2023 Catch-Up: Renfield (2023)

 A Vampire Film that I really should have made time for in Theaters.

That said, be prepared for something FAR DIFFERENT than advertised.  

It is...

Renfield narrates to us about how he wanted to get rich and fell under Dracula's sway.

He's kept him alive all of this time with his powers, including his healing blood.

I should also mention that Renfield gets a 'power boost' from eating bugs too.

Things haven't gone too well for the duo lately, as Dracula narrowly survives an attack by vampire hunters.

He's hiding out and recovering from the damage, which makes him look like Tim Burton playing Beetlejuice.

In spite of the powers, Renfield feels bad for all the violence and death that surrounds him.

Will someone coming into his life make him finally reconsider and stand up for himself?

When that happens, will Dracula take it well?

Ask the folks on the Demeter how forgiving/caring he can be?

To find out, stream or buy it now (it's on Prime ATM).

So, right off the bat, the good parts (and there are many).

Nic Cage is great.  He plays sneaky evil, over-the-top evil, manipulative evil and just plain chaotic evil.  He really dove into the role and made it his own.  In the build-up, he said he based Dracula's movements on a Cobra, which I totally get.

Likewise, Nicholas Hoult is a great, related straight man as Renfield.  He gets to add some real depth and pathos to the Character.  While many don't like her, Awkafina was really good here too.  She too gets to do more and really shines.

So, here's my issue, and it is really just one of how the Film was sold.

This is not a Horror Comedy.
This is an over-the-top splatter Comedy with a Horror Character (or two).

The Action Scenes are full of over-the-top violence, dismemberment and blood.  It is the closest I've seen a modern Film come to being like Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky, which is not a claim I make lightly.

Just know that this has lots of fight scenes, people get sometimes literally get torn apart and blood flies.

To be clear- I'm not bothered by that.  I was just legit not expecting that based on any of the Trailers (unless a Red Band one spoiled that).

Likewise, the Plot deals far more with Criminals and the idea of a Gang Fight for the City than you'd expect from a Dracula Sequel.

On the plus side, they did a good job matching the original footage (see Cap #1)

Renfield was fun and had more depth than it had any right to.  It just also has way more splatter and violence than I thing anyone was expecting.