Renfield 🧛‍♂️ mini review:

Nicolas Cage as Dracula may very well be the best casting decision since Nicolas Cage was cast to play Nicolas Cage. Renfield feels like the movie that should have kicked off the whole “Universal Monsters Cinematic Universe” instead of failed past attempts such as Dracula Untold and the utterly abysmal The Mummy (2017). In this film, R.M. Renfield (Nicolas Hoult) seeks out group therapy help for his toxic and codependent relationship with his boss, the Prince of Darkness himself, Dracula (Nicolas Cage). First off, Nicolas Cage as Dracula lives up to the bonkers casting choice. He is every bit as over the top Nic Cage as one could ask for, with him nailing everything from the comedic beats to actually showing menace when he needs to. Nicolas Hoult is a total pleasure, bringing much boyish charm and an appropriate amount of social awkwardness to Renfield as he tries to break away from the stronghold that is Dracula’s shadow and help people instead. Whenever Hoult and Cage are on screen together having their wacky banter, the film is absolutely hilarious and simultaneously tension filled. Awkwafina plays Rebecca Quincy, a determined cop who recently lost her father to the mob, and she works very well in this comedic fish out of water role and has solid chemistry with Hoult’s Renfield. It’s one big coagulation of action, comedy, and horror that works a majority of the time, although there are clearly some aspects of the story that do feel rushed or cut out entirely. Cage, Hoult, Awkwafina, and a ridiculously silly Ben Schwartz as loudmouth mob boss all shine in the cartoonishly gory fight sequences and the hand to hand combat choreography itself is surprisingly rather impressive. The themes of toxic relationships, codependency, and self love are just enough to balance the crazy blood splattering action that ensues, and the scenes with Renfield at the group therapy sessions are genuinely hysterical. The biggest problem with the film is that it feels as if several scenes were edited down to the bare bones, sometimes in places that could’ve dialed up the insanity to 11 and even delved deeper into the characters. I hope this gets the director’s cut treatment for the Blu-ray release and maybe if it’s successful during its theatrical run, it can potentially revamp the shared cinematic universe of Universal Monsters. Overall, despite Renfield not taking full advantage of its genius premise, the end result is still an irresistibly fun horror/comedy/action cocktail showcasing a charmingly likable lead in Nicholas Hoult and a killer over the top Nic Cage as Dracula that is worth the price of a ticket alone.