{"id":51599,"date":"2026-02-05T00:01:58","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T05:01:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=51599"},"modified":"2026-02-04T16:40:30","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T21:40:30","slug":"dracula-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2026\/02\/05\/dracula-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Dracula: A Love Tale [2026]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Dracula searches for his lost love, while a priest seeks to destroy him, in Luc Besson\u2019s romantic take on the Bram Stoker story, Dracula: A Love Tale.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Luc Besson, director of The Fifth Element and Leon: The Professional<\/a> (and countless<\/a> others<\/a>), sinks his teeth into writing and directing a new version of the oft-told Dracula tale. With the subtitle of A Love Tale, Besson shifts Bram Stoker’s narrative into a melancholy romance across time rather than bloodshed and horror, often entrancing with a sense of space and character.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a fine film, but I wish I liked it more. There\u2019s a whole lot to love. The different method of telling the familiar story, the lush and gorgeous set and scenery, and the fantastic but subdued performance by Caleb Landry Jones<\/a> as the titular vampire. But something comes off flat and disconnected. But I was engaged, liked what I saw overall, and still recommend.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I appreciate Dracula: A Love Story. Besson crafts a thoughtful film, with a slow, beating heart; far more purposely paced than his usually frantic methods, but just as stylish. Of all Draculas that came before, it hews closest to Francis Ford Coppola<\/a>\u2019s 1992. While I do try to separate adaptations, it\u2019s hard not to connect their shared openings of losing one\u2019s love, renouncing God, and spending hundreds of years looking for her reincarnation. It\u2019s an element not in Bram Stoker\u2019s book, but aspects of it appear across media, but never so much of all the bits lining up as these two versions. The elderly, long-unfed Dracula make-up and hair on Jones is just about the same. Yes, he is an older version of himself in the castle with Harker in the novel, but if you\u2019re going to do that bit of the adaptation, don\u2019t make it look exactly like the other one. But, rest assured, despite these two glaring similarities, which would be weird not to mention, Luc Besson\u2019s Dracula is rather different from Coppola’s.<\/span>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I liked how Besson takes these shifts. Jones\u2019s Dracula is not an evil, vile creature of the night. He’s a man at a loss without his love, angry at his god and the world. Besson flashes back as Dracula travels, looking for his connection, finding his powers, and his vampirism.\u00a0 It\u2019s a shift, with Caleb Landry Jones playing Dracula with a subdued power of sadness and loss; more romantic. I\u2019ve always enjoyed Jones as an actor, including the underappreciated vampire flick Byzantium. He seems like an odd pick for this role, but he matches very well with Besson\u2019s focus on the Count. His obsession and love exude with a look; his readings are wonderfully thoughtful. He\u2019s a great romantic Count Dracula. Rest assured, he does have his wonderful vampire moments. Interest in his power is as often the charm, perfume, and focus. It\u2019s fun watching him getting a turn a convent of Nuns into a scene from Ken Russell\u2019s The Devils. However, when there is more direct vampire action, it\u2019s out of place and odd, particularly in more violent aspects. But he doens\u2019t seem like he enjoys it, giving a different dimension.<\/span><\/p>\n

With all the extra time spent on Dracula\u2019s backstory, again appreciated and gives a new life to his undeath, the human end is rushed. Thankfully, the fact vampires exist and are known creatures is got out of the way early, with Christoph Waltz, fresh from Frankenstein<\/a>, now as a Van Helsing-like Priest (unnamed otherwise), immediately recognizing an asylum-captured Maria (this film\u2019s Lucy with some Renfield) as a creature. How Dracula uses her and the other vampires is an interesting change (spoilers if I go further here). Gathering the team, recognizing what\u2019s happening, heading to Transylvania to fight the count and get Mina back is all dashed out quickly in interspersing scenes. It\u2019s almost perfunctory, like Besson knows the story needs the other plot line, but knows we know it already from the countless adaptations over the last 104 years since Nosferatu. He\u2019s far more interested in Dracula and Mina. As played by Zoe Bleu, Mina\u2019s concept for this take is interesting, but sadly, she has little to do but be swept along and look lovingly at Dracula. Though she has a great scene with Maria, played by Matilda De Angelis, as they visit a freakshow, showing a love of the sad and strange, connecting to Dracula.\u00a0<\/span>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

On a technical end, Dracula is gorgeous. Besson and DP Colin Wandersman\u2019s camera work and set-ups are astounding. Sweeping exteriors, with added CGI that, while obviously CG, looks great, and lush, detailed interior sets. I was surprised to learn they were sets, as the incredible churches, castle interiors, and others have an innate beauty of the region’s churches and buildings. I would believe they were in a real castle. Congrats to production designer Hugues Tissandier. But those costumes. Wow. Incredible and intricate, Corinne Bruand\u2019s costuming is exquisite. Especially what Mina\/Elizabeth dons throughout.\u00a0 On a final CG note, Dracula has some CG gargoyles as minions; like the exteriors, they are clearly generated, but I loved the look and movement. There was a stone life to them. Though many might find them silly, especially in the strange and out-of-place action-heavy climax. Danny Elfman<\/a> provides a solid score to connect it all.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

With a soulful, romantic performance of the titular character, Caleb Landry Jones makes a great Dracula. Luc Besson\u2019s film is a different, but mostly well-done take, although it stumbles in balancing the story and tone. It has a great look and core. Recommended, even with any issues I had.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dracula searches for his lost love, while a priest seeks to destroy him, in Luc Besson\u2019s romantic take on the Bram Stoker story, Dracula: A Love Tale.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[302,477,874],"class_list":["post-51599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-drama","tag-horror","tag-romance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51599"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51599\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51604,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51599\/revisions\/51604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}