Dracula Film Analysis – Besson’s Passionate Reimagining of the Timeless Gothic Tale is Ridiculous but Engaging

Maybe there is no great enthusiasm for a new version of Dracula from Luc Besson, the celebrated French director for glossiness and bloat. However, it’s worth noting: his lavishly upholstered vampire romance has ambition and panache – and in all its Hammer-y cheesiness, I’m not sure I wouldn’t prefer to it to Robert Eggers’s recent, solemnly classy version of Nosferatu. A few strange elements appear, like a particular moment that seems to depict a territorial boundary between France and Romania.

Waltz as a Humorously Exhausted Vampire-Hunting Priest

Christoph Waltz embodies a clever but beleaguered vampire-hunting priest – it’s surprising he never took on this role before – who finds himself in Paris in 1889 for the French Revolution centenary celebrations. Likewise present is the malevolent vampire count, brought to life by the body-horror veteran Caleb Landry Jones speaking in a twisted regional dialect evoking Steve Carell’s Gru in the Despicable Me films. This character suits him perfectly.

The Plot: A Saga of Heartbreak

Here’s the premise: the vampire lord has wandered endlessly the earth in sorrow over four centuries after his transformation into a vampire, a consequence for his irreligious grief over the death of his wife, Elisabeta (a movie debut role for Zoë Bleu, daughter of Rosanna Arquette). The count has been searching, searching, searching for some woman who would be the return of his deceased partner. Unfortunately, the chosen woman is revealed as Mina (also Bleu, of course), the reserved future wife of Dracula’s feeble property handler, Jonathan Harker (Ewens Abid), who lately visited to the vampire’s estate to review his real estate holdings and the small picture of the winsome Mina attracted Dracula’s gaze.

Besson’s Direction and Comic Flair

Besson organizes Dracula’s second-act backstory of international journeys wearing flamboyant outfits skillfully, and he willingly includes offering funny bits with a distinctly Mel Brooks flavour – for example Dracula’s ongoing failed efforts to end his own life after Elisabeta’s death, as well as absurd moments that result after Dracula sprays himself in a certain perfume in historic Florence, which makes him irresistible to women. Ridiculous and watchable.

Dracula can be streamed online from 1 December and on DVD and Blu-ray from 22 December. It will be shown in Australian cinemas starting February 5, 2026.