'Renfield' Review: A Delightful Gory Ride – Collider
Anybody who is aware of what’s good for them is aware of precisely why they wish to see Chris McKay’s Renfield. The attraction of Nicolas Cage, a magnanimous star most of us grew up with, enjoying the Prince of Darkness is certain to excite anybody, horror fan or not. (Even my mom, who’s notoriously dangerous with scary motion pictures, is chomping on the bit to see it.) It’s a promise that feels precisely as outlandish as one would count on from somebody like Nic Cage, and on that alone the movie appears decided to propel itself, leaning tougher into that than even the star energy of its lead, Nicholas Hoult.
Now, I’m choosy with my vampire movies. It’s straightforward to slap some fangs on any previous scary film and name it a vampire story, whether or not the logic makes any sense or not. It’s a style that’s been oversaturated for many years, with most of its titles — particularly the teeming horde of Dracula movies which were made — barely price a glance, not to mention a spot within the canon. The worst of them attempt to make an excessive amount of of a comparatively easy monster (see: Dracula Untold), and the very best of them lean arduous into camp. As a result of what’s an historical monster who attire his best and seduces his victims with a mystic thrall if not Susan Sontag’s moist dream?
Director McKay appears to grasp that particular steadiness between terror and camp, and it’s that which makes Renfield, which premiered this week on the Overlook Movie Pageant, such a delight to look at. From minute one, star Hoult is at his greatest as Dracula’s trustworthy servant Robert Montague Renfield, who’s been saddled with the worst sort of indentured servitude for the final hundred years or so. The movie is no-holds-barred, each with its comedy and its scares, losing no time in introducing us to essentially the most fearsome vampire of all of them: Cage’s Depend Dracula.
To completely nobody’s shock, McKay seemingly allowed Cage near-full freedom to be as Cage-y as he needed with this challenge, and the result’s a hypnotic, Technicolor, excessive Dracula who anchors the movie’s silliness with Cage’s signature model of expressionism. There’s no query that Cage is aware of how one can command a scene, and letting him free on Renfield’s New Orleans appears like a very long time coming for somebody with a penchant for taking over the unusual and weird. It’s precisely as batshit insane (no dangerous vampire pun supposed) as his different current work; in the event you’re a fan of The Insufferable Weight of Huge Expertise, you’ll love every little thing happening with this Dracula, proper right down to his killer threads and tendency for dramatics, whilst he’s about to tear somebody’s head off.
And no, that’s not an exaggeration — many, many heads are torn off, in addition to limbs, torsos, and just about another physique half that it’s bodily doable to tear aside through blood-fueled rage. McKay isn’t shying away from blood and guts with Renfield (most of it brought on by the titular acquainted himself), and although it’s performed for laughs, the John Wick-level destruction is taken to the following stage with gallons on gallons of gore, creating some actually kickass struggle scenes when mixed with the movie’s glorious selection in music. (Lizzo and My Chemical Romance in the identical movie? My Gen Z coronary heart is singing.)
Whereas among the set items really feel pretty underdeveloped — think about me wanting pointedly at every little thing Awkwafina was given — it’s Hoult and Cage’s partnership that fuels the movie and retains you hooked, significantly when issues start to go south. The plot is pretty naked bones, that means there’s not a lot depth past what you see within the trailers, however McKay is aware of how he’s getting butts in seats: by promising fascinating, flamboyant, stomach laugh-inducing chemistry between two males who’re doing The Absolute Most at each doable second. And boy, does he ship.
This movie is sort of a pure extension of Hoult’s function in Heat Our bodies, giving him one other alternative to play a lovable sweetheart in a horror movie, one thing I’ll by no means not be a sucker for. (There’s a second when he alters from the previous garments he’d been sporting for 100 years into new ones, and myself and at the least three different folks audibly aww-ed within the theater.) His Renfield is pathetic like a soaking wet pet — and I imply that as a praise — proper up till he isn’t when he’s given an opportunity to take heart stage within the motion. Hoult’s all the time been a stellar main man, and it’s endlessly enjoyable to see him in such an off-the-wall movie, a lot the identical manner that it’s to look at him place a royal dunce in The Nice.
Ben Schwartz proves to be an exceptional scene stealer in addition to the bumbling crime lord Teddy Lobo who places up a entrance like he isn’t half as pathetic as he actually is. What little surroundings isn’t being chewed to bits by Cage and Hoult is fervently chomped on in his half, rounding out the trifecta this movie wanted to hold its particular model of comedy. Not each joke lands, however largely, the dedication of all three male leads makes this precisely what it must be: a excessive camp romp that makes lovely use of its historic setting, bloodbaths and all.
And Ryan Ridley’s script makes surprisingly sharp use of the allegory of codependency and abusive relationships, which Renfield labels his life together with his grasp as in an AA-style assembly for these experiencing “harmful” relationships. Positive, the jokes about Renfield quoting a e book on coping with narcissists are humorous, however the tenets taught in these conferences make Hoult’s efficiency specifically all of the extra poignant, utilizing the idea with out abusing it the way in which Dracula abuses Renfield. The movie juggles an terrible lot, together with plotlines about crime households and corrupt regulation enforcement, however when it focuses on these moments, that core manipulation so superbly carried out by Cage, it’s a goddamn blast, an ideal look ahead to any vampire fan trying to sink their enamel into one thing new.
Is there actually a lot of substance in Renfield? Completely not. Definitely, it’s one of many silliest motion pictures I’ve seen since pre-COVID, peppered with awkwardness and off-the-shelf jokes that might’ve been changed with meatier stuff that digs into Dracula lore. It’s peak horror-comedy, far more American Werewolf in London than Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and in the end it’s enjoyable primarily as a result of it doesn’t commit too arduous to anybody factor. However actually, I don’t assume anybody dying to see Renfield is searching for far more than to chuckle at Nic Cage within the sickest Dracula threads possible, and for that, I can assure that this movie delivers.
Ranking: B+
Renfield premieres in theaters on April 14.
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