Renfield

Over the top chaotic fