Dracula (2026)

Dracula | 2/5

Written by Cody Wagner: 2/18/2026

Dracula, also called Dracula (2026), or Dracula: A Love Story, was directed by Luc Besson. You know, director of such classics like Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, The Fifth Element, and Dogman. The film is about … Dracula? More so, on Dracula’s quest of finding his soulmate once again after 400 years. This time around it’s a love story and in many ways feels like a new riff on Francis Ford Coppola’s take on the famous monster. More specifically in the sense of the gothic being present in the romance rather than the horror. A gothic romance? Sure, sounds lovely. I only wish this movie was that. There’s just something about this take that sticks in my craw. 

I kind of understand the love for the movie. The style is lavish. It’s a love story with some spookiness to it! It’s Dracula. It’s … funny? With that last point especially, I find this movie all over the place and cannot decide which lane to stay in. 

The narrative itself jumps and is a little confusing. Example: The prologue is Dracula in love with his fiance Elisabeta. Then his bride dies and he goes on a quest to find her again. A few scenes later, Jonathan Harker asks him to tell his story before the threatened murder. So we go BACK to the Dracula origin story when that should’ve been taken care of in the beginning of the movie. Why not just start with Old Man Dracul and Jonathan Harker in the castle THEN give the origin story?  

I didn’t really buy into the romance too much as it was just them having ridiculously loud sex and a pillow fight before being whisked away to a battle. I get it we don’t have much time, but there was far too little time dedicated to them as a couple and Elisabeta as a person. Why do I care for them? When she died the idea was sad but it left me secretly waiting for some vampire shit to go on right after in a “Yes, yes, very sad… anyway…” sort of way. It is called Dracula, right? Don’t worry, Elisabeta is reincarnated as a woman named Mina, so that’s TWO undercooked characters! 

The vampire stuff happens after he kills (evidently?) the Pope himself because God didn’t spare Elisabeta despite Drac being a loyal servant. That was my first problem with this movie. He claims to have been a loyal servant to God and feels betrayed when she dies. That’s all great on paper, but it’s acted out like religion doesn’t phase him in any way. It’s like all of this is a nuisance to him and is in the way of the sex. I did not buy Dracula being a religious person to begin with, which is important because this movie heavily lies on faith being a theme.   

I won’t go through the entire plot of the film, but it’s Dracula sulking around and searching for Elisabeta in hopes that she would return to him. Another problem I have with this movie is the odd humor in it. For example, ol’ Dracula flings himself off his castle when it’s apparent that she’s dead, hoping to die. Yet, he’s cursed after turning his back on God. A very serious story beat, no? Apparently not. He obviously doesn’t die and gets back up again … again … and again, until my particular theater started to laugh at the misplaced humor. 

There were a few more scenes with misplaced humor and it got on my nerves. There was also this sequence/subplot of Dracula having made a perfume that gets people to do his bidding in place of the typical hypnosis trait of a vampire, so we see all these people in well made Victorian clothes dancing at the whim of Dracula. I just kept thinking, “Who the hell is this for?” A friend had told me that this plotline is borrowed from Perfume: The Story of a Murderer. Okay? Why? It didn’t really add anything. 

Speaking of borrowing plotlines, this movie seems to have many influences stitched together in an attempt to make this movie seem original but just comes across as derivative. You got the FFC’s Dracula influence, you got the Perfume subplot, and it feels near Disney-esque with these gargoyles that act as servants in the castle. At first I thought they were pretty interesting but then it nearly fell into a fairy tale vibe. The problem is that it’s in a Disney way and not in a Grimm’s fairy tale way. (Don’t even get me started on this one moment this one gargoyle seemed to do some karate action on a soldier after a siege on the castle? The hell was that about?) 

Not all of this movie is bad. I thought the performances were great considering what they had to work with. Caleb Landry Jones makes for a pretty good Dracula in his own right, becoming worthy of the Dracula actors preceding him. The costume design is on point. Very lavish, beautifully done. The armor in particular was detailed and fierce looking, over the top in practicality, but aesthetically beautiful. A lot of nods to the Vlad the Impaler legend. Christoph Waltz is always great and is essentially a perfect Van Helsing (only credited as “The Priest” here) in a commanding presence who’s always a step ahead of Dracula when vampire shit is going down. Matilda De Angelis as Maria (the Lucy stand-in) is delicious in the most macabre way and is so mischievous when it comes to playing with her food. She was pretty fun. 

Spoilers below for my main gripe of this movie: 

The ending VERY much didn’t work for me. Van Helsing (I’m just calling him that for simplicity’s sake) convinces him to turn back to God so that Elisabeta/Mina may turn human once again so that her soul can be saved. Mind you, a big regret to Dracula in the beginning of the movie is that he didn’t get to say goodbye, so Van Helsing beseeches him to repent. Mina begs him not to do it, but does so anyway so that she is not eternally damned. He’s then impaled by Helsing, he dies, Mina is saved. Hooray. Only, Dracula once again never said goodbye to Mina before one of them dies for the SECOND time! What a romantic, yeah? Don’t worry he says “I love you” and turns to dust.  I was very confused as to why this religious element came to it. I understand the unholy nature of a vampire, but the switch at the end of “You know what? Yes on all the Jesus stuff. Bring that ol’ Son of God back in here.” Yeah, it’s about returning Elisabeta back to normal and saving her soul, but I thought it was handled sloppily. Like it was just a means to an end. It could’ve been handled a lot better. (Like this movie!) 

Anyway, I understand why people like it. It’s a vibe. The aesthetics are nice. The scenery and cinematography is pretty stylized and pretty to look at, but couldn’t sway me over with its charm. Maybe it should’ve used more perfume in my direction.