‘Renfield’ Review – It’s Good, Bloody Fun
Nicolas Cage is no stranger to the vampire movie. In the 1988 pitch-black comedy Vampire’s Kiss, he plays a man who believes he’s becoming a vampire. But, it may just be all in his head. Regardless, Cage taps into his unhinged side as his character decides into madness, wearing plastic vampire teeth and turning his couch into a makeshift coffin. Now, 30 years later, Cage is dipping back into the world of unhinged bloodsuckers. But this time he trades in the fake teeth for a mouth of fangs to play the biggest and baddest vampire of all, Count Dracula, in Chris McKay’s horror-comedy Renfield.
Nicolas Hoult plays the titular Renfield, full name Robert Montague Renfield, a former property lawyer who falls victim to the allures of Dracula. Those familiar with Bram Stoker’s original novel, or even Francis Ford Coppola’s adaptation, you’ll remember the bug-eating Renfield who rants and raves from the confines of an institution. But in McKay’s film, Dracula and Renfield are placed in modern-day New Orleans, a contemporary sequel to the story we know and love, if you will.
Now, after centuries of devoted servitude to Dracula, Renfield is starting to regret his choices. Sure, he has access to Dracula’s powers via eating bugs. But that outweighs the solitude and guilt of killing innocent people. He starts attending a support group for people in co-dependent relationships, but not for himself, at least at first. He uses attendees’ stories to find his next victims, figuring that he’s doing them a favor by getting rid of the toxic people in their lives. But, the more meetings he attends, the more he realizes that he may, in fact, be in a co-dependent toxic relationship with Dracula.
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Meanwhile, Officer Rebecca Quincy (Awkwafina) is trying to combat the Lobo crime family, which includes the ostentatious Teddy Lobo (Ben Schwartz) and his cool and deadly mother and leader of the family, Bellafrancesca Lobo (a scene-stealing Shohreh Aghdashloo). As Rebecca seeks justice, she crosses paths with Renfield at a shootout with the Lobos where he flips through the air to chop off arms with serving platters. The two band together to fight drug lords, police corruption, and the Lord of Darkness himself.
Herein lies the biggest issue with Renfield: there’s too much happening with too many characters. Both Renfield and Rebecca’s journeys are given equal import, but that means neither is fully developed. The story, as a whole, is only partially cooked and leaves a bit to be desired. Yet, in the face of a messy overall story, Renfield still delivers hilarious performances and bloody set pieces to make up for it in spades.
The shining star of Renfield is, of course, an incredible Cage with a mouth full of sharp teeth and a rotten, yet charismatic, charm. He is Dracula at his campiest and also most self-aware. Decked out in velvet suits with a gaudy ring on each finger, he struts across the screen oozing with confidence as he rips, both literally and figuratively, into Renfield or his latest victim. He is able to be terrifying while also giggling behind his clawed hands as he taunts shaking humans. Most of all, Cage just looks like he’s having fun. He’s chewing up scenery like a ravenous wolf and it is glorious to behold.
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He also kills it, pun intended, in the scenes that call back to the 1931 original film. He’s able to beautifully emulate the facial expressions of Bela Lugosi and show the more intimidating side of Dracula before the film falls into all-out comedy.
Speaking of comedy, this is the rare horror-comedy that doesn’t eschew gore. So often horror comedies fail to strike that careful balance between the scares and the laughs. While Renfield very much leans into jokes and visual gags, it counteracts that with a deluge of crimson spurting from every orifice. Arms are removed and used as weapons, heads roll, and guts spill out, so there’s never a concern about not going far enough. Unfortunately, most of the blood is CGI which does take you out of the violence. For a film with such a massive budget, practical blood would have been more impressive. But still, McKay still delivers a waterfall of viscera reminiscent of Mortal Kombat fatalities.
Renfield may not be subverting genre expectations or changing the horror landscape, but it knows exactly what it is. It’s a fun, silly, and bloody romp that follows Hoult and Cage as they rip, smash, and bite their way through hordes of faceless goons. This is a movie that begs for a theatrical experience as you laugh and cheer at every death, each more ridiculous than the last. The story may be thin, but it’s merely there to provide a vehicle for a charming Hoult and campy Cage to ham it up to the extreme. To put it simply, Renfield is plain ol’ horror fun for all types of genre fans.
Summary
To put it simply, Renfield is plain ol’ horror fun for all types of genre fans.
