Renfield (2023)
Director: Chris McKay
Starring: Nicholas Hoult, Awkwafina, Nicolas Cage, Ben Schwartz
Primary genre: Action
Secondary genre: Comedy
Third genre: Horror
“Renfield” sounded like a nice idea on paper: the servant of the most adapted cinematic character of all time is given his own movie where he tends to his master’s needs and in possession of supernatural powers, acrobatic talents and centuries of social awkwardness. Taking place in New Orleans (completely wasted in this production), the film has an unnecessary narration and makes one grievous mistake: it gives instantly away its main selling point without any sort of a build up: the dysfunctional (i.e., toxic) relationship between Renfield and Dracula.
Although the notion of exploring this abusive relationship is not bad and could have become the source for a few laughs, “Renfield” is overstuffed with unnecessary elements which bring its momentum to a halt. Intercutting between a severely underutilized Nicolas Cage and Renfield’s attempts to provide for him a fresh bunch of innocent victims with banal criminal proceedings through Awkwafina’s (least convincing) honest cop, several tones exist at once. Yet the delicate balance of horror and comedy that for example, “Scream” (1996) perfectly captured, is not something that anyone can pull off. “Renfield” is a mis-match of “John Wick” (2014) esque action infused with OTT computer generated gore and gun fu (!) alternating genres every time Cage is on screen or Hoult and Awkwafina try to have a moment of genuine connection with as much conviction as of the latter’s ability to sing in “The Little Mermaid” (2023).
“You know, I don’t ask for much, Renfield. Just the blood of a few dozen innocent people”
Its greatest asset remains of course Nicolas Cage who devours mountains of scenery in one of his most entertaining performances in his rather prolific and eccentric career; a sequence in Renfield’s flat that sees Dracula becoming increasingly frustrated at his minion’s attempts to move away from him is by far the best thing in the entire movie laying the blueprint of what “Renfield“ should been about. Yet, the script prefers to incorporate illogical and unnecessary action beats that tire more than excite. This tremendously wasted opportunity is not assisted by anything else. A bizarre, hypersaturated and colorful lighting scheme converts the film into a kitsch painting with several and unnecessary neon light sources directly inspired by the “John Wick” franchise which cancel each other out. Chris McKay’s anemic direction has not improved either since his lackluster “The Tomorrow War” (2021) requiring 3(!) editors to make sense over a myriad of cuts between deaths and minor doses of wacky humor.
It is a shame that “Renfield” is destined to be forgotten. Nic Cage playing Dracula considering his beginnings in the “Vampire’s Kiss” (1988) seemed something worth exploring with the right director and screenwriter. But perhaps Renfield should have let Dracula to take over the world instead of forcing the audience to sit through this bore. It is for everyone’s best interest.
Let sleeping corpses lie
+Nicolas Cage is outstanding
+Kitchen encounter is the best sequence in the movie
-No chemistry between leads
-Distracting action sequences
-Cinematography is all over the place
-Laugh free flick
-Excessively uneven in tone
-Unnecessary plot elements