Unsurprisingly, Nic Cage is a hot commodity right now. I mean, the guy can act and has proven it repeatedly over the last 10 years with movies like Pig, Jiu Jitsu, and Primal. His popularity renaissance hit its highest gear with The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, as did hundreds, if not thousands of memes that were born from that performance. Tasteful and funny memes, but memes, nonetheless.
Anyway, my point with this rambling is that he has been hitting his stride and finding roles that have been unbelievably well-suited for his acting prowess, even though that is a huge prowess. His latest role that doesn’t feature a large ‘S’ on his chest is playing Count Dracula in Chris McKay’s Renfield. The movie revolves around Dracula’s abused assistant, Renfield, who seeks help to overcome the trauma that Cage’s Dracula has instilled in him from unimaginable requests during his servitude. While some might discount the ridiculous premise and try to throw it away, that would only insult incredible performances by the players who brought this movie to life and turn a blind eye to the premise that trauma is real and incredibly unhealthy to carry around for years without seeking help.
Get comfortable, sip on some of that red wine, and enjoy a review of Renfield.
Official Synopsis
Renfield (Nicholas Hoult) is the tortured aide to history’s most narcissistic boss: Dracula (Nicolas Cage). For centuries, Renfield has slavishly served Dracula by procuring his master’s prey and doing his every bidding, no matter how debased. But now, Renfield is ready to look for a new life outside the shadow of The Prince of Darkness, if only he can figure out how to end the toxic, co-dependent relationship…
This doesn’t suck
The film starts well enough with a quick backstory of Renfield’s existence and how he came under the servitude of the Prince of Darkness, Dracula. We get to see Renfield’s side of the story unfold to a group of traumatized and abused victims of relationships in order to begin his process of healing. Renfield’s utter defeatism shines through at this moment thanks to Hoult’s realistic portrayal of a victim that simply cannot take any more of a toxic relationship that he is in that includes bringing innocent people back to his master for consumption. This small setup adds more flavor and credence to the evil nature of his master and sets up Cage’s Dracula to make a destructive and dramatic entrance into the modern world, even before he sets foot into a scene.
As the trailer never truly alluded to the extent of Dracula’s sinister self, nor was his juxtaposition with Renfield truly imagined in the two minutes of preview, it was refreshing to get this terrible build-up that makes Dracula more of a monster than a comedic relief, something most was probably expecting. The writing from the crew and performance from Hoult sells this sinisterness and builds up what we should expect when we see the Prince of Darkness, while the execution of Dracula by Cage magnifies all those perceived notions tenfold.
Once Renfield gets going with Dracula’s final stand in his storytelling, which also begins Renfield’s final stand with the relationship, the true and pure evilness of Cage’s Dracula is easily sold. When we see Dracula take out a priest, a vampire hunter, and everything around him with sadistic and bloody ease, maybe even too much fun as well, it’s easy to see that the humor takes a backseat to calm the viciousness of what will unfold for the next two hours. While this might be on an entirely different level of marketing tomfoolery than say the likes of Marley and Me, which scarred so many people with its ending (think Old Yeller, but without the rabies), the setup and execution of the first act of Renfield reminds us that sometimes we can be fooled for the better. And the rest of the movie is a ridiculous and horror-filled ride that is tamed here and there by comedy.
As soon as Renfield leaves his meeting, he decides that he is going to hunt down the abusers of his fellow group members and bring them back to his master, thus fulfilling Dracula’s will, while not creating additional guilt for Renfield’s deeds. In pursuit of these horrible people, Renfield accidentally finds himself at a drug deal assassination gone wrong, when he and a hitman show up to take care of business for a family called the Lobos (huh…yeah, I thought the same, but nothing ever comes to fruition – I was waiting for it the entire time, though).
After taking out the drug dealers, and eventually the hitman, his viciousness is witnessed by Teddy Lobo (Ben Schwartz) who ends up freaking out and finding himself in police custody after skipping out at a random traffic stop. This is also the point where Rebecca (Awkwafina) shows up in the story, a cop who wants to do more than just hand out traffic tickets and is intent on bringing down the Lobo family. The transition and progression of bringing these characters into the fold and opening the story to this point were woven together beautifully. It makes sense for a hitman to show up randomly at double-crossing drug dealer’s place of business, and it makes sense for Schwartz’s Teddy to freak out after finding Renfield killing everything living thing in sight. Awkwafina’s Rebecca is also properly introduced into the story and brings her baggage precisely where it needs to be. Her portrayal of a frustrated cop stuck and confused by the death of her father is warranted and in its proper place in the tale.
