REVIEW: 'Renfield' isn't bad, but it isn't great either
Dracula (Nicolas Cage) and his assistant Renfield (Nicholas Hoult) adapt to the 21st century in the Universal Pictures film 'Renfield,' directed by Chris McKay. [Courtesy photo/Michele K. Short/Universal Pictures]
"Renfield" is a nice throwback to the classic Universal monsters while being able to stand on its own.
After 90-plus years of serving his master Dracula, Robert Monteque Renfield explores the modern world as he searches to find new purpose and tries to free himself from his toxic relationship with Dracula.
This isn’t a perfect movie. But it also isn't a bad one.
Its purpose is to showcase the harm of toxic relationships through the fun elements of the Universal monster movies. Its other purpose is to answer the question of, "what if Nicholas Cage played Dracula?"
Cage brings his over-the-top acting and puts a new, but very fun, spin on Dracula. He uses the mannerisms of Bela Lugosi’s Dracula and plays the count as a desperate vampire in search of world domination with his assistant, Renfield.
Dracula's personality is very comedic but still does a good job creating scary moments with the Prince of Darkness. It's definitely the highlight of the film, and the main reason to see it on the big screen.
That doesn’t mean that everyone else didn’t put in good performances.
Nicholas Hoult, known for "X-Men" and "Mad Max: Fury Road", does a great job playing the title character Redfield. Giving him a fraction of Dracula's power and turning him into a John Wick-type character was a great idea. Renfield absolutely destroys a bunch of people in this movie, including one fight where one of the characters gets their arms ripped off and Renfield hilariously uses them like nunchucks.
Awkwafina ("Crazy Rich Asians," "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings") is great as the love interest cop Rebecca Quincy. She shares a lot of action scenes with Renfield, and seeing her beat up vampires and mafia members was incredibly entertaining.
This movie does have some faults that keep me from fully praising it. There's a whole side plot with the New Orlens mafia and how their drug ring gets involved with Dracula. It was really random and took screentime from Dracula in favor of random goons with guns, which I found disappointing.
Ben Schwartz, who is known for voicing Sonic in the "Sonic the Hedgehog" movie, is miscast for the mafia leader's son. I couldn't buy him as a deranged killer and drug addict. It’s probably his worst role that I’ve seen him take.
Also, some of the editing choices in the movie were strange, such as in a montage of Renfield buying his first apartment, using a "star-wipe" -- a scene transition used in mostly in the '80s that took me completely out of the movie. The middle of the movie wanders a bit and forgets its purpose when Renfield is exploring New Orleans and goes on all these different tangents with the mafia side plot.
I also wish the movie was a bit funnier and had better written jokes. And, if your not a fan of ultra-violent movies, skip this one because the kills in this film are brutal!
Overall, I enjoyed my time with "Renfield" and its cast. It doesn’t overstay its welcome, coming in at a runtime of one hour and 40 minutes, which is the perfect length.
Plot imperfections aside, the main cast and crew deserves a round of applause for delivering a fun, exciting movie that doesn’t take itself too seriously. I give it a 7.5 out of 10.
Carter Salley is a Broadcast Communication Arts major and the co-host of Central Michigan Life pop-culture podcast "Raving Geeks."
