Universal’s ongoing attempt to build a cinematic universe to rival (in its dreams) Marvel’s or even DC’s continues with Renfield, which has a task all of its own – how to get Dracula’s familiar into the spotlight all on his own, without his master stealing his thunder.
Even casting handsome, likeable Nicholas Hoult as Renfield it’s an impossible task and you’ve got to question the wisdom of getting Nicolas Cage in to play Dracula. Here’s a man who needs no invitation to overdo it being handed the keys to the scenery-chewing kingdom. And Cage runs wild in it, giving a performance of manically comic proportions.
The premise: after a disastrous encounter with some crucifix-wielding Van Helsing type, Dracula’s insect-eating manservant has removed the relentlessly over-reaching vampire prince to New Orleans, where the idea is that the Count can “rebuild” in a quiet dark place and on a diet of wholesome food (nuns, cheerleaders and the like).
Dracula in R and R means Renfield has some downtime, which he’s chosen to spend by attending support groups for people stuck in abusive relationships. Ho ho. And the film’s arc is… you’ve got it… Renfield asserts himself and escape from his master’s shadow. Etc etc.
Playing to the cinematic universe tradition, the Renfield in this story turns out to be something of a superhero, who gets special power from the insects he eats. But he’s trying to put all that behind him and go straight, a plan that needs to be re-assessed after he accidentally picks up a foe in the shape of a New Orleans gang family keen to annihilate him. Hovering to one side of this story is a cop, played by Awkwafina. And hovering over it all is Dracula, who once back in the pink arrives on the scene as and when to inject mayhem and larks and then disappears again.
As said, it’s Universal’s most recent attempt to get a “universe” going – Dracula Untold failed, The Mummy even moreso, then came Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man and, third time lucky, finaly a bit of box-office traction.
Renfield might keep the ball rolling, though Universal are being careful and have made no attempt to fold Renfield’s story into the world of The Invisible Man – slowly, slowly catchee franchise.
Director Chris McKay has experience directing spoof movies – Robot Chicken: Star Wars, Lego Batman – and gives it the knowing treatment here, laying on the superhero whizbang energy, smarts, quips, colour, fast edits, stuntorama, big music and layers of CG effects, while Hoult provides a Deadpool-style voiceover which comes and goes so irregularly that it’s sometimes a case of “who’s that again?” when it re-appears.
The effect is to an extent like Young Frankenstein, with a lot of the gags about the gap between expectation and reality, except Young Frankenstein didn’t go in for splatter on quite the epic scale that McKay does. There are some very, very funny moments, not all of them splatter-related, with Awkwafina getting a lot of laughs just by virtue of swearing in a most unladylike fashion.
But we really need to talk about Cage, whose Dracula leans hard on Bela Lugosi’s at the beginning – McKay even mocks up some old black and white 1930s-style footage in which the old vampire hovers like a superannuated wine waiter over his victims. But that idea is dropped in favour of a Dracula that is Cage’s own creation – those tiny pointed teeth setting him apart visually while Cage makes this vampire a mix of the hectoring, the sarcastic and the belittling. The bully employer.
It is strange to report that it is all great fun and yet doesn’t work. It’s the Dracula factor – he unbalances the entire thing. Good as Hoult is, he’s outdone by Cage. Fine as Renfield is as a character, he’s outgunned by Dracula. Enjoyable though Renfield the movie is, it does feel like the sideshow and not the show itself. Look at what it deals with – an antsy cop and a mafia family compared to Dracua’s elemental struggle against mortality and the power of good.
Which means that when it all ends, there’s a bit of a “was that it?” feeling, as if something has been said but so much more remains unsaid. Or is that another way of saying there should be a sequel. I’d watch.
Renfield – Watch it/buy it at Amazon
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© Steve Morrissey 2023
