It is one of those rare moments on my site where I am almost up to date with movie reviews. I was originally going to watch a different film today, but decided to instead invoke the 'own choice' clause. The film I decided to watch was Renfield, something I had wanted to see for a while, mainly due to it starring iconic actor Nicholas Cage (Willy's Wonderland, Mandy).
Narrated by Renfield (Nicholas Hoult - Mad Max: Fury Road, Warm Bodies), this tells the story about how Count Dracula's (Cage) familiar Renfield was able to escape his masters control and reclaim his life. Set in modern day in a crime filled city, Renfield, both with the help of a toxic dependency self help group and by witnessing the courage of police officer Rebecca (Awkwafina - Raya and the Last Dragon voicework, Jumanji: The Next Level), decides to stop working for the powerful vampire, and to try and live a normal life. Upon learning of this however, the count decides to team up with a violent crime family led by Bellafrancesca Lobo (Shoreh Aghdashloo - Ghostbusters: Afterlife) in order to punish humanity for Renfield's betrayal.
The style of the film reminded me a lot of Zombieland, both featuring a protagonist who narrates the film, while using select flashbacks that include the use of freezeframe. The comedy here is also ultraviolent, with torrents of blood being spilt during the handful of some very over the top action sequences. These sequences were loads of fun, featuring assailants being decapitated, and limbs ripped off in amusing ways. All these scenes are made possible due to the power that Renfield has, by eating bugs he is able to briefly assume some of the power that Dracula has, given him super strength and speed. For me, these moments were nearly the highlight of the whole movie. Dracula looked great on screen, using some lovely looking special effects of him turning into bats or mist, and the make-up effects used for him were always really good looking. Despite being a bit of an idiot he is shown as all powerful. The use of flashback sequences to show his past battles with vampire hunters was neat. I loved that the flashback to when Renfield and Dracula first met was done in a black and white style, and as if old movie footage was being used (turns out it actually was old footage, with Hoult and Cage digitally added to the scenes!).
The plot is relatively straight forward, but it told its story in an entertaining way while introducing a bunch of fun characters. I expected Cage would steal the film due to his weird acting style and I have to say he doesn't disappoint, his wild expressions and the perfect delivery of his lines draw attention to him constantly, I loved how much he seemed to relish being the Prince of Darkness, albeit, one who may be all powerful, but is also shown to be a bit of a petty bully to Renfield. Hoult was good in his role also, I assumed he would be as I don't recall a film of his where he hasn't shined. I was also pleased to see Ben Schwartz (Sonic the Hedgehog voicework, Parks and Recreation TV show) playing a large part as the son of the crime boss, bringing lots of silly manic energy and over confidence to the role. Awkwafina did a solid job as the co-protagonist, and had some funny lines, though she was overshadowed by the other stronger lead actors.
I expected to like Renfield, vampires may not be my favourite movie monster, but I do like them, especially Dracula himself (outside of his portrayal in that terrible Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode). With oddball Cage playing the role, there was no way he would disappoint. Outside of the casting choices and special effects there might not be too much here to bring you back for a return trip, but I did have a blast watching this. Renfield is currently streaming on Netflix.
SCORE:
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