‘Renfield’ review: Nicholas Hoult emerges from the shadow of Nicolas Cage’s destitute Dracula in Amusing If Bloody New Take On Classic

There have been so many variations and film versions of Bram Stoker’s classic dracula from 1926 Nosferatu after Browning’s death in 1931 Dracula to Francis Coppola’s highly acclaimed performance of Gary Oldman to comic satires Love at first bite with George Hamilton taking over the role. In Universal’s latest attempt to rescue and remake its horror classics, we now have the perfect casting of Nicolas Cage as the Prince of Darkness. Self He made an incentive already in 1988 Kiss of the Vampire. This time, however, the film is not about Dracula himself, but about his beleaguered servant, henchman, whatever you want to call him, Renfield, and it is he other Nicholas, as in Hoult, who this time has the title role Renfield. Cage’s part may be meat, but it’s real supportive while the focus shifts to the long-suffering wizard tasked with bringing his master’s loot straight to him, consuming all manner of bugs to overcome superhuman powers, and basically taking the blame for everything to assume this narcissistic vampire don’t like .

It’s all a very clever way that Universal has found to reboot one of its crown jewels and bring the monster franchise back to life. It comes from the idea of the walking dead Robert Kirkman, who wrote the film story credits on the screenplay, which was actually written by Ryan Ridley. Chris McKay is the director and he has cleverly loaded it with style. The same goes for early exposition scenes in vintage black and white from the 1931 Universal version, in which, through the wonders of CGI, both Hoult and Cage are inserted to tell the story of their relationship – right down to the original dialogue between Bela Lugosi and the actor who played Renfield in Universals 1931 dracula Dwight Fry.

But make no mistake, this is it not Your Grandpa’s Dracula, more of a contemporary, very dark comedy mixed with rampant violence and graphically gory, rampant body parts all over the place. In that respect, it fits perfectly with today’s horror audience who grew up listening to Freddy, Jason and Michael Myers. Where it really succeeds, however, is Hoult’s likable and jaded Renfield, a man fed up with this demanding boss and searching for his own worth.

When he hears about a support group that specializes in people in toxic relationships, one day he’s embarrassed and it’s finally his turn to tell his story own disastrous relationship, never quite realizing that it is actually Dracula himself. These scenes are delightfully funny and serve as nice anchors for the more usual chaos. Also crucial to this storyline is Rebecca van Awkwafina, a New Orleans police officer with serious anger management issues who takes aim at New Orleans’ biggest crime family, led by the evil Bellafrancesca Lobo (Shohreh Aghdashloo) and their not-so-intelligent but tough son Tedward (an imposing Ben Schwartz). When Rebecca meets Renfield, she finally sees that she has the perfect partner to help her, certainly better than her cop partner Chris (Adrian Martinez).

Meanwhile, it’s about dealing with Drac himself, and once the leech learns of Renfield’s new outlook on life, including a complete fashion and personal makeover, a colorfully decorated apartment and other accoutrements he dons. not agree, he pays a (very funny) visit to his new dig site and plans his next move, targeting the unsuspecting group facing Dracula’s wrath. There’s still plenty of action to come, as well as Dracula’s team-up with the Lobos and Renfield’s calculation, and it all plays out like real fun in a blistering hour and a half.

Yes, the filmmakers could have toned down some of the relentless gore and delved more into the humor to maintain a more balanced tone, but it’s still a lot of fun, thanks in large part to Hoult, who is perfectly cast here, and of course Cage , who is , no shock to pursue this role. Awkwafina pulls through in style, the others try to follow up with more one-dimensional parts, with Brandon Scott Jones as Mark, who runs the support group, really scoring with his few pep scenes. Marco Beltrami’s polished soundtrack fits perfectly with the classics of the genre.

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

Title: Renfield
Distributor: Universal images
Release date: April 14, 2023 (after premiere on March 30 at the Overlook Film Festival)
Director: Chris McKay
Screenwriter: Ryan Ridley (film story by Robert Kirkman)
Form: Nicholas Hoult, Nicolas Cage, Awkwafina, Ben Schwartz, Adrian Martinez, Brandon Scott Jones, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Camille Chen
Judge: R
Time: 1 hour 33 minutes