Giving new dimension to the phrase "Dracula sucks." (The character, not the movie.)
Robert Montague Renfield is a name familiar to anyone who knows the lore of Count Dracula as depicted in the classic 1931 Universal horror film starring Bela Lugosi. In the early 20th Century, Renfield (Nicholas Hoult), a British solicitor, is hired to broker a real estate deal for Count Dracula (Nicolas Cage), who seeks to set up residence in England, and once within the Count's Transylvanian castle to settle the paperwork, Renfield's journey into undying horror begins when he discovers that his host is a vampire. And not just any old undead suckface, either. Count Dracula is possibly the most evil creature on the planet, and poor Renfield is subjugated to his will as Dracula's pathetic slave. Through periodic infusions of his diabolical master's blood and the ingestion of bugs (apparently his main form of sustenance), Renfield gains the gifts of immortality, impossibly fast reflexes, physics-defying agility, super-strength, and hand-to-hand combat acumen unlike anything previously seen by man, and he has used those powers to procure victims for Dracula to feed on for the past 90 years or so. Hopelessly enslaved by Dracula, Renfield lost his family and home, traveling to wherever Dracula finds himself after his latest routing by vampire hunters and making sure that the master's coffin is protected during the daytime. And it's bad enough that he's the complete and utter bitch of the undead aristocrat, but insult accompanies injury as Renfield's existence is one of being Dracula's favorite target for vicious psychological and emotional abuse. The Count strips down Renfield's dignity and self-esteem at every turn, and their domestic situation is the very textbook example of a toxic relationship, and there appears to be neither any end in sight nor a way out.
Skip to 2023. In the wake of their latest run-in with vampire hunters, a confrontation that nearly ends Dracula, the pair relocate to New Orleans, and Renfield once more hits the streets in search of victims to sate his master's insatiable blood lust. At some point Renfield encounters a 12-step program for people in toxic co-dependent couples, and while there the seeds are planted for him bolstering his self-esteem and taking back the reins of his life. But first, moved by the stories of mistreatment related by his fellow 12-steppers, Renfield resolves to kill two birds with one stone and eliminate his fellow sufferer's abusive "monsters" by chloroforming them and dragging them back to Dracula's lair, where his regenerating master can feed on them at his leisure while Renfield suffers no guilt.
While out hunting an abuser who, unbeknownst to Renfield, stole a sizeable amount of cocaine from the Lobo crime family, Renfield decimates the abusive lover, his cohorts, and the hulking Leatherface-like professional killer "Apache Joe," who was sent by cowardly asshole mob prince Teddy Lobo (Ben Schwartz) to kill the coke thieves and retrieves the goods. Terrified by the gory takedown that he witnesses, Lobo flees the scene and blows through a sobriety checkpoint manned by cop Rebecca Quincy (Awkwafina), and is promptly apprehended. Teddy is released in short order, which pisses Officer Quincy off to no end because Lobo killed her father, an exemplary policeman who inspired his daughter to join the force, and she harbors an obsession with taking down Tony Lobo and his entire crime family.
When Renfield brings home his haul of bodies for Dracula's feast, the Count berates him for bringing him what is in essence trash, and sends him out again to find blood that is "pure." Renfield cruises a restaurant for suitable fodder, and at that moment the paths of Tony Lobo, Officer Quincy, and Renfield cross in a spectacularly gory shootout/kung fu fight wherein Quincy and Renfield lay waste to a small army of heavily-armed Lobo goons. Renfield's moves are nothing short of astonishing, and when the dust settles, the restaurant is strew with corpses and body parts, and Renfield and Quicy, now heroes, acknowledge each other with respect. Teddy Lobo, however, has escaped, and he now, on orders from his mob boss mother, Bellafrancesca Lobo (Shohreh Aghdashloo), seeks to avenge his wounded pride by hunting down the mysterious super-badass who wiped out his hit squad.
His confidence bolstered by his heroic reduction of the hit squad to sandwich spread, Renfield takes the lessons of the 12-step program to heart. He moves out, gets his own apartment, buys colorful new clothes, and in general sets out to fix his life. But he still has to contend with Dracula, who is none-too-pleased at his whipping boy's change in attitude. Upon finding out about the 12-step program, Dracula crashes an evening session and kills all present, leaving a blood-drenched Renfield to be discovered by Officer Quicny and her partner, who automatically assume that Renfield was the killer. But shit really hits the fan when Teddy invades Dracula's lair with another gaggle of hitmen in search of Renfield, and Dracula, who has been using his regeneration period to begin planning world domination, joins forces with the Lobos and grants Teddy the vampiric "gift," which finally gives him the means to become the badass he always fancied himself as.From there, the mayhem only escalates, and Renfield and Quincy find themselves wanted fugitives. With no other option, the pair team up and take the fight to the fortified stronghold of the Lobo family, where they engage in a final insanely violent showdown with the mob and the Lord of vampires.
Ignoring the fate of Renfield in the classic 1931 Dracula film, RENFIELD can be taken as a direct sequel to the Bela Lugosi horror landmark, the film that lit the fuse of the Universal monster cycle during Hollywood's golden age. Though gory as hell, the film is a pitch-perfect black somdey, and a damned funny one at that. The entire cast is perfect, even Awkwafina, whose presence usually sinks movies for me, and and let us not forget that this is a Universal release, so I say it's a rightful heir to the Universal Monsters pedigree while at the same time taking the piss out of it. Horror comedies are a dicey proposition and they more often than not fail at both flavors, but this film absolutely nails the tightrope walk of laughs and scares.
But if I had to single out the one absolute selling point of the film (aside from the amusingly excessive torrent of spewing blood, offal, and severed body parts), it's the stunning performance of Nicolas Cage as Count Dracula. I love Cage anyway, for his cornucopia of over-the-top roles, and his full-tilt crazy histrionics liven up even the worst of the films that he's in, so casting him as Dracula and turning him loose with the material was a stroke of genius. Cage's Dracula is simultaneously howlingly hilarious and utterly terrifying, and I hope his performance here is at least given a nod when it's time for Oscar nominations. He's mean, manipulative, selfish, slyly playful and seductive, and, above all, just a total bastard to poor Renfield. In short, he's simply perfect and the film would not have been half as good without him. No lie, comedic interpretation or not, Cage's Dracula may just be my favorite take on the character.
Nicloas Cage pulls off a bravura performance as Count Dracula, seen here in a dead-on accurate recreation of Bela Lugosi in DRACULA (1931), managing to be simultaneously pants-pissingly hilarious and absolutely terrifying. So, I heartily recommend RENFIELD, especially if you are already well-versed in the classic Universal films, and also as a damned good vampire movie in its own right. I will definitely be adding this to my DVD library, where it will occupy a place of honor, right next to my set of all of the Universal monster flicks.
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