A scene from ‘Renfield’
This is a movie I wanted to love so much, being a diehard fan of Nicolas Cage and the whole Dracula universe from the days of reading Bram Stoker’s Gothic novel as a prime example of invasion literature. Then there were also all those maniacal, helpless giggles from Mel Brooks’ 1995 horror comedy, Dracula: Dead and Loving It.
renfield
Director: Chris McKay
Starring: Nicholas Hoult, Awkwafina, Ben Schwartz, Adrian Martinez, Shohre Aghdashloo, Nicolas Cage
Running Time: 93 minutes
Story: Count Dracula’s familiar rebels for a better life
Though Brooks nailed it as the vampire hunter Van Helsing, complete with a practically incomprehensible accent, and Leslie Nielsen was a hoot as the Prince of Darkness, Peter McNicoll got his fondness for bugs and flies. along, as the hapless Renfield got all the laughs.
A film about Dracula’s acquaintance (a posher word for ‘slave’) turned rebellious in present-day New Orleans after attending some support group meetings for co-dependents on unseasonably hot summer afternoons seemed like a ticket to get away.
Alas and alas! renfield It is simply not what it was prescribed to be. All the jokes are done in the trailer itself and you are left with this horrible, lifeless dry corpse of the film. breath. At a support group meeting, he does this quick rewind as Renfield (Nicholas Hoult) begins to describe his unhealthy relationship with his mentor, Count Dracula (Nicolas Cage); Heading back to Transylvania in black-and-white he travels across the United States to land deals, travel across the seas, and so forth, all in search of new blood for his demanding master.
Renfield’s plan to hunt down and kill people who offend Dracula doesn’t work out as planned. Dracula doesn’t want the blood of bad guys. Innocent blood would be better than a bus-load of nuns, tourists, or cheerleaders, the count snorts. Also, while tracking down the estranged boyfriend of one of the support group members, Renfield becomes embroiled with the city’s top crime family, the Lobos.
Ted (Ben Schwartz), the heir apparent to the Lobos, is a source of constant frustration to his tough-as-nails mother, Bellafrancesca (Shore Aghdashloo), who built the business on the twin pillars of fear and respect.
There’s also Rebecca Quincy (Awkwafina), a police officer who topped her class but is stuck in the traffic department investigating a DUI. One of Rebecca’s ambitions is to bring down Lobos, the man responsible for the death of her father, an honest policeman.
Though the top-notch actors give it their all, the jokes either don’t land right or are corny. The gore isn’t weird either; That comic book gout of blood, decapitation and dismemberment has welcomed it.
At the end of a very long 93 minutes, you are left with a film that could have been a laugh riot, but is toothless blah blah blah. Now we can only wait in hope demeter’s last journeyThe second film of the Dracula universe is set to release this year
Renfield is currently playing in theaters