Film Review: Renfield is nearly a cult classic — but lacks spark
Renfield: a bottom-up take on the Dracula legend
- Renfield
- ★★★☆☆
While Dracula takes the limelight in most fangtastic films, his poor old butler Renfield is often forgotten. Gifted immortality by Dracula, Renfield is not a bloodsucker. His strength comes from consuming insects, and his power lasts only as long as he has eaten. After spending decades in the shadows, a new horror comedy allows Renfield to take the lead as he tries to navigate a new life away from his manipulative boss, Dracula.
Nicolas Hoult plays the downtrodden Renfield, who is fed up with being bullied by the over-the-top and vicious Dracula, played by a delirious Nicolas Cage.
Dracula gets caught in the sunlight while fighting off hunters. He needs more blood than usual to heal, and Renfield feels guilty. He doesn't want to lure innocents to Dracula's lair anymore.
Sick of Dracula's gaslighting, Renfield finds a support group for victims of manipulative partners and decides to catch the baddies and feed them to Dracula. The plan backfires when Dracula insists decent people taste better and demands purity from his victims.
Renfield unintentionally crosses paths with the Lobo cartel family led by matriarch Ella (Shohreh Aghdashloo) and her thuggish son Teddy (Ben Schwartz).
Fending off the cartel, he meets Rebecca Quincy (Awkwafina), a police officer, and his mind is set. Renfield is determined to become decent, woo Rebecca, defeat the cartel, and find a way to make Dracula value him as an employee.
Heads fly, and bodies explode. Limbs are ripped from bodies and used as gruesome weapons. Depending on your tolerance for gore, it is either bloody funny or nausea-inducing. Hoult nails the awkward comedy as he journeys towards goodness, and the support group scenes offer some funny moments.
The fights are a hoot; Awkwafina nimbly adds her deadpan timing; it has all the ingredients for a cult classic, but the scenes between Dracula and Renfield lack conviction. There is a lot of zany fun to be had, but it could have been brilliant with just a bit more spark between the leads.
