‘Renfield’ Review: Nicholas Hoult Emerges From Shadow Of Nicolas Cage’s Needy Dracula In Amusing If Bloody New Take On Classic

Pete Hammond
Updated ·4 min read
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There have been so many variations and film versions of Bram Stoker’s classic Dracula, from 1926’s Nosferatu to Tod Browning’s 1931 Dracula to Francis Coppola’s well-regarded take with Gary Oldman to even comedic satires like Love at First Bite with George Hamilton taking on the role. Now in Universal’s latest effort to rescue its horror classics and make them new again, we have the perfectly cast Nicolas Cage as the Prince of Darkness. Even he has done an offshoot before, in 1988’s Vampire’s Kiss. However this time around the film is not centered on Dracula himself, but rather his beleaguered servant, henchman, whatever you choose to call him, Renfield, and it is another Nicholas, as in Hoult, who has the title role this time in Renfield. Cage’s part, though meaty, is actually supporting as the emphasis turns to the long-suffering assistant who was tasked with bringing his boss’ prey directly to him, consuming bugs of all sorts in order to get superhuman powers to conquer them, and basically taking the fall for anything this narcissistic vampire does not find to his liking.

It is all a very clever way Universal has found to reboot one of its crown jewels and bring the monster franchise back to theatrical life. It comes from the idea of The Walking Dead’s Robert Kirkman, who has screen story credit on the screenplay actually written by Ryan Ridley. Chris McKay is the director and he has smartly loaded it with style. That includes in early exposition scenes, in vintage black and white, of Universal’s 1931 version into which, through the miracles of CGI, both Hoult and Cage have been inserted in order to tell the tale of their relationship — right down to doing the original dialogue between Bela Lugosi and the actor who played Renfield in Universal’s 1931 Dracula, Dwight Frye.

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But make no mistake, this is not your grandfather’s Dracula, rather a contemporary very dark comedy mixed with uninhibited violence and graphically bloody, no-holds-barred body parts hurling everywhere. In this regard it is perfectly in tune with today’s horror audiences who grew up on Freddy, Jason and Michael Myers. Where it really succeeds however is with Hoult’s likable and worn down Renfield, a man who has had enough of this demanding boss and is searching to find his own worth.

Learning of a self-help group that specializes in people in toxic relationships, he shyly shows up one day, finally getting his turn to share the story of his own disastrous relationship, never quite spelling out it is actually Dracula himself. These scenes are deliciously witty and serve as nice anchors to all the more standard mayhem. Also key to this plot is Awkwafina’s Rebecca, a New Orleans cop with serious anger-management issues, who aims to take down New Orleans’ biggest crime family led by the evil Bellafrancesca Lobo (Shohreh Aghdashloo) and her not-so-bright but tough-guy son Tedward (an imposing Ben Schwartz). When Rebecca meets Renfield she finally sees she has a perfect partner to help her, certainly better than her cop partner Chris (Adrian Martinez).

Meanwhile, there is the issue of dealing with Drac himself, and once the blood-sucker gets wind of Renfield’s new outlook on life, including a complete fashion and personal makeover, a colorfully appointed apartment and other accoutrements to which he does not approve, he pays a (very funny) visit to his new digs and figures out his next move aimed right at the unsuspecting group who are about to face the wrath of Dracula. There is much more action to come, as well as Dracula’s teaming with the Lobos, and Renfield’s reckoning, and in a spiffy hour and a half it all plays like genuine fun.

Yes, the filmmakers could have lost some of the relentless bloodletting, and gone more with the humor in terms of maintaining a more even tone, but it is still a lot of fun, thanks especially to Hoult who is perfectly cast here, and of course Cage who, no shock, nails this role. Awkwafina deadpans her way through it all in great style, and the others try to up the ante with more one-dimensional parts, though Brandon Scott Jones as Mark who leads the self-help group really scores in his few scenes of encouragement. Marco Beltrami’s ramped-up score is right in tune with the classics of the genre.

Producers are McKay, Kirkman, David Alpert, Samantha Nisenboim, Bryan Furst and Sean Furst. Universal opens it on Friday in theaters only.

Title: Renfield
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Release date: April 14, 2023 (after March 30 premiere at Overlook Film Festival)
Director: Chris McKay
Screenwriter: Ryan Ridley (screen story by Robert Kirkman)
Cast: Nicholas Hoult, Nicolas Cage, Awkwafina, Ben Schwartz, Adrian Martinez, Brandon Scott Jones, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Camille Chen
Rating: R
Running time: 1 hr 33 min

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