Review: Luc Besson gives 'Dracula' a new spin

Writer/director Luc Besson didn’t think so. He went back to Bram Stoker’s novel and found a romance just waiting to be dissected. That means his version had to go back some 400 years and show how the vampire’s love never died and prompted him to search for years for the woman he lost.

Through countless eras (and hairstyle and makeup changes), Besson lands on a driven Dracula (Caleb Landry Jones) who’s not stopping until he finds his intended. He thinks he spots her in Mina (Zoe Bleu), a young woman who he believes is the reincarnation of his Elisabeta. She feigns ignorance and, soon, the bite is on.

Jones goes through so many looks that you’ll swear he’s giving an overview of past Dracs. (The white-haired one is particularly familiar — a Lady Gaga/Edgar Winter mashup via Gary Oldman.) He handles the romance novel version quite well and isn’t afraid to lean into Besson’s faster vision.

On his trail is Christoph Waltz as a priest determined to stop the vampire. He lends an urgency to everything he does and makes his quest our quest.

Besson also questions some vamp-held beliefs (including one about light) and puts gargoyles to work in a way we never considered.

Sure, you can hear the horses’ hooves galloping across the countryside, but this is a “Dracula” that stakes a claim to a different heart. It’s closer to the recent “Nosferatu” than you’d think and embraces production design in a way that’s more instructive than it needs to be.

Jones makes a fine Vlad, but it might have been better to save his “ultimate” look until the film’s end. Showing him as an antique makes you wonder how any young woman would find him attractive without first seeing his bank balance.

Bleu works well throughout and would be a dandy lead in a film about young women marrying way older men, circa 2026. She’s trophy wife potential with worldly wisdom.

“Dracula” is a tale as old as time.