Approach is everything when it comes to movies. To paraphrase Ebert, it doesn’t matter what the movie is about, it matters how it is about it. Tone, character, pacing, all of it can change your opinion on a genre or style of film that you’d ordinarily blow off in a New York minute.

For example, I’m not too into romantic comedies. It has nothing to do with my being a dude. Rather, the rom-com genre is one where I’m so acutely aware of the tropes and conventions, I often let out a “meh” without thinking twice. And yet, Long Shot, the 2019 rom-com in which schlubby journalist Seth Rogen and Secretary of State Charlize Theron fall in love, is a rom-com beloved by me. 

Why? Nobody leaves the city, returns to their charming small town, and falls for a hunky woodworker/blacksmith/glassblower. Nobody hates each other, then loves each other, then hates each other before loving each other in the end. Rather, you have Theron and Rogen playing two intelligent people who don’t just love each other, they like each other. They’re both funny, they both have interesting outlooks on life, and they both grow and change as characters. What a concept.

The same goes for vampire movies, specifically Dracula movies. We’ve seen OG Dracula by way of Bela Lugosi, big hair Dracula by way of Gary Oldman, Scottish Dracula by way of Gerard Butler, the list goes on. If you’re going to have the Count be the focus of your movie, you damn well better figure out an interesting take on him that either ignores tropes or subverts them. Luckily, Renfield has arrived with a fresh and bloody approach.

You probably have or had a bad boss.* The kind that has no respect for your boundaries, no respect for a healthy work/life balance, no respect for you. Renfield (Nicholas Hoult) has dealt with the bad boss conundrum for an extremely long time. You see, he’s the minion of Dracula (Nicolas Cage). Yes, that Dracula.

It’s always the same. Dracula plans to embark on an orgy of destruction. Renfield nudges, tricks, and outright shoves victims in his direction. A group of fearless vampire hunters confronts him. After Dracula’s inevitable defeat, Renfield is there to nurse his master’s charred and impaled body back to un-life. The only things that prevent Renfield from being destroyed in these conflicts are bugs. When he ingests one of the critters, he temporarily gains enhanced strength, speed, and stamina from their life force.

Renfield has spent decades doing this, and now he and his master have arrived in New Orleans. While hunting for fresh victims, Renfield stumbles onto a support group. Everyone there is afflicted by an overbearing and narcissistic presence in their life, one that lords over them like a cruel and capricious monster. Naturally, Renfield has found his people.

Things might be starting to go Renfield’s way. Only…they aren’t. He crosses paths with the Lobo crime family, led by the calculating Bellefrancesca (Shohreh Aghdashloo) and her dipstick son Tedward (Ben Schwartz). He also crosses paths with Rebecca (Awkwafina) a scrupulously honest cop with a vendetta against the Lobos. They’ll all collide with a rejuvenated Dracula, oceans of blood, and Renfield’s desire to take better care of his mental health.

About ten minutes into Renfield, when a man had his head punched off and the aforementioned head was encountered by one of the supporting characters, I had a pretty good idea of what to expect. Director Chris McKay has made a fast and funny horror/comedy that’s occasionally slight. If you’re looking for copious gore, occasionally bewildering action and a bouncy sense of humor, this is precisely the film for you. When I say “bouncy,” I of course mean, “heads, limbs, and other assorted viscera bouncing all over the screen.” I cannot stress enough what a spectacularly bloody film this is. It’s cartoonishly violent, not unlike Evil Dead 2 or Tucker and Dale vs. Evil. Having said that, McKay doesn’t just lean on gore and shock value. Just look at the opening sequence shot to look and feel like Tod Browning’s 1931 Dracula. McKay knows exactly what he’s doing, and you can almost hear him chortling behind the camera.

The screenplay by Ryan Ridley (based on a concept by Robert Kirkman) shies away from some of the more problematic ethical elements of Renfield’s long journey. I think that’s probably best, since this horror-comedy doesn’t need to come to a halt and reflect on Renfield being an accessory to multiple murders. The focus remains on his struggle to get out of a toxic relationship, and Ridley mines that concept for a great deal of laughs. For the most part, characterization is spot-on when it needs to be. It’s broad when it comes to Dracula and nuanced when it comes to Renfield. 

Along similar lines, the cast understands the assignment. Nicholas Hoult seems content to appear in genre works like this and The Menu, where he’s unafraid to play a character that’s a little awful. As Renfield, he’s someone who desperately wants a better life and to get out from under the undead thumb of Dracula – he just doesn’t know how. Hoult does strong work selling those emotions, alongside nimble comic timing and strong action chops. He’s a brave performer who will cheerfully do whatever is required, not unlike his frequent scene partner Nicolas Cage. These days with Cage, we either get nuanced work from him, like his shattering performance in Pig, or he’s playing a wacky variation of “Nicolas Cage.” I’m cool with him making the second choice here since he’s having a great time devouring vast swaths of the scenery. His Dracula isn’t scary, per se, but he’s not meant to be. Instead, Cage plays the Count as a manipulative narcissist lacking in self-awareness. He’s having a ball with the role, and that zany glee is palpable.

The one slight bummer here is Awkwafina as the principled cop Rebecca. As a performer, Awkwafina does excellent work. She can easily handle fast-talking comedy or subtle drama, and with her performance here I wish she had more to work with. I think the issue is that her character is a little underwritten. The main theme of the movie is people dealing with toxic work environments. Rebecca is the one good cop in a corrupt police force. That’s fine, but her role is lacking in specificity. If she’d had that, I’m confident she would have crushed it.

Approach is everything, and I feel fortunate to be in a time where filmmakers are taking big swings toward well-worn properties. Later this year we’ll see The Last Voyage of the Demeter, a standalone film about Dracula’s ill-fated sea journey. I’m sure it won’t be as relentlessly silly as Renfield, which is a good thing. Instead of grinding horror or a cerebral drama about the nature of immortality, Renfield is a goofy and sharp comedy that bites deep.

 

*If you’ve never experienced this and you’re in charge of people, you are a bad boss.



Tim Brennan
Tim has been alarmingly enthusiastic about movies ever since childhood. He grew up in Boulder and, foolishly, left Colorado to study Communications in Washington State. Making matters worse, he moved to Connecticut after meeting his too-good-for-him wife. Drawn by the Rockies and a mild climate, he triumphantly returned and settled down back in Boulder County. He's written numerous screenplays, loves hiking, and embarrassed himself in front of Samuel L. Jackson. True story.  
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