Film review: ‘RENFIELD’ by Nick Gardener from ‘Built For Speed’

Through his often crazed screen presence, Nic Cage has become a strange pop cultural icon and his films have almost become a subgenre unto themselves.  His kooky charisma is given full licence to go into hyperdrive as he plays none other than Count Dracula in the slightly bonkers action/ horror comedy Renfield.

Despite the imposing presence of Mr Cage, the central and title character here is actually Dracula’s manservant or ‘familiar’ named Renfield (Nichols Hoult).  He’s a lawyer who, having been cursed by the Count, has acquired some of his superhuman powers but is destined to spend his life collecting victims for Drac to feed on and is himself restricted to an unappetising diet of bugs. Here, the master/servant relationship has become toxic as Dracula constantly bullies Renfield driving the forlorn servant to an encounter group that looks like one of the depressing therapy groups from Fight Club.  When Renfield encounters a kick ass cop (Awkwafina) who’s on the trail of a sleazeball gangster (Ben Schwarz yes, John Ralphio from Parks and Recreation) who killed her father, the beleaguered vampire servant thinks she might be the one to free him from his narcissistic monster boss.

Director Chris McKay (The Lego Batman Movie) and scriptwriter Robert Kirkman (The Walking Dead) rework elements of Bram Stoker’s Dracula novel into a mostly fun if violent and gory confection that occasionally recalls Edgar Wright’s genre twisting action comedies like Sean of the Dead.  Plonking Dracula and his butler in a present-day US city, they use the ridiculousness of the premise for a few genuinely funny moments and some wildly over-the-top action. This could easily have been nothing but a farcical indulgence of the Cage cult but McKay delivers some solid action and fidelity to vampire movie tropes to ensure it’s not too flaky.

Rather than a vampire, the prolific Nicholas Hoult appears to have been possessed by Hugh Grant here playing Renfield as a droll, affable if deadly, bumbling Brit. He remains a likeable and dignified character even after he’s just beaten 20 gangsters to death with their own limbs. As Drac, Nicolas Cage relishes every moment he’s on screen appearing in various stages of decomposition as well as the full cape wearing Count with the Brylcreemed hair, he chomps on the scenery as much as the victim’s necks, playing every moment as if it’s the finale of a 1940’s melodrama.  He’s amusingly ridiculous most of the time but genuinely sinister when it counts, exuding a malevolent manner and grinning with those monstrous fangs.   Awkwafina does a decent turn as the wisecracking fighting machine cop, although after a while her character’s schtick starts to feel a little forced.

Similarly, while often funny and ballsy, the film runs out of ideas and starts to repeat itself about two thirds of the way in. There’s only so many times we can watch a vampire and his manservant acrobatically dismember and decapitate hapless goons.

Still, there are enough dubious thrills and laughs in the early part of this film to make it a fun ride for gore hounds, vampire obsessives and Cageophiles.

Nick’s rating: ***

Genre: Horror/ Action/ Comedy.

Classification: MA15+.

Director(s): Chris McKay.

Release date: 25th May 2023.

Running time: 94 mins.

Reviewer: Nick Gardener can be heard on “Built For Speed” every Friday night from 8-10pm on 88.3 Southern FM.

 

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