Renfield

This horror-tinged action comedy is a tonne of fun, leaning into its tongue-in-cheek tone and deliberately over-the-top violence and gore.  Nicholas Hoult and Awkwafina are both great – but the highlight is obviously Nicolas Cage’s intentionally larger-than-life performance as Dracula.

Premise:  Having served as Dracula’s minion for a century, former lawyer-turned-familiar Renfield (Nicholas Hoult) arrives in present day New Orleans to find fresh victims for his master (Nicolas Cage).  However, after spending time with a self-help support group and meeting an honest cop (Awkwafina) trying to take down the local crime family, Renfield starts to question the healthiness of his relationship with the Prince of Darkness.

Review:

Let’s be honest – there have been countless onscreen depictions of Dracula since Bram Stoker's novel was published in 1897, and for every truly memorable performance, there are dozens of forgettable ones.  To stand out now, 92 years after Bela Lugosi first played the Count, it takes a particularly special performance – but thankfully, that’s exactly what Nicolas Cage provides in this very enjoyable action comedy.

Renfield isn’t quite a spoof in the vein of Dracula: Dead and Loving It, but the film’s tongue is very firmly in its cheek, and Nicolas Cage’s performance is deliberately over the top, playing into the tropes and cliches of the character.  This feels like a role that Nicolas Cage was born to play, and a perfect opportunity for him to go “full Cage” with his performance.

“…’Renfield’ isn’t really a horror film at all – it’s an action comedy…”

Just as there have been a million onscreen Draculas, there have also been endless adaptations of the original novel (or variations of it), most of which blur together after a while.  But Renfield (which is based on an original story from Robert Kirkman, creator of The Walking Dead) makes the smart decision not to tell yet another Dracula story, instead focusing on a relatively minor character from the novel and telling a new. modern story from his perspective, where Dracula is only a supporting character.

In terms of standing out from all of the other Dracula/vampire movies, it also helps that Renfield isn’t really much of a vampire movie or horror film at all – it's actually an action comedy, which just happens to be set against a supernatural backdrop.  Plot wise, the film is much more focused on Awkwafina‘s cop character, Rebecca Quincy, and her efforts to take down the crime family responsible for her father’s murder, than it is about the traditional plot elements of a vampire movie.

“…Nicolas cage is surrounded with a fantastic comedic cast…”

Similarly, instead of just being used as a vehicle for another tired vampire-based plot, the central dynamic between Dracula and Renfield is used to explore (in a comedic way) toxic, co-dependent relationships.  In this respect, Renfield shares some traits with director Chris McKay‘s earlier film, The Lego Batman Movie, insofar as both films delve into dysfunctional interpersonal relationships to great comedic effect.  In Renfield, Dracula is portrayed as the “boss from hell”, who seems to relish small scale evil (namely emotionally manipulating and abusing his minion) as much as large scale evil (like wanting to feed on a bus full of cheerleaders), making this movie in some ways a workplace drama, like The Devil Wears Prada with fangs.

As good as Nicolas Cage is, Chris McKay makes the wise decision to (a) use him sparingly (so that his larger-than-life performance doesn’t wear thin), and (b) surround him with a fantastic comedic cast.  Nicholas Hoult is one of those actors who seems equally at home in almost any genre, and here he’s both an unlikely action hero (in this version, the Renfield character effectively has superpowers) and a comedic goldmine, often at the same time.  In comparison, Awkwafina has a more straightlaced role (compared to her more overtly comedic character in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) but she still brings a lot of heart to the movie, while Ben Schwartz is a comedy highlight as the scuzzy low-life son of Shohreh Aghdashloo‘s head of the local crime family.

“…enjoyed this ride from beginning to end, and left the cinema on a high…”

Ultimately, Renfield isn’t a film that you come to see for its plot, but it excels in its other areas.  Renfield’s dawning realisation that he needs to do something about his toxic relationship with Dracula is genuinely amusing, and the numerous action scenes are not only kinetically and inventively choreographed, but they’re also hilariously over-the-top and gory in places too (to far better comedic effect than Cocaine Bear managed earlier this year).  I enjoyed this ride from beginning to end, laughed out loud in several places, and left the cinema on a high – and what more can you ask for from a tight 90-minute action comedy like this?