Renfield is a 2023 film distributed by Universal Pictures, directed by Chris McKay, and stars Nicholas Hoult, Nicolas Cage, and Awkwafina. The story follows Dracula’s long time familiar, Renfield, as he attempts to break free from the servitude of Count Dracula and create a life for himself outside his shadow. This film is hard to categorize in a specific genre. It’s part horror given the classic horror characters it follows, part action for the almost Jason Statham like badass, bloody action sequences that play throughout, and part comedy for the goofy dialogue from all parties involved and general awkwardness of the character Renfield. This movie was right around an hour and a half, which isn’t a bad run time for a film, but it made the plot feel almost rushed through and underdeveloped at times here. The story wasn’t all that thick or hard to comprehend to begin with though so that helped save it from feeling too rushed.
This story is an apparent sequel to the original Universal ‘Dracula” movie that came out in 1931, part of the group now known as the ‘Universal Monsters franchise’ (absolute classic horror staples, anyone who wants to delve further into the genre or just appreciates classic film should check them out if they haven’t already.) There were even a few redone and remastered black-and-white, flashback scenes from the 1931 film, featuring Cage and Hoult replacing Frye and Lugosi (the OG Renfield and Dracula). Learning that fact was wild to me personally because I cannot think of a single movie that was sequelized over 90 years after the original’s release, breaking records in my book with that.
Cage gets a lot of flack for his acting, he’s often labeled as either stale and emotionless or overacting to a point of ridiculous, there seems to be no in-between. He also seems to be divisive in the fact that most movie watchers are either Cage fans or Cage haters, I fall somewhere in the middle. I won’t watch a movie just because he’s in it but if it something looks good and he happens to be in it then I’m gonna check it out, that’s what the case was here. He portrayed a fine Count Drac, not too over the top and not too stale but not a show stealing performance in the cape and fangs either. He wasn’t on the scale of Bela Lugosi or even Gary Oldman when it came to the portrayal, but he was playing a much different Dracula than either of them as well. Instead of the sinister, dark, brooding lead character that Drac normally is, the version in this movie was more of a cynical, self-absorbed, asshole boss who was holding down the lead character in Renfield. Awkwafina was wonderful as usual, portraying a street cop trying to clean up her city despite being held under the thumb of her corrupted police department (pretty classic story there), but the show stealing performance has to go to the lead in this case, Nicholas Hoult as Renfield. He was able to show the most character depth, had part in some of the silliest scenes, and did well in showing the struggle between doing the right thing or listening to his master, I mean the movie was named after him for God’s sake so it would be kind of a shame if he wasn’t able to win the show stealing performance here.
Overall, it was an enjoyable viewing. Not one of my favorites of the year or one that I’ll sing the praises too highly for, but there was nothing overtly bad about this movie either. Nothing about this film truly blew me away or shocked me by any means, but it wasn’t really that kind of movie anyways. The storyline was pretty basic and none of the actors were putting on an Oscar winning performance but that wasn’t needed for this flick. This is a popcorn flick, grab a drink and a snack and just watch. It doesn’t require too much thinking power, doesn’t tug too much at your emotions, isn’t too overly intense or cringeworthy at any time. It’s just a quick hour and a half ride allowing the viewer to sit back, have a few chuckles, and enjoy. If you’re into Dracula or the Universal Monsters, enjoy horror or even more so the subgenre horror comedy, are a fan of or can tolerate Nic Cage, and aren’t too grossed out at the human consumption of insects then this movie is probably right up your alley.
