Renfield

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©2023 Universal Pictures

The Assistant of the Lord of Evil

Richard Montague Renfield is a young-looking but old-fashioned dressed man living in New Orleans. He suffers from co-dependency disorder and seeks out a support group because of it.

 

His boss sends him out for activities and takes advantage of his willingness to help by making him compliant. What the other, normal therapy participants don't know is that Renfield's boss is Count Dracula, who wants people's blood!

 

All cops corrupt except Rebecca

But that is not all. All kinds of crimes occur in the city, in which the bona fide Renfield gets involved in his search for "vessels". Moreover he also sneaks around in the underworld.

 

In the process, Renfield meets the ambitious polisist Rebecca Quincy (pictured above) when he helps a group of lawmen fight villains in a diner and saves her life. She has no idea that the vampire assistant's supernatural abilities also come from the count.

Dracula actors

Numerous mimes have presented themselves as Count Dracula in film history. Here is a small selection of the most famous, whereby Dracula was sometimes only abstracted or shown as a monster. Max Schreck is missing here, as he played Nosferatu. Klaus Kinski embodied both Edgar Allan Poe, Renfield and Dracula in Nosferatu's guise in scary movies.

 

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Genre mix deluxe

The film attempts to combine four genres. Half of it is a comedy, spiced up with numerous splatter moments, a little horror and martial arts scenes. Such a mixture is always difficult, but Renfield succeeds like a Bloody Mary cocktail.

 

Nicolas Cage as Dracula and Nicholas Hoult as Renfield harmonise perfectly as a team, maybe as they have known each other since The Weather Man (2005), where they played father and son. Awkwafina is also outstanding as the hilarious policewoman Rebecca.

 

 

Music and sound

Horror film fans are not necessarily used to their favourite films being produced so opulently with a huge budget. On top of that, film music guru Marco Beltrami (World War Z, Logan or I Robot) was able to live out his skills.

 

The sounds also make a mighty impression. There is no undifferentiated sound carpet, but appropriately chosen sounds for all moments. Ancient Dracula scenes also sound cultishly noisy.

 

Shortcomings

In terms of content, Renfield is too shallow for me and relies too much on what has already been done. The thin plot is also the reason for the short running time of 94 minutes. Dracula's estate - in the film it should have been Neuschwanstein Castle - was unfortunately cut out.

What succeeded?

Extremely funny moments and sayings

Splatter scenes at Champions League level

Nicolas Cage as Dracula resembles Christopher Lee

 

Summary

A clear recommendation for all splatter comedy fans. You can hardly get more over-the-top gore than this.

 

Renfield comes up with little that is new, but mixes elements together that we have only rarely received in such a cocktail on the big screen. It's a hell of a lot of fun if you like muddled humour and splatter comedies.

 

Especially as far as the fun factor is concerned, all the tricks are pulled out: situation comedy, running gags, unexpected costumes, exaggerated joy in fighting or nonsense jokes; everything comes into play.

 

The plot is negligible and the film team knew that. That's why they strung together hilarious situations along the plot like a string of pearls and thus the entertainment appeal is never lost.

 

Actors

Nicolas Cage rarely portrayes a supporting character. Even this time Dracula is more of a Co-main-figure alongside Nicholas Hoult as Renfield and Awkwafina as Sergeant Rebecca Quincy.

 

Infos to Renfield