RENFIELD - Mark Reviews Movies

Renfield, Universal Pictures

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Review by Mark Dujsik | April 13, 2023

A good idea is never enough to sustain an entire movie, which is why Renfield is far more disappointing than anything else. The story imagines that the eponymous servant of Count Dracula has survived for more than a century with his vampire master, traveling the world, as all of the dark prince's misdeeds are discovered in place after place, and finally arriving in present-day New Orleans. Ryan Ridley's screenplay, which clearly has been slashed to pieces by director Chris McKay and a trio of editors, takes the basics of that relationship and puts it in a modern, psychologically aware context.

Basically, our man discovers that he's in a toxic, co-dependent relationship with his unholy monster of a boss, so it's time to quit and figure out what kind of person he actually is without being a gofer for an undead blood-sucker. It's a smart and funny idea, but again, that's never enough to sustain something even as shallow and short as this. The result is a movie that's full of potential and little else of much worth.

One of the worthwhile elements is Nicholas Hoult's work as the title character, the semi-immortal familiar of the famous vampire (The movie never quite figures out how everyone knows the Bram Stoker story and everything else surrounding it but doesn't blink at the existence of his anachronistic henchman—unless his anonymity is part of a joke that isn't developed or acknowledged here). He's such a sniveling, pathetic guy that he seems incapable of even understanding just how sniveling and pathetic he actually is.

That the movie occasionally has Renfield fighting off much stronger opponents and large groups of them with the help of superpowers granted to him by consuming bugs never fits the notion or portrayal of the character otherwise. That's the joke, apparently, but it's simply not funny on its face—and particularly because it is so uncharacteristic of the guy. Such, though, is the way of this general miscalculation of a movie, which feels more as if it's checking boxes of formula instead of playing to its most obvious strengths.

The plot involves Renfield gaining a bit of confidence with the help of listening to regulars at a support group for people in dependent relationships. It also gives him a way to find victims for his boss—not the innocent, virtuous people the vampire wants to help restore his powers after a near-fatal run-in with the sun, but those narcissistic, abusive people who have brought his new friends to this group in the first place.

One thing is worth mentioning before this review runs its course: Dracula is played by Nicolas Cage, in a performance that's a lot more subdued and underwhelming than that casting sounds. Part of it has to be the extensive makeup, which hides or hinders Cage's expressive abilities—a terrible decision in general and especially in this case. Eventually, Dracula decides that world domination is more suited to a god-like villain such as himself, and that's one step too many for his lackey.

The other, more extensive bit of plotting involves a criminal family, with hapless heir Teddy Lobo (Ben Schwartz) trying to prove to his mother (played by Shohreh Aghdashloo) that he can be as cruel and ruthless as a crime lord should be. Some cocaine stolen from Teddy by one of Renfield's intended victims puts Dracula's familiar in Teddy's path, which also puts Renfield in the path of righteous cop Rebecca (Awkwafina), who wants to demolish the criminal enterprise because it murdered her cop father.

It's a lot of unnecessary entanglements to provide some routine plotting, as well as senseless action and gory violence. The movie delivers those elements, although one has to question the delivery method when scenes seem swapped at random and certain lines of dialogue assume details that either are disclosed later or are never revealed (such as Rebecca somehow knowing what Renfield was doing with the support group members' abusers). As for the action, McKay seems certain that massive explosions of blood will compensate for or hide the fact that sequences have little internal rhyme (lots of physical business but without any clear sense of the staging) and even less external reason (Rebecca starts indiscriminately and remorselessly killing her fellow officers when some of them turn out to be crooked, but surely, not all of the ones on call at the time are).

It's all too bad, because there is a fine, clever idea at the core of Renfield. That and a lot of half-baked storytelling and slapdash filmmaking will get you a lot of half-baked storytelling and slapdash filmmaking.

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