SPOILER-FREE PLOT SUMMARY
Prince Vladimir of Wallachia (played by Caleb Landry Jones) heads out to lead his people to victory in the war against the Ottomans. After the battle, he’s told by a servant that the caravan of his beloved wife, Elisabeta (Zoë Bleu), was attacked and she fled on horseback. He sets out to find her but arrives just before she dies from her injuries. Grief stricken, the powerful Prince confronts the priest who promised he’d pray for his wife’s safety, eventually killing him and renouncing God. Cursed by his actions and loss, the Prince — now Dracula — spends the next 400 years searching for the reincarnation of his wife. One night, real estate solicitor Jonathan Harker (Ewens Abid) meets with the Count in an attempt to buy his castle. Dracula confirms he’s going to kill him but offers him one final wish. When Harker asks to know the Count’s back story, Dracula is surprised he would want to hear “stories from an old man” but obliges. He then shares his four-century long, worldwide search for his wife but, when Harker shows the Count a picture of his own fiancee, Dracula immediately realizes that his search is over and he begins a quest to convince Mina that she is, indeed, Elisabeta reincarnate.
SPOILER-FREE REVIEW
Look, let’s be honest, we don’t need any more vampire movies. Between the TWILIGHT series from 2008-2012, Robert Eggers’ Oscar-nominated NOSFERATU a couple years ago, the horror comedy RENFIELD in 2023, ABIGAIL in 2024 and even THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE DEMETER a few years back, the list goes on and on. We’ve seen an exhaustive list of them hit theaters recently and we hardly needed another.
That said, DRACULA: A LOVE TALE is an excellent addition to the genre with solid performances by Jones, Bleu and Christoph Waltz, in particular. The story is compelling, the set design is impressive and the character development is elite.
The best movie of 2026 so far, director Luc Besson brings the audience the unthinkable: another classic vampire film. It’s just too bad the water is so diluted in this pool. In a vacuum, it probably stands close to 2024’s NOSFERATU in terms of quality, directing and emotion. In reality, however, timing is DRACULA’s worst enemy.
If you love the genre in the least, DRACULA: A LOVE TALE should be appointment-viewing.
JKG SCORE: 7.5
Untitled Film Project 