Renfield review: Nicolas Cage delivers the Dracula we’ve always wanted
Nicholas Hoult and Awkwafina co-star in this horror comedy with gross-outs and gimmicks galore but not much else
Film Reviews Renfield
If they can make an entire series about Batman’s butler, they can for sure find room for a movie about Dracula’s loyal servant, Renfield. Nicholas Hoult stars as the Count’s beleaguered body man in Renfield, a small-in-scope but fundamentally entertaining horror-comedy. Directed by Chris McKay (The Lego Batman Movie and dozens of episodes of Robot Chicken), this film knows what you want, and it serves it up early and often—Nicolas Cage as the undead Transylvanian, chomping up the scenery with enormous, blood-dripping fangs.
Unlike last year’s abysmal The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent, which hinged solely on poking audiences in the ribs and saying “ain’t Nic Cage a nut?!?” this movie lets it happen naturally. Let’s not get carried away and call it an elegantly weaved tapestry of nuanced screenwriting, but it’s clever enough to let the story do the talking.
The first few minutes are a little worrisome—it opens with what feels like an advertisement of the movie to come (probably a product of online culture, in which movie trailers on YouTube open with a blipvert teaser). It’s a flashback to young Renfield’s first meeting with Dracula, shot precisely like Dwight Frye encountering Bela Lugosi in Tod Browning’s 1931 classic, Dracula. (Cage even does the “I never drink … wine” line.)
But cut to today and we see that Renfield, a goth English boy stuck in derelict New Orleans, is about to have an awakening. He’s at a group therapy session for people trying to overcome codependency to the toxic, narcissistic personalities in their life. Amusingly enough, he ended up there just because he was out on the prowl, looking for more live flesh to feed to his convalescing master.
Renfield is set in New Orleans, but it’s mostly shot on soundstages and generic slum streets. That’s okay. In fact, what makes this movie a charmer is its fealty to the type of horror flick you’d rent on VHS from a drug store in 1987. That means it doesn’t take itself too seriously, is not weighted down by a complicated plot, and is primarily concerned with packing in as many gross-outs as it can into its 93 minutes.
These are the positives! The negatives—and this is true to the exploitation movie form—is that a lot of the narrative is occupied by a character nobody really asked for. In Renfield, that character is a cop (it was either that or an investigative reporter, right?) and it’s a pretty thankless role. Even the abundantly charming Awkwafina can’t really pull it off. (We can only imagine how much worse it would have been with a lesser performer.) It feels like she has as much screen time as Hoult does, and certainly more than Cage.
It’s a strange role for Awkwafina (who I love, don’t get me wrong), because she isn’t given a whole lot of room to show off her comedy chops, and her persona doesn’t quite lend itself to this kind of action hero. She plays a low-level traffic cop with a personal vendetta against the Lobo crime family (get it?), and when Renfield accidentally crosses paths with some of these scumbags, he trips everyone’s radar. Soon Renfield is wearing pastel-colored sweaters in an attempt to break free from Dracula’s mental hold, but he’ll still manifest his powers when he gobbles up bugs. (It’s very Popeye and his spinach.)
The Lobo family is led by Shohreh Aghdashloo, wearing striking outfits and using her deep, drawling voice. But it’s to the movie’s detriment that she and Cage are only onscreen together for about five seconds. (And not even in the same shot! Did they even meet? What a whiff!) She does, however, use the term “butt dial,” and if you hold the moral center of The Expanse in as high regard as I do, this is a very amusing thing to hear.
These disappointments are mitigated by a preposterous amount of blood and guts. Sure, it’s cheap CG that looks absolutely phony, but there are moments as giddy as the final act of Peter Jackson’s Dead Alive. There’s also many more ska jokes than you ever could have predicted. Fans of The Specials will be particularly entertained.
Though Nicholas Hoult is charming as he struggles to find inner strength, Renfield lives or dies by Nic Cage camping it up. And he delivers. (This is not the first time he’s gone vampire batty, of course, if you remember 1988’s Vampire’s Kiss.) Cage in celadon-colored makeup craving the blood of cheerleaders “not for sexual reasons” is a cheap laugh, but a good laugh. The Academy Award-winning actor is well aware of what he’s bringing to the table these days, and sometimes a band should get out there and play the hits. If this movie is successful, and there’s no reason to think it won’t be, it might inspire a sequel or two. There are far worse curses.
Renfield opens in theaters Friday, April 14, 2022
95 Comments
I find it distracting how much Nic Cage looks like Marilyn Manson. That is all I have to say.
