Publication Date: 02-07-2026

Dracula (2026) review

Dir. Luc Besson

By: Steve Pulaski

Rating: ★★★

Dracula has been the subject of so many movies that his story, no matter how much it either adheres to or deviates from its Bram Stoker source material, feels like overkill. I’ll be frank and say I wasn’t exactly chomping at the bit to see a version of the Count from Luc Besson, the man behind various action/sci-fi films such as Léon: The Professional and The Fifth Element. Low and behold, here’s something I wasn’t expecting to say: I enjoyed this iteration of Dracula more than Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein.

By leaning into romance as opposed to traditional horror, Besson’s film feels realized and different. It takes some thematic and plot cues from the woefully underrated Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, and has a gaggle of actors who aren’t household names, who sink into their performances as a result.

With Caleb Landry Jones playing Dracula, Besson positions Mina Murray (Zoë Bleu) as his long-lost 15th century lover, who died a tragic death in the middle of a snowy pasture after being chased by knighted Ottomans. He renounces God, violently murders a clergyman, and now is cursed to live forever. Besson’s work is somewhat narratively faithful, with its inclusion of Jonathan Harker (Ewens Abid), who sits down with Dracula at his castle, which is also occupied by some very entertaining gargoyles. There’s also Christoph Waltz as a variation on Van Helsing, further adding legitimacy to a cast who understands both the eerie and romantic beats of the material.

There’s one outstanding sequence in Besson’s Dracula. It’s an extraordinarily fun musical bit that features multiple elegant rooms, a swath of dancing dames, and Dracula applying his special perfume. Lucas “Kub” Fabiani’s sublime editing work times the cuts to the bouncy vocal harmonies, including a divine cross-cut of Drac applying perfume to each side of his neck at different points in time. The year is young, but it’s a coin-flip between this sequence and Ralph Fiennes’ metal concert in 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple for scene of the year.

By trading gore for romance, Besson truly underscores the love and passion imbued in Stoker’s material. It’s evident from early on when Dracula openly rejects the common belief that he has a hunger for blood. Sure, he’ll drink it, but it’s not his favorite. Caleb Landry Jones cycles through a great deal of emotions with poise and conviction, and his romance with Bleu’s Mina feels dimensional. Released in America less than two years after Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu scarred many of us on Christmas was a risky maneuver, but the highest compliment that can be paid to Besson’s vision is still manages to stand out despite a crowded onslaught of Dracula movies.

My review of Dracula (1931)

Starring: Caleb Landry Jones, Zoë Bleu, Christoph Waltz, Matilda De Angelis, Ewns Abid, and David Shields. Directed by: Luc Besson.