At long last, I had the opportunity to view Dracula: A Love Tale and it proved to be almost everything I wanted it to be.
It’s well known that I will always check out a film that’s based on the story of Dracula or Frankenstein, as they are, to me, the quintessential horror stories. Dracula: A Love Tale immediately caught my attention because it takes Bram Stoker’s Dracula and does its level best to humanize him.
Dracula: A Love Tale
Directed by: Luc Besson
Starring: Caleb Landry Jones, Christoph Waltz,
Zoë BleuRelease Date: February 6, 2026
While Dracula has been portrayed on film for nearly a hundred years, it’s only been in the last few decades that filmmakers have focused on turning the drama between the vampire and Mina Murray into a proper love story. Dracula: A Love Tale isn’t the first film to suggest that Mina is the reincarnation of Dracula’s lost love, but it does tell this story very well.
The idea that Mina is Dracula’s lost beloved returned to life again works on a number of levels. First of all, it gives him a reason for becoming a vampire that, while twisted, isn’t entirely evil. For the character to be properly humanized, this is an important step.
Second, it turns the interactions between Mina and Dracula from something creepy into an expression of love that is almost unfathomably deep. Here is a man who has endured four centuries of time trying to find the woman he loved more than anything. And when he finally lays eyes on her…you can just feel the anguish in Dracula’s soul, that feeling of “I endured and did monstrous things but it was worth it because here she is!”
Caleb Landry Jones delivers a phenomenal performance as Count Dracula. He has to wear so many faces, from embittered prince, to aged vampire, to refined gentleman in the streets of 19th century Paris and he pulls it off beautifully. In fact the difference between his aged appearance when meeting with Harker and his appearance in Paris is so extreme, it’s hard to believe at times that they are the same person.
The point where I take issue is with Zoë Bleu’s performance as Mina/Elisabeta. Actually i have no issues with her appearance as Elisabeta, but as Mina…I found myself wanting more. Throughout the story where she appears, things mostly happen to Mina, and she just goes along with it for the most part. It’s only at the very end that she starts to reassert herself somewhat…but it’s a moment that is cut short and has no opportunity to return. I won’t say her performance is bad, just that it could have been more.
I also liked the idea presented in the film of Dracula being redeemed. It’s something that doesn’t appear very often, to my knowledge, in Dracula tales. Most of the time, Dracula is presented by this time in history as being an unredeemable monster, so far removed from humanity that oblivion is all that can be granted to him.
This Dracula, however, is different. This is a Dracula that has never completely forgotten what it is to be human and to love. Thus, when the facts are laid out to him, Dracula is able to recognize that true love sometimes involves letting something go, because it is better in the long run.
I also deeply appreciate that the director committed to a bittersweet ending for this story. Too often I see drama of this kind resolved in a happy ending that, while nice in the moment, doesn’t make sense in the long term. There’s no chance that a person, awakened to a past life and reunited with a past love, will be happy if and when that love is taken away from them. There would be deep mental anguish and a severe identity crisis at the bare minimum and I applaud the director for not shying away from that. Sometimes a story just doesn’t have a happy ending.
My only other gripe with this film comes with Christoph Waltz as the priest. He’s a great character, but I found myself wanting more of him. The way he randomly pops up in some scenes, I almost have the feeling that part of his story arc was cut from the film to focus more on Dracula. When the film comes to blu-ray, I will be curious to see what the deleted scenes look like, because I suspect there are more than a few.
Those issues aside, I deeply enjoyed Dracula: A Love Tale. While bittersweet, it is a great love story and the visuals of each scene are going to stick with me for a long time.
