A One Mann’s Movies review of “Renfield” (2023).
I love Nicholas Hoult. From “Mad Max: Fury Road” through “The Favourite” and TVs tonally-similar “The Great” to his terrific turn in last year’s “The Menu“. He can do little wrong in my eyes. So teaming him with Nicolas Cage as Dracula in a horror/comedy seemed a wonderful idea to me. The trailer whetted my appetite even more. So, I was a little dismayed when the critical response to its release last Friday was decidly lukewarm. But, perhaps because of those dampened expectations, I actually had a lot of fun with this one. It’s by no means perfect. But I found it surprisingly entertaining.
Bob the Movie Man Rating:
Plot Summary:
Robert Montague Renfield (Nicholas Hoult) is the ‘familiar’ to Count Dracula (Nicolas Cage), and has been since the time of World War 1. Now in modern day New Orleans, Renfield is nursing his boss back to health again after an overdose of vitamin D! But in finding a self-help group, he comes to realise that there may be an opportunity to follow the more ‘normal’ lifestyle that he craves. But complications arise when the local New Orleans mafia, led by mother and son team Bellafrancesca Lobo (Shohreh Aghdashloo) and Tedward Lobo (Ben Schwartz), home in on Renfield’s secret.
Certification:
UK: 15; US: R. (From the BBFC: “Strong bloody violence, gore, language, drug misuse”. And they ain’t kidding. Once again, I think we are on the very cusp of an ’18’ certificate with this one due to the gory violence deployed. I think it is only because it is “cartoon-like” that it has escaped the higher rating).
Talent:
Starring: Nicholas Hoult, Nicolas Cage, Awkwafina, Ben Schwartz, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Camille Chen.
Directed by: Chris McKay.
Written by: Ryan Ridley & Robert Kirkman.
Twitter Handle: #renfieldmovie.
The boss has looked better. Dracula (Cage) and Renfield (Hoult) review progress over a glass of the red stuff. (Source: Universal Pictures)
“Renfield” Review:
Positives:
- As a comedy, this one well surpassed the ‘6-laughs test’ for me. The general premise of the film – that Renfield is in a ‘toxic relationship’ and needs to navigate his way out of it via the “anonymous assholes” self-help group is inherently funny. But there are also some zinging one-liners in there. For example, when quizzed by Rebecca (Awkwafina) what other things he does for his boss (other than bring him dead bodies to suck on) she suggests “Do you wash his cape for him?”. “No!”, snaps back Renfield derisively…. “It’s dry-clean only”. (I snorted!)
- Awkwafina again proves what a natural on-screen comedian she is. Her expressions. The delivery of her lines. Even the way she walks down a corridor. There is something just natually funny about the woman.
- The fight scenes in the movie (of which there are numerous) ramps the gore comically up to 12 out of 10. A fight on the balconies of Renfield’s apartment block is particularly funny. Not only does Renfield ‘disarm’ one of his assailants, but he then uses those arms to defeat a whole bunch of other baddies!
Negatives:
- There was probably a better movie in this concept than the one that the writer/director team came out with. Introducing the mafia hocum into the mix tends to defocus from the really interesting concept behind Renfield trying to escape from his immortal servant life.
- The denouement is a bit ridiculous – when you consider that, in a previous event ‘breaking the ring’, the outcome was very much different.
- Cage seems to have been born with the physical attributes to play Dracula. He’s played him before, in 1988’s black comedy “Vampire’s Kiss”. But if anything, I felt that Cage rather underplayed this role. This was the opportunity for him to GO THE FULL CAGE. But although he was effective in many of the scenes, it never felt to me like he completely took it as far as he could have done.
- Many would find the frequent and incredibly gory fight scenes just too much for them. (As I said, I think this was very lucky to get away without an “18”). I know for certain that if I’d made the mistake of taking the illustrious Mrs Movie Man to this one, she would have been heading for the exit door to watch something more to her taste.
Monkeys?
There are no “monkeys” within the end-credits, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t hold a secret! The end-titles entertainingly recap scenes from the film. But they also include shots of a song-and-dance number featuring Hoult that were clearly left on the cutting room floor. I did some digging, and the video was posted by Hoult on his Twitter feed here. I have copied it across to Youtube and embedded below for your entertainment. (It may get removed on request by the copyright owner, so enjoy it while you can!).
Summary Thoughts on “Renfield”
I enjoyed this far more than I expected to. Hoult and Cage are a blast together and I found the black comedy very much aligned with my own personal funny-bone. Yes, it could have been even better. But my views overall don’t align here with the majority of the mainstream critics on this one.
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Trailer for “Renfield”
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LmO6rmDW08 .
