A Reel Review: RENFIELD

The role of Dracula has been played by many names over the decades: Bela Lugosi, Christopher Lee, Gary Oldman…and even Leslie Nielsen. Here in 2023, almost 100 years after Bela made the role famous, it’s none other than the real-world prince of darkness, Nicolas Cage…donning the cape and fangs in RENFIELD. 

 

R.M. Renfield (Nicholas Hoult), has been under the employ of Dracula (Cage), for 90 years. In modern-day New Orleans, Renfield is tasked with providing Dracula victims so he may suck their blood and survive. With Drac growing stronger, Renfield begins to have doubts about his own life. 

 

Directed by Chris McKay, RENFIELD picks up on the familiar plotline from Bram Stoker’s original novel of Renfield serving the Dark One. The hook here is that Renfield is growing tired and guilty of bringing Dracula victims, and is secretly seeking to get out. RENFIELD sets up the relationship between Renfield and Dracula as an abusive one, and Renfield attends group meetings looking for a way out. 

 

RENFIELD is set up as a comedic drama with Dracula and Renfield hammering out their issues, but the film gets sidetracked by a sub-plot involving a drug cartel (led by Ben Schwartz and Shohreh Aghdashloo), an ambitious police officer (Awkwafina), and a corrupt police department. The most interesting parts of the film are when Dracula and Renfield are together, and any time the story veers away, it gets less intriguing.

 

But RENFIELD makes up for things in a terrific production. Chris McKay takes a page out of THE KINGSMAN movies with absurdist action scenes; limbs are torn off, intestines are spilled, and blood is gushed everywhere by the gallons. The film looks great with some excellent lighting techniques, and a nifty prologue recreates scenes from the 1931 film. 

 

Nic Cage, as expected, hams it up as Dracula. He remarkably looks like Bela Lugosi in the role, and he uses that to his advantage. There is an early scene where he is overloaded with prosthetics, and he seems to have trouble speaking through all the gunk. Nicholas Hoult is great, and the real surprise is Awkwafina…who seems to be the only one taking things seriously. 

 

But RENFIELD isn’t a film that was meant to be taken seriously; it knows it’s ridiculous and it shows. A tighter script would have been helpful with more focus on its lead actors, and not every plotline introduced seems to get wrapped up. RENFIELD doesn’t suck, but it lacks a bit of a bite. 

 

BOTTOM LINE: Rent it