Renfield (2023) Dir: Chris McKay

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I can recall seeing the first trailer for this Chris McKay directed horror comedy, and being rather excited. It looked like it would be a hoot of a time, particularly with it casting Nicolas Cage in the role of the Prince of Darkness himself; a role Cage seemed born to play, particularly with his relation to former Dracula director Francis Ford Coppola. However, most have found this to be rather mediocre, and swiftly moved on from it. I was hoping for more.

I loved the early shots recreating some of the classic Bella Lugosi Dracula scenes - I thought it was a very creative and amusing way of showing the set-up to the main story. The rest of the cinematography was pretty unremarkable, unfortunately. I did, however, enjoy the absurd amounts of blood and gore included - it was a campy and unexpected delight.

The narrative got bogged down trying to be more than it needed to be, unfortunately. If it had focused on the campy, over-the-top absurdity of the Dracula story arc, it would have been a much more enjoyable film. But it kept trying to force a more sincere, 'cop seeking justice' narrative, that was as convoluted as it was irritating. It introduced a lot of unnecessary or uninteresting characters, and disrupted the main arc greatly.

Nicholas Hoult was pretty enjoyable in this leading role, albeit outshone greatly by his legendary co-star. I thought Hoult's comedic timing was fairly good, and his facial expressions matched up well with the physical gags. I struggled a little bit to take him seriously as an endearing protagonist, but I think that was more down to writing issues than acting issues.

It felt so right seeing Nicolas Cage playing the most iconic vampire of all-time; Dracula. Cage's trademark over-acting was remarkably appropriate for his flamboyant character. To almost nobody's surprise, his wonderfully silly acting stole the show. His scenes were, without a doubt, the most watchable and amusing in the whole film. I can't stress enough, just how right it looked for Cage to be portraying Dracula.

I don't really understand all the hate for Awkwafina, to be honest - I actually find her quite entertaining, on occasion. That said, her presence in this film was very much weakened by her character's out-of-place arc. The janky back-and-forth of her character, from comedic to serious, just didn't quite work - much like the film's story, funnily enough.

Ben Schwartz was probably the weakest element of this film. I don't mind him as an actor, sometimes, but I thought he was pretty annoying, honestly. This was just not a great showing from him, and, to be frank, his character was terrible. The same can be said for Shohreh Aghdashloo, whose character was such an unnecessary and boring inclusion.

Overall, this was an odd film to think about, from a reviewing perspective, because my enjoyment was so split. I loved the absurd and gory Dracula elements, but the messy police subplot completely sucked the life out of the film - see what I did there? I think this could have been a modern cult hit, if it had focused entirely on the campy, homoerotic relationship between the legendary vampire and his familiar, instead of a disjointed comedy that most forgot about soon after it left cinemas.