Nicolas Cage is a bloody pain of a boss in final Renfield trailer
Nicolas Cage and Nicholas Hoult star as boss and employee butting heads in Renfield, in theaters April 14
Film News Renfield
“What if Dracula was your asshole boss” is an extremely promising premise, but “What if Nicolas Cage was Dracula, your asshole boss” is what makes Renfield irresistible. Throw in Nicholas Hoult, who has been making a certain kind of patheticness sexy over on The Great, and you’ve got a guaranteed audience when the film hits theaters on April 14.
Hoult, as the titular character, has been “forced to procure his master’s prey and do his every bidding, no matter how debased” for nearly a century, but he’s finally “ready to see if there’s a life outside the shadow of The Prince of Darkness,” according to the film’s synopsis—“If only he can figure out how to end his codependency.”
Here to help is Awkwafina, a cop who sees Renfield’s potential for heroics. “I don’t think you’re such a bad guy,” she says in the new trailer, “but you’re never gonna be free until you face him.” But Cage, clearly having a ball as “The Lord of Death,” isn’t going to let his servant get away that easily. “You deserve only suffering,” Dracula snarls. “I will unleash an army of death. Everyone you care about will suffer because you betrayed me.”
“An army of death” is an appropriate descriptor for this trailer, which has a prodigious and bloody kill count. That includes Dracula exploding a priest (who offers protection from “the most trusted institution on Earth: the Catholic Church,” to Renfield’s consternation) from the inside out and Renfield violently dismembering a host of attackers. “You know when something crazy happens, and someone’s like ‘It’s okay, I’ve seen way worse’?” Awkwafina says after witnessing the massacre. “Everything I saw you do today is gonna be my way worse.”
Ben Schwartz, Adrian Martinez, and Shohreh Aghdashloo also star in Renfield, which is directed by Chris McKay (The Tomorrow War) and written by Ryan Ridley (Ghosted) based on an idea from The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman.
11 Comments
i was reading an austin powers 3 letterboxd review that had a good line about how austin powers just couldn’t survive as a character post-9/11. the world had changed and we wanted different things. ‘a silly guy’ just wasn’t enough anymore.and also on blank check’s danny boyle series, speaking on 28 days later, they talk about how even though it was conceived pre-9/11 it is still a piece of art that FEELS post 9/11.for no reason that i can put my finger on, renfield is giving me a very ‘pre-trump/pre-pandemic’ feeling. not nostalgia (at all), but it just feels like a movie from 2014 or 2015. i don’t even think it looks bad, per se, just completely out of time.
I’m cautiously optimistic about this one, though Nic Cage isn’t exactly “supporting actor” material.
Nic Cage supports NO MAN, other than Nic Cage.
I’m willing to give Cage, Hoult, Chris McKay, hell, even Awkwafina, all kinds of benefit of the doubt, but this looks fucking terrible.
I was having a moment with that Nic Cage picture where I thought Adar from Rings of Power had had a love-child with the Smile monster.
This might be the best opening line of a movie review that I have ever read.
Better to have Drac be an asshole boss than be the boss of your asshole, amirite???
“What if Dracula was your asshole, boss?”**Something you should probably never ask your boss if you wish to remain employed
So he’s either British or a vampire; and judging by those teeth, it could be either one.
Was all in until I saw Awkwafina.God dammit.
I will probably see this, but I have to say the earlier trailers looked better. This last one just seems off in a few different ways.