Renfield – A Poorly Executed Horror-Comedy

While many stories involving vampires have gained their fair share of popularity over the years, they all reside in the shadow of Dracula, whose legacy that has been as immortal as the character himself. Bram Stoker’s gothic horror novel has defied the test of time and become a generational classic that has spawned a plethora of novels, TV series and movies that reimagine the story or incorporate the iconic character into a brand new property. Chris McKay’s horrendous horror-comedy Renfield does the latter, placing Dracula in the context of the modern world. Nicolas Cage takes on the role of Dracula, while Nicholas Hoult is his kindhearted assistant Renfield. After decades of serving the Count and sacrificing innocent people for him to feed on, Renfield begins to feel remorse for his actions and imagines a life outside of Dracula. When he meets and develops romantic interest in Rebecca Quincy (Awkwafina), a cop attempting to expose the corruption that lies within the New Orleans Police Department, Renfield realizes he in charge of his own destiny and must take a stand against his master.

While a comedic/action-oriented spin on the tale of Dracula through the perspective of his servant isn’t necessarily a bad idea, Renfield is so poorly written and directed that it sucks the life out of anything worth salvaging. McKay’s direction is lacking in any creativity, instead relying on cheap laughs and ridiculously campy gore to attempt to keep audiences entertained. It’s an extremely messy film that struggles to balance its multiple storylines. On one hand, the film does flirt with some interesting ideas regarding co-dependency that could be really amusing if in the right hands, but its consistently undercut by an extremely generic mafia subplot.

Ever since Vampire’s Kiss in 1988, many fans have been patiently waiting for the day when Cage decided to step into the role of Count Dracula. A campy, ridiculously over-the-top interpretation of Stoker’s iconic antagonist is certainly in Cage’s repertoire and on paper seems like the perfect role for him. While he is entertaining in his limited screen-time, he does the bare minimum required and the material never gives him the chance to dial it up to eleven, like what one would expect from a Cage performance of this nature. Checked-out is is a term that didn’t seem possible to associate with Nic Cage, an actor who always fully commits to every role he’s given, regardless of how goofy or ridiculous the film is. However, he lets the heavy makeup do most of the work and his presence unfortunately doesn’t elevate the film in any way whatsoever. Hoult, on the other hand, can do no wrong at the moment. While the film is painfully unfunny for the most part, Hoult’s natural charisma and perfect comedic timing did induce some reluctant chuckles. However, his chemistry with Awkwafina as Rebecca is non-existent and often unbearably awkward.

At the end of the day, Renfield is a perfect example of a film that clearly doesn’t know who its audience is. It’s a disastrous mix of tones that constantly clash, to point where it rarely ever achieves any sense of coherency. The film’s rapid editing is amateurish, the action sequences are not well choreographed, the constant gore is obnoxious and won’t even satisfy horror fans, and the humor is consistently unfunny. Despite a somewhat promising premise and a talented cast, Renfield is a merely disappointing waste of time.

still courtesy of Universal Pictures

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Tristan French