I find it distracting how much Marilyn Manson looks like Marilyn Manson.
Oh. Oh no. Now I can’t stop seeing it.
…because they are both dressed up to look like Dracula?
Ew. That’s true.
They’re good friends, so dollars to donuts Cage based his portrayal on Manson.
I mean, they’re both
…
beautiful people
That’s funny, I kept thinking about Nick Cave.
Judging from the info box picture, this brand-new movie has already been turned into a musical that skipped Broadway and a national tour and headed straight to community theater.Mind you, I sometimes enjoy community theater.
He seems scared to smell that flower but happy to get shot.
Not one word about Benny Shwannnz!
The Elegant Mister S is in this?! Nice.
No, I don’t get why the “Lobo crime family” reference is supposed to be funny
Because Sheriff Lobo. Duuuuh!
don’t be a swearwolf
Lobo = Spanish for “wolf” —> the eternal struggle between vampires and werewolves, as detailed in the acclaimed documentary series Twilight and What We Do In The Shadows
Or maybe here it’s the members of the rock band Los Lobos
What we Do in the Shadows, film and show but especially show, are genuinely highly acclaimed. I’m just saying this in case someone hasn’t seen either or, they are so good!!!
Lobo is Spanish for wolf.Maybe it should have been the Lupin family. That would have fooled everyone!
If it were the Lupins, and the movie took place in August…
Damn, you live in the US and you don’t know a lil’ Spanish?
Oh my gosh remember when you could rent movies at drug stores and grocery stores? That’s how I got most of my movies. It was just so convenient. Why go to Blockbuster when we could rent a tape on the way out after getting Sunday groceries? I think we’d pay .99 cents or something like that. And the tapes didn’t come in clamshell cases, they were in these yellowed clear plastic sleeves that you squeeze on the end to let the tape slide out.
I remember at Longs Drugs you could rent a movie and use the copy machines, which saved a trip to both Blockbuster and Kinko’s.
I thought Mackey’s pharmacy where I lived growing up was surely the only pharmacy that would rent movies, but I guess I was completely wrong on that one.
I feel like this was more of a smaller town thing. Bigger places had dedicated rental stores, even before Blockbuster, which had far better selections and were usually near other places you were already going to.What was really fun though is finding a mom and pop grocery or drug store with a rental section because their selections were often filled with weird stuff. I remember the drug store by my great aunts cottage in Wisconsin had a small section ran by the owners son, who was a nerd and horror lover, so the rental section had the normal family friendly stuff and then just tons of weird shit you never heard of(this was pre-internet). A lot of it was bootlegs too which added to the charm. I saw Akira for the first time because of that guy.
You still can, and I often do, via Redbox.
I can remember when I first started seeing redboxes pop up, at the local McDonald’s. It was a pretty nifty concept. That and the idea of mailorder DVD rentals through Netflix. I would’ve never guessed what THAT would turn into.
Netflix still has a DVD arm—you have to pay extra for it, but it exists and it’s still stocked with a lot of weird shit you just can’t get on streaming.
Oh man, if I stop and think for a moment I can smell the tiny rental shop near our house in the early 90s where we’d rent movies and video games.
Oh I know what you mean. In college I worked in the library, in the media section, during the golden age of DVD, but there were still a lot VHS as well. I loved working that job. Last year I returned to my alma mater and revisited the media area, and it smelled just like I remember, that peculiar smell of thousands of volumes in plastic clamshell cases.
I miss going out and renting movies; perusing the shelves, reading the blurbs on the back of the cases. The people at the counter always had good suggestions and we could talk about films we’d seen. It was pure consumerism but at least we got out and talked to people about cinema.
We rented Bollywood movies for a long time at the Indian market near our house, until I realized how many of them were heavy-compressed dub jobs.
Yeah i remember those days. The wee town i grew up in had a dedicated video rental store called Pegasus Video that did VHS and Betamax but there was also a small mini-market that had a section for VHS rentals and we also had a petrol station that did it too. When the mini-market stopped doing them then the Fish and Chip shop next door started with a whole wall in the place stuffed with video cases. Then Ritz Video moved into the town and those places shut down. We also had a Azad then Global Video rental store before Blockbuster bought out Ritz Video and soon after they were the only place to get a movie rental from.
My 20/20 Video was part of the local Ralph’s in Hollywood.
