Dracula review
Who’s ready for another Dracula movie?
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Dracula
Directed by Luc Besson
Screenplay by Luc Besson
Starring Caleb Landry Jones, Christoph Waltz, Zoe Bleu, Guillaume de Tonquedec, Matilda De Angelis and Ewens Abid
Dracula (2026) Review
It’s somewhat fitting that we are talking about another adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula so soon after Guillermo del Toro brought us his adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. The subjects of the two novels have been linked for longer than anyone reading this has been alive. Unless there are any people in their late 90s checking out this review. Frankenstein’s Monster and Count Dracula have been in the zeitgeist for longer than 90 years, of course. Shelley’s novel arrived in 1818. Stoker’s vampire story hit at the end of that century. But it’s the Universal Monster movies from 1931 that made the duo enduing pop-culture icons.
Like del Toro’s Frankenstein, Dracula: A Love Tale heads back to the source…stripping away as much of that Universal imagery as it can. That’s much easier to do with Whale’s Frankenstein which bore far less resemblance to Shelley’s novel than Browning’s Dracula did to Stoker’s. The result of both is essentially the same though. You’ve seen this all before. Nothing can really be done about that. Whether it’s a talented filmmaker like del Toro or Robert Eggers…or whatever you classify Luc Besson as…they’re starting with an unavoidable issue. Everyone knows the story already.
Besson is a problematic director. I’m not even talking about the litany of allegations in his personal life. I mean he’s directed some truly terrible movies since his hot streak in the 90s. Advertising for Dracula included the line “From the director of Lucy”. I don’t know that directing Lucy is something I would brag about, let alone use to sell a new movie…but it tells the quality of Besson’s work over the last three decades. Relative to his body of work over that period…Dracula is better than you’d expect. Some of that is the floor built in by the familiar story…but Besson does a few things to make it feel as fresh as possible.
Dracula is, at times, a very stylish movie. A scene in a convent stood out as a highlight. Besson turns to Danny Elfman to provide the score…which is about as perfect a fit for the material as he could have found. There is a change to the ending of the story that really worked for me too. Dracula has always been a story about lost love…and Besson’s ending fits the motif better than the original one. But the real reasons to watch this new version of Dracula are its two best casting choices.
Caleb Landry Jones gives a terrific performance as Dracula. From flashbacks to before he defied God through his old man makeup to the regenerated, focused Count we all know and love…Jones nails every moment. I’m not familiar enough with his full body of work to call it a career best…but it sure has to be up there. Joining him in delivering some great work is the always great Christoph Waltz. He’s taken the link between Frankenstein and Dracula as far as anyone could…having starred in the latest adaptations back to back. He’s playing Van Helsing though the script never calls him that (or anything other than Priest) for some reason. It won’t surprise you to learn that he’s a very good Van Helsing. Between Jones and Waltz…someone is giving you a top notch performance while a terrific score and some visual flare accompany them at all times.
So, why is Dracula just…pretty good? Some of it is the familiarity of the story…there’s no denying it. In the same way that del Toro’s Frankenstein couldn’t help but look and feel a bit too much like Kenneth Branagh’s take on the material a few decades ago…Besson’s Dracula is caught in the shadow of Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula. This movie is at its best when it varies the beats as much as it can. But there’s only so much that you can do with a story this widely known. The pacing is a weird beast of its own. The movie somehow feels like it’s moving too fast…and overstays its welcome at the same time. There is a kinetic energy to the individual scenes…but the overall package still feels overwrought.
Should you watch this latest adaptation of Dracula? It’s a tough question to answer. If you love the story…you’re going to watch every version of it no matter what I say. You’ll probably get the most out of it…so go nuts. I have never really cared for the story…which I try to make clear even in reviews of adaptations I think are much better than this one (like Nosferatu) …but I can see what works and doesn’t in the telling of it. Besson’s Dracula mostly works. A few missteps here and there don’t derail it. But I can’t say you’ll be enthused throughout its over two-hour runtime. It’s not the worst version of the Dracula story out there. But it’s also not even the best one in the last 14 months.
Scare Value
Around Christmas of 2024 I said that Robert Eggers has delivered the best version of the Dracula tale…and it was time to put it away for a while. Well, it wasn’t put away for very long. Luc Besson tackles the familiar material with some style, a great score, a couple of strong ideas and a pair of terrific performances. And it all adds up to…a pretty good movie. The story is simply too well worn at this point of its life to sustain the number of adaptations we’re getting. Still, you could do a lot worse with it. You could also do better.
2.5/5
Dracula (2026) Link
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