Hoult and Cage make a simple film well worth the watch..

Horror comedy movies have become an interesting niche’ in films this year with the likes of cocaine bear stealing quite a bit of love in February. Now imagine that approach is taken to one of horror’s biggest icons: Dracula. That’s exactly what Renfield does.

Renfield is not your typical vampire movie instead it takes the formula and flips it on its head making it a must watch for fans of the occult. Instead of showing you how much it sucks to be Dracula as has been done by movies such as Dracula untold or what life is like from some other movies where the perspective is usually placed on some high ranking vampire looking for love or some other form of human connection, Renfield instead shifts the perspective to someone you weren’t expecting, Dracula’s assistant and not only did they focus on the titular Renfield, they also changed up his character. Originally Renfield or R.M Renfield is a character from Bram Stoker’s Dracula who was a deranged lunatic in a psychiatric ward who became Dracula’s familiar through the promise of immortality and power. However, in this latest adaptation of the character Renfield is actually a real estate lawyer who wanted to get rich quickly and in doing so signed a real estate deal with Dracula thus making him his immortal familiar who has to consume bugs to use his powers pretty much like the original Renfield. Except this version is actually a pretty nice guy who got a bad deal making him a likeable protagonist.

The movie itself has some pretty enjoyable fight scenes which feature all sorts of gore as heads will be flying and limbs get chopped off making one you definitely don’t want to watch with anyone under the age of 16 however it does not go overboard with its gore making it an experience where you turn you head away just a bit when watching, and more importantly probably laugh during it, because it’s used to comedic effect. This comedy is continued by Nicholas Hoult who plays the titular Renfield, especially when he interacts with the movie’s scene stealer: Nicholas Cage’s Dracula.

Cage’s performance as Dracula himself is a must see ,easily being and iconic performance right up there with his best villain performances. The chemistry between Cage and Hoult during their scenes together really shows a toxic relationship between a villainous master and his tortured servant, making it an analogue to some real life work relationships. The movie has a pretty straight forward plot of tired servant who wants to finally have a life but serves a vindictive, narcissistic master who won’t let go making it funny when Renfield actually has to go to some version of therapy which helps in adding some humor to an otherwise dark movie. The one good thing about Renfield is that it does not overstay it’s welcome, it has a runtime of 1 hour and 33 minutes (93 Minutes) making it a short enjoyable romp which does not really require that much thinking. However this can make the plot feel rushed in certain areas and one these is with Awkwafina who gave a pretty good performance as Rebecca Quincy who is a loose cannon traffic cop and potential love interest of Renfield unfortunately she’s just that and even Rebecca’s love/hate relationship with her sister Kate who is played by Camille Chen is never really explored that much.

One character that I wish had gotten a bit more screentime was Ben Schwartz’s Teddy Lobo who on the surface is supposed to be a tough law enforcer but is actually a child trying to desperately get his mother’s approval and this is another relationship that could’ve been explored a bit more but ultimately Schwartz’s performance as Teddy is one that steals the show and makes him an incredibly enjoyable character. The same can’t be said however for his mother Bella Francesca who is played by Shohreh Aghdashloo and comes off as a 2 dimensional mob matriarch who is supposed to be scary and this makes her one of the movies less enjoyable parts.

To summarize, Renfield is an enjoyable 93 minute movie where you can just turn off your brain and enjoy the dark jokes and gritty violence on display however it just moves by too fast and this makes it have a lot of missed potential to be something greater but that aside Hoult and Cage’s performances as Renfield and Dracula make it a must watch for fans of vampire movies and even the casual movie goers so if  you hadn’t watched it then please do cause it will definitely be worth your time.

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