I remember it. It’s not something I’m particularly nostalgic for though as I remember the selection at grocery stores being very limited and there were Blockbusters or Family Videos within a few miles of every place we’d go when I was younger.
“moral center of The Expanse”What? Avasarala was realpolitik in human form, with a late-arc turn toward doing the right thing rather than the expedient thing. The moral center of The Expanse is Jim Holden, a guy so committed to his ethical system that he nearly destroys the universe by accident.
yeah. as much as i love her on the show, this is the correct take
which time are you referring to? To avoid spoilers, him letting a specific ship go almost broke the show for me. But you are right about Aversarala…they would have had her say “butt dial” in that show also, they loved capitalizing off her stateliness so she could throw in something inappropriate
And him basically pulling one over on Avasarala in the pursuit of doing what is right is like how the show fucking ends things. Do these people even watch the shit they reference? That show opened with her illegally torturing someone.
calm down there sci fi nerd.
Yeah, but she wears “on fleek” glamourous outfits but swears so by the laws of online pop-culture bottom-feeding she’s “the moral centre”.
Amen. The literal inspiration behind The Expanse was the authors wanting to write a story about how fucking annoying it is to have a paladin in an RPG party. That paladin is Jim “Sticks His True Good Dick In Everything” Holden.
Yeah, in one of the first few episodes she legit interrogates a belter using a torture method that would make the staff at Guantanamo Bay feel uncomfortable.Also she totally boned Amos on the moon!
Unlike last year’s abysmal The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent, which hinged solely on poking audiences in the ribs and saying “ain’t Nic Cage a nut?!?”
it opens with what feels like an advertisement of the movie to come
(probably a product of online culture, in which movie trailers on
YouTube open with a blipvert teaser
Strong “OK, Boomer” energy in this review, including the allusion to the Max Headroom show.
Us Max Headroom fans are solidly GenX, thankyouverymuch…
Lord, this piece is a mess.
Huh. I had no idea that “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent” was abysmal. You’d think I would have noticed that when I watched it.
I don’t know about you, but I appreciate when a review lets me know not to take it seriously really early on like that.
You sound like you – correctly, I might add – take the word of noted, famous, and knowledgeable AV Club freelance reviewer *scrolls up furiously to see who wrote this review* Jordan Hofmann as gospel etched on stone tablets, and only approach movies with the mindset he decrees.
It had me at Pedro and Cage.
A+ for the blipverts reference
So, this B- movie is better than “last year’s abysmal The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent,” which the AV Club review gave a… B+? Got it.
Brought to you by the crew that gave Rampage starring The Rock a higher rating than Endgame.
do any of those people still even work here?
Do children learn bad habits from their parents? =)
Do you think of the people who had your job before you as your parents? thank you for this extraordinarily weird take, and I hope your therapist is covered on your insurance.
Well, since I was raised by wolves after I escaped from the lab that spawned me, I know nothing of this “job” thing you speak of.Now if you’ll excuse me, the fur on this caribou isn’t going to chew itself off.
Rampage was ahead of its time though!
If you mean that in the “shouldn’t have been made for another 100 years” sense, I totally agree.
Interesting. I loved the game as a wee man. Perhaps I should give the movie a go.
It’s a solid B+!I mean, it’s not, but trust whatever source feels good. Lately that’s been the American way anyways, regardless of reality or facts. /shrug =)
Yeah, I stopped reading there.
i don’t think as a reviewer you’re beholden to the publication’s opinion? movie also sucked!
This is possibly the most head-up-your-ass review I’ve ever read on this site, and given that it used to publish Mike D’Angelo, that’s saying something. At least D’Angelo was trying to articulate something about films as art; this review gets no deeper than “Shohreh Aghdashloo says ‘butt dial’ lolz.”Anyway, I’ll still probably see the movie at some point.
Realizing this was the same asshole that said Beau is Afraid is insufferable makes me really excited about Beau is Afraid
last year’s abysmal The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent You linked to AVC’s crappy generated page for that film, which doesn’t link to any actual reviews. The AVC’s review gives it a B+ https://www.avclub.com/unbearable-weight-massive-talent-review-nicolas-cage-1848771806
this is usually where the poster tries to argue that there aren’t institutional grades and that it’s each reviewer’s separate opinion, which I think is BS, Pitchfork gotta OWN those Maneskin and Pixies reviews 😀
I’m certainly on Team Every Writer Has Their Own Opinion, but modern AV Club (especially Barsanti) loves to pretend that their opinion is always the unchallenged mainstream opinion. And for a site that’s just copying 90% of stuff found elsewhere on the Internet, it’s remarkably out of step with everyone else a lot of the time. Unbearable Weight sort of came and went without a lot of fuss, and I don’t remember a lot of strong opinions floating around one way or the other about it. But I’m not sure that even anyone who hated it could really fault it for doing pretty much exactly what it says on the tin. “This movie about Nic Cage being Nic Cage is way too Nic Cage” is a take that seems almost too The A.V. Club even for The A.V. Club
Barsanti is special, in that he is entirely incapable of generating his own opinions, or probably even dressing himself without assistance and shoes that have velcro instead of laces.
