Chances are we’ve been spoiled when it comes to watching horror movies. Mostly, when they are good, but good gore: bloody, with dismemberments, screams and sound effects on the stick. So much so that a horror like Renfieldbut with Nicolas CageNicholas Hoult and Awkwafina, well, it motivates us more.
Here Cage, whose career is constantly going up and down, is Dracula, and Nicholas Hoult (The menu), his -so far- faithful assistant, Renfield.
But for some reason the film bears the name of the vampire’s “servant” in the title, and not that of the Count.
dracula It continues to live better at night than during the day, the sunlight damages it and depends entirely on what Renfield does for food. His body decomposes if his assistant does not provide him with fresh meat, new victims. When well fed, Dracula emerges phoenix-like, stocky, in his black velvet tuxedo, his complexion pale but not faded, flattened coiffure, and a row of sharp teeth, not just fangs.
toxic boss
Dracula, let’s face it, is a very toxic boss. And, of course, young Renfield gets tired one day.
And this is how Chris McKay’s film begins (tomorrow’s warwith Chris Pratt, e Lego Batman: The Movie), with the protagonist sitting in a meeting for people who cannot get out of codependent relationships. Renfield goes there because his boss is an abusive narcissist.
It’s another time, not just the one taking place on the screen, which is in the present, but also another era of cinema since Francis Ford Coppola filmed Bram Stocker’s Dracula. And the Renfield composed by Tom Waits is practically the antithesis of the one now played by Nicholas Hoult.
Thus, Renfield eats insects, but for strength, the pupils of his eyes turn yellow and he becomes a kind of Marvel superhero. Jump, punch, run, he’d need to fly, that’s what his boss is for.
Dracula is as outrageous as you can imagine from the unleashed Nicolas Cage of the 90s. It’s not fair to compare him to Coppola’s Gary Oldman, let alone Bela Lugosi’s. This Dracula living in New Orleans is a megalomaniac, who could very well join forces with the mafia family that runs the drug business there.
Because there is another story, in which Awkwafina intervenes (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings), a police officer who also wants to avenge his father’s murder by that Mafia family. It won’t take him long to meet Renfield, because this film is a combination of action, comedy and the occasional silliness.
If it’s funny? Yes, sometimes it is. It’s fun, and going back to the beginning blood lovers will jump for joy. What it doesn’t have Renfield, the film, is mystery. Dracula is already Dracula, we won’t find out here, and those in charge of Renfield assume that those who enter the cinema must already know what he is like.
“Renfield, Vampire Wizard”
Comedy/Horror USA, 2023. Original title: Renfield. 93′, SAM 16 R. From: Chris McCay. With: Nicholas Hoult, Nicolas Cage, Awkwafina, Ben Schwartz. Rooms: Showcase Belgrano, Norcenter and Haedo, Cinemark Palermo, Hoyts Abasto and Dot, Cinépolis Houssay and Pilar.
Source: Clarin
