Perhaps interest is limited for a new version of Dracula from Luc Besson, the filmmaker known for glossiness and bloat. Still, it’s worth noting: his richly designed love story with vampires displays creativity and style – and amid its theatrical camp, I’m not sure I wouldn’t prefer over Eggers’s dignified recent take of Nosferatu. There are some very bizarre touches, like a particular moment that seems to depict a territorial boundary between France and Romania.
The Veteran Actor as a Humorously Exhausted Clergyman Hunting Vampires
Christoph Waltz portrays a humorous yet burdened vampire-hunting priest – it’s surprising he never took on this character previously – who finds himself in Paris in 1889 for the French Revolution centenary celebrations. The same goes for the sinister Dracula, played by the seasoned horror actor Caleb Landry Jones speaking in a twisted regional dialect reminiscent of the voice of Gru by Steve Carell in the Despicable Me films. This is a part suits him perfectly.
The Story: A Saga of Heartbreak
The story is this: Dracula has wandered endlessly the earth in anguish over four centuries after his transformation into a vampire, a consequence due to his blasphemous mourning over the death of his spouse Elisabeta (a first film part for Zoë Bleu, daughter of Rosanna Arquette). The count has looked tirelessly for some woman who would be the reincarnation of his departed beloved. By cruel fate, the fortunate female is revealed as Mina (also Bleu, of course), the modest betrothed of Dracula’s feeble property handler, Jonathan Harker (played by Ewens Abid), who just traveled to Dracula’s fortress to discuss his property portfolio and whose miniature portrait of the winsome Mina attracted Dracula’s gaze.
Besson’s Direction and Humorous Style
Besson structures Dracula’s second-act backstory of international journeys in various outrageous costumes skillfully, and he is not above giving us humorous scenes with a distinctly Mel Brooks flavour – like the vampire’s constant unsuccessful tries to end his own life following Elisabeta’s passing, as well as comical sequences that occur when Dracula sprays himself in a certain perfume in 18th-century Florence, which causes him to be irresistible to women. Absurd yet engaging.
Dracula is on digital platforms beginning on the first of December and on DVD and Blu-ray from 22 December. It screens in Australian cinemas from 5 February 2026.