The guy from the Spanish version of Lugosi’s Dracula always looked creepily like Cage, so this just makes sense.
Im totally ok with too much Akwafina.
“Unlike last year’s abysmal The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent” The F*** you talking about willis?
No mention of Ben Schwartz in the entire review? I give this write-up an F.
What’s so great about awkwafina? She was cast in Ocean’s 8 and everyone acted like she was already hilarious but hasn’t ever done anything actually funny on screen. The Farewell was okay but I feel any young asian woman could have done that role since it just asks the lead to be emotionally despondent. A lot of these actors we’re just expected to love and get labelled cool despite proving their reputation.
It’s a tough decision – “do I love Nic Cage more than I find Awkwawfwiwnwa insufferable?”Sadly, no.
The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent“Unlike last year’s abysmal , which hinged solely on poking audiences in the ribs and saying “ain’t Nic Cage a nut?!?”That’s refreshing. I recall people losing their minds over it. Maybe I can catch it on Netflix at midnight.
It’s a good movie, even AVClub gave it a B+
I”m not wild about a lot of new actors, but Hoult is really terrific. It helps to have good material and directing, of course.I’m getting the oddest Charlie Chaplin vibes from him in this trailer.
Hoult gives a largely silent performance in WARM BODIES. A movie you’d think this review might mention for its similar horror-love story elements.
Freelancers.
I’ll look for that movie, thanks for the recommendation.
new actor? about a boy was over 20 year ago man. he’s well established.
I”m not wild about a lot of new actors, but Hoult is really terrific.Nicolas Hoult has been steadily working for, like, 25 years.
It’s nice that you posted this, but he’s new to me. And he’s 33, which in my opinion is quite young. I’ll try to be more precise in the future.
You should watch Hulu’s The Great, where he plays the young Czar Nicholas as a boneheaded, ridiculously entitled frat boy to Elle Fanning’s Catherine the Great. Wonderful show.
This has been my only exposure to his work. It is a good show and he’s terrific in it. There are an awful lot of sex jokes, but audiences love it, I guess?
The sex jokes are popular because nobody thinks of that as a particularly bawdy regime. He also played the little boy in About a Boy, opposite Hugh Grant, ironically, considering the mentions above. And A Single Man, and Mad Max:Fury Road. And many other films. He’s probably my favorite young actor. He seems like a good sport.
Not a bawdy regime. That’s an interesting insight. I suppose Russians love sex as much as anyone, but it doesn’t seem like a particularly fun place. I had a drama professor from Russian and he was easily the most profoundly morose person I’ve ever met.He was also married to a 6′ tall breathtakingly gorgeous Ugandan Princess. Although, now that I think of it, she was one of Idi Amin’s grandaughters, so she would not have been ‘royalty’. Sorry to digress..
In the film itself, you’ll almost certainly get the same “young Hugh Grant” vibes I did.By “young”, I mean “before he found out how much fun he could have playing absolute shits”.
That’s an interesting POV, thank you. I do have to admit that I’m not much of a Hugh Grant fan so it’s possible that I might not see that. Grant is one of those extremely attractive men who absolutely know how attractive they are, and that always put me off a little. Hoult doesn’t seem as camera-lusty, lol. He seems more “artless”, more willing to look like a complete fool. It’s probably an actor’s trick too, but I love it 😀
Hmm, I was 100% sold until Cage’s appearance. In this case, a little too outre maybe. Two guys being extra extra might cancel each other out. We’ll see, I guess.
You seem like a shitty reviewer.
sounds awful!
Just from what I have seen in the previews, this movie is reminding me of Andy Warhol’s Dracula film. Some of you may enjoy checking that movie out.
I saw it last night, Cage is off the charts great! But man the writing of this movie is so blah…..C at best and that’s all Cage. I wish the rest of the cast would have tried as hard as cage did or the writers would have gave them some better material.