with vampires has ambition and panache – and with its B-movie charm, I’m not sure I wouldn’t prefer to it to Robert Eggers’s recent, solemnly classy version of Nosferatu. There are some very bizarre touches, such as a scene that appears to show a geographic divide between France and Romania.

Christoph Waltz as a Clever but Weary Priest Tracking the Undead

Christoph Waltz plays a humorous yet burdened cleric fighting vampires – it feels natural for him to tackle this role before – who finds himself in Paris in 1889 to mark the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution. So does the sinister Dracula, enacted 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. It’s a role that he too was born to take on.

The Story: A Saga of Heartbreak

Here’s the premise: the count has wandered endlessly the world in sorrow for hundreds of years following his rise as one of the undead, a penalty due to his blasphemous mourning over the death of his beloved Elisabeta (a movie debut role for Zoë Bleu, Rosanna Arquette’s child). Dracula has been searching, searching, searching for some woman who would be the reincarnation of his deceased partner. As ill fortune would have it, the fortunate female proves to be Mina (also Bleu, of course), the modest betrothed of Dracula’s feeble property handler, Jonathan Harker (played by Ewens Abid), who just traveled to the vampire’s estate to negotiate his property portfolio and the small picture of the charming Mina caught the count’s hooded eye.

Besson’s Handling and Lighthearted Touch

Besson organizes Dracula’s second-act backstory of worldwide travels sporting extravagant attire with a sure hand, and he willingly includes providing humorous scenes reminiscent of Mel Brooks – like Dracula’s ongoing failed efforts to commit suicide post-Elisabeta’s demise, along with absurd moments 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 can be streamed online from 1 December and for physical purchase from December 22nd. It plays in Australian cinemas from 5 February 2026.