SAN ANTONIO — There are some casting decisions from the grand history of cinema that simply make sense. De Niro as young Vito Corleone. Schwarzenegger as the Terminator. Day-Lewis as Lincoln. And, as illustrated in the banal but brisk “Renfield,” Nicolas Cage as Dracula.
Blending the playful self-awareness of last year’s “Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent” with the can’t-tear-your-eyes-from-him menace of “Face/Off,” Cage elevates this comedy/horror/action Frankenstein whenever he’s onscreen simply by virtue of genuinely wanting to put a different spin on the character. Twinkling his way through delightfully exaggerated mannerisms, his centuries-old count slips between sinister and seductive with such ease that you start to wonder why he doesn’t merely charm his way to world domination instead of dealing with all the messy business Dracula is best known for.
And “Renfield” is a messy bit of business, literally so but mostly courtesy of Nicholas Hoult’s eponymous protagonist. Having already played a zombie with a heart of gold in “Warm Bodies” a decade ago, Hoult slips rather comfortably into a different kind of undead character—one so constantly gaslit by his bloodsucking master that he goes to therapy for eternal codependants, establishing a cheeky but bloodless conceit that isn’t nearly as ingenious over 90 minutes as I imagine longtime TV writer Ryan Ridley figured it looked on the page.
So acutely can you feel when the movie is on cruise control that it’s a jolt every time Renfield switches from newly independent mope to superpowered action hero, snapping off the limbs of baddies as geysers of blood erupt. That it looks more like sickly thick tomato sauce is part of the reason “Renfield” might be both the most easygoing Dracula-adjacent movie at the same time as it could be the most violent; these sequences are meant to elicit jaw drops and fist bumps, not terror at the supernatural might on display. But aside from the occasional face-ripping gag that would please Sam Raimi, none of these sequences are particularly memorable if you’ve watched the comparatively magisterial stunts of the latest “John Wick” flick.
So what is memorable about “Renfield,” aside from a Cage performance that’s all-in but also on the sidelines for too much of the runtime? Not very much, and I suspect that’s just fine by director Chris McKay so long as we’re reasonably appeased by a movie that’s good for some sprightly fun and doesn’t ask its audience to look for any deeper truths about toxic interpersonal cycles. No amount of doe-eyeing from Hoult will invest you in Renfield’s self-empowerment beyond our knowing that Dracula will eventually re-enter the fold, Cage finding delirious new levels to play once he’s been spurned.
No, “Renfield” is mostly just fine with knowing that its inconsistent aspirations will only ever take it to just-fine territory, though the makeup team deserves a kudos for invoking the hellish imagery of "Hellraiser" in their depiction of a weaker, literally blood-starved Dracula. That brief scene signals a movie yearning to lean into the horrific rather than on the crutch of its one-dimensional comedy.
It’s curious, then, that master sarcastic sidekick Awkwafina is burdened with grounding things as Rebecca, an uncompromising cop hell-bent on bringing the drug-dealing Lobo gang who killed her father to justice. This being a script built on pure conveniences, that vendetta will pave the way for Rebecca and Renfield to team up against the Lobos (led by an effortlessly villainous Shohreh Aghdashloo), a conflict in which you might be able to glint this blood-soaked cottonball of a movie’s most political suggestion: The idea of criminal empires and their ranks of bought-out cops as the modern-day equivalent of urban ghouls.
It’s an intriguing analogy, but neutralized before it has a chance to go anywhere as Ridley opts for the baffling decision to double down on Rebecca’s hero’s journey. Awkwafina is typically cast to provide comic relief to the Rebeccas of the movies, though, and despite showing off some previously untapped dramatic prowess in Lula Wang’s “The Farewell,” she is in no way helped by McKay’s direction here. She and Hoult match up like Dracula and sunlight when “Renfield” nudges us to care for these characters beyond watching them kick vampiric butt. That Cage wins the movie might not be entirely surprising, but “Renfield” might leave you wondering if you haven't secretly been rooting for his Dracula all along too.
"Renfield" is now in theaters. Rated R for bloody violence, some gore, language throughout and some drug use. Runtime: 1 hour, 33 minutes.
Starring Nicholas Hoult, Nicolas Cage, Awkwafina, Ben Schwartz
Directed by Chris McKay, written by Ryan Ridley
2023
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