As Renfield figures that all is well in the world, his broken body drags back dead bodies to his master, and he attempts to start a new feeding tradition the way he planned it. Unfortunately, the combination of bad guys and dead guys isn’t helping his master’s recovery, so Dracula freaks out and demands the bodies of the innocent, which puts Renfield back to square one. Pretty much giving up on life, Renfield soon finds himself at a restaurant hunting innocent people and questioning his life’s purpose again, while Rebecca shows up at the same restaurant following clues that lead back to Teddy. When Teddy and his gang decide that Rebecca needs to go, all hell breaks loose and Renfield must show his true colors again in order to save Rebecca from her untimely demise.
Seeing some happiness and goodness in Rebecca, Renfield makes the ultimate decision to give up his servitude with Dracula and start a life of his own. With help from his trauma group, he finds a new place for himself and begins to turn his life around in the right direction. Of course, the story should end there, if you’re rooting for Renfield, but sadly, Teddy survived the massacre at the restaurant and is on the hunt for Renfield, whom he tracks down at Dracula’s address thanks in part to his mom’s foot soldiers. Revived thanks to Lobo’s men, Dracula cuts a deal with Teddy to take him on as his assistant and to track down and kill Renfield.
Up to this point, we have seen a lot of Renfield and a small amount of Dracula. That’s probably the crux of people’s complaints about this film, as Cage’s performance as the Prince of Darkness is nothing short of batshit crazy vicious. His entire demeanor, from looks to actions, absolutely sells truly how horrible Dracula is as a being and how horrible he probably was to Renfield over the years. His narcissistic onscreen presence shows us that there is no way for Renfield to escape his grasp, as he is the puppy that Dracula kicks when he feels like it. Cruel? Absolutely. Vicious? No doubt. A solid performance for a future role as Dracula when Universal Studios decides to reboot its monster movie series? God, I hope so. Because his presence is so defining in this role, I can see people craving more, but the movie’s story doesn’t work this way and it’s correct in thumbing its nose at the idea of more Dracula and less Renfield. This movie is about trauma and shows a different point of view on the relationship between Renfield and Dracula. We are getting the story of the short end of the stick in the relationship, which is far more impactful than a vicious vampire. It’s a proper way to tell a tale and it’s far more interesting and relatable.
Back to the story, Renfield eventually leads the police to the Lobos, which redeems Rebecca’s desire to put an end to the Lobo family. Without them, the drug dealing and horribleness in the city get brought down by at least an inch. Regretfully, Renfield is eventually tracked down by Dracula and finds himself telling his old master that he no longer wants anything to do with him. In Dracula’s anger, he finds that the 12-step book Renfield has been ciphering his ‘will-to-leave-the-relationship’ from points back to his trauma group. Freaked out, Renfield tries to warn them about his old master but ends up watching Dracula kill everyone in his group. To make matters worse, Rebecca and her group of cops, as well as the Lobos, show up in time to see Renfield surrounded by dead bodies, thus making Renfield’s life pretty much over…except that both Rebecca and Renfield are wanted by the Lobos and must fight their way out of danger.
At this point, the last act of the film begins, and on that note, I won’t go any further due to spoilers. While the breadcrumbs may not have led viewers to more of a solid conclusion with this film, there is enough entertainment here to enjoy the tragic storytelling. Sure, Renfield is much darker than most people expected, and it was probably far more tragic and serious than what we were led to believe, but how the story unfolds, the characters play out together, and how the paths of each piece of the overall body of work weave in and out at certain points makes for an entertaining time. At the very least, a far deeper experience than most expected. Huh, maybe it is like Marley and Me. Anyway, Renfield was a bit more horror and action than comedy, but it was appropriate given its content and significance. Going through trauma is bad. Going through trauma with a vampire must be unbearable. Chris McKay and his team of writers certainly sold this well, even if people weren’t expecting it.
Overall, Rendfield is a good movie to check out. As much as Renfield might not be human in the film, he is every bit a human character in the story, and that makes him relatable.
Features included
It feels like it has been forever since I reviewed a movie. It’s nice to see that the Digital version of movies now contains the same features as its Blu-ray counterpart. Here’s what you’re getting with this release.
- Deleted and Extended Scenes
- Alternate Takes
- Dracula UnCaged – Go inside the mind of a vampire as Dracula himself, Nicolas Cage, reveals the secrets behind turning a classic character into a memorable monster.
- Monsters & Men: Behind the Scenes of RENFIELD – An in-depth look at Renfield’s cast, sets, costumes, and more as the actors and filmmakers reveal how they modernized a famous terror tale with trailblazing comedy and over-the-top action.
- Stages of Rejuvenation – See how special makeup effects bring the undead to life throughout the four stages of Dracula’s incredible transformation.
- Flesh & Blood – Exploding heads. Peeling faces. Severed limbs. They’re all part of the macabre movie magic that fuels Renfield with inventive action and hilarious horror.
