Movie Review: 'Renfield' Needs More Nicolas Cage

Renfield (2023)

Directed by Chris McKay

Written by Ryan Ridley

Starring Nicolas Cage, Nicholas Hoult, Awkwafina, Ben Schwartz

Release Date April 14th, 2023

Published April 13th, 2023

Nicolas Cage as Dracula. That's the main selling point of the new action-horror-comedy, Renfield. Sure, the title centers on Dracula's 'Familiar,' his super-powered assistant, Renfield, played by Nicholas Hoult, but this is about Cage. You can't hire an actor as flamboyant, brilliant, and charismatic as Cage to play a character as iconic as Count Dracula and expect audiences to care about anything else. And yet, the movie is called Renfield and it is about the journey of Renfield from being enthralled by Dracula to his desire for freedom and becoming a hero.

Renfield has been at the side of Count Dracula for nearly a century. Thanks to powers bestowed on him as Dracula's 'Familiar,' Renfield has superhero strength and speed but only after he eats a bug. Eww. These powers give him the ability to stealthily capture victims to deliver to Dracula so that the Count can suck their blood. As the movie explains, several decades ago, Dracula was nearly killed, almost burned alive, until Renfield saved him. This however, left Dracula in a terrible state. He needs a large supply of victims in order to restore himself to full power.

Now living in the basement of a dilapidated hospital in the outskirts of New Orleans, Renfield's conscience has started to take hold. Instead of innocent victims, Renfield has begun stalking baddies, criminals and just plain jerks as food for his master. One place where he's begun finding victims is in a support group for people in toxic relationships. Renfield has taken to capturing the people that these victims talk about in group and feeding these toxic people to Dracula. Unfortunately, Dracula has sensed Renfield's newfound conscience and demands innocent victims.

In a bravura example of practical makeup and effects that still are overshadowed by Nicolas 'Freakin' Cage, a supremely gross and malformed Dracula delivers a monologue to his Familiar about his desire to eat happy couples, Nuns, or, perhaps, a bus full of cheerleaders. Even under pounds of melted, oozing, bloody flesh, Nicolas Cage stands out with his bug eyes and dramatic flourish. It's the best scene in Renfield and the most 'Nicolas Cage' of any scene in Renfield.

Yes, Renfield peaks late in the first act. Everything after this scene is competing for second best scene after this exceptional sequence. Nothing in the rest of Renfield approaches this scene, even after Dracula has recovered most of his power. How he gets to full power should be the story of Renfield but instead, attention is diverted to Renfield's encounter with a traffic cop named Rebecca (Awkwafina) and a battle with a New Orleans crime family headed up by an imperious Shoreh Aghdashloo and by Ben Schwartz as her black sheep, wannabe bad guy scion.

Awkwafina, Aghdashloo and Schwartz are all terrific but they belong in another movie. Time spent with them is time not spent with Nicolas Cage as Count Dracula. Every time Cage is off-screen, I could not help but wonder what he was doing. Nicholas Hoult is giving everything he can as the hero here, performing physics-defying stunts that blow heads off of bodies and explode the chests of baddies as if they were balloons filled with blood, but even all of this is merely distracting when you are only wanting to see Nicolas Cage play Count Dracula.

Thus, the balance of Renfield is just... off. There is not nearly enough of Cage as Dracula in Renfield and that both by design and a design flaw. The high wire act of Nicolas Cage as Count Dracula is one of the most exciting ideas I've seen in a movie in a long time. Either it will be incredible or it could be a completely over the top disaster of forced histrionics that launches a million memes. Either way, it was destined to be memorable. And it is, it is memorable, but not memorable enough. There is simply not enough time for Cage to live into Count Dracula.

It's easy to see where the filmmakers were worried about trying to corral the Cage craziness and not have it overshadow the movie. It's a desire to be able to make a movie that satisfies a mass audience and not a cult movie that only appeals to people with an ironic or genuine attachment to the persona of Nicolas Cage. Not all audiences are Nicolas Cage loving audiences eager to watch the actor lay his dignity on the line to find the performance he wants to deliver. As a filmmaker with a mainstream movie to deliver to a studio looking for big box office, you can't limit yourself to that kind of cult movie appeal.

That said, if you are not going to give audiences the complete Cage as Dracula experience, don't hire Nicolas Cage. Hire someone who is less of a living legend and meme. Hire someone, perhaps, whose persona isn't going to overshadow your entire movie. As it is, Cage looms over Renfield and renders an otherwise good movie less interesting by being far too interesting. He's a distraction and nothing in the actual plot of Renfield, involving drug dealers, crime families, and corrupt cops, can get out from under the shadow of Cage.

Do I still recommend Renfield? Yes, sort of. Again, Nicolas Cage is playing Count Dracula. That's a dream come true for Cage-heads. As a whole movie, Renfield is only just okay. Not enough Cage as Dracula and not enough of an interesting plot to overcome the overall lack of enough Cage ultimately renders Renfield a little unsatisfying. I can't say I disliked Renfield. Rather, I'm just a little disappointed in my portion of crazy Nicolas Cage as Dracula. More Cage and perhaps I could be happier with Renfield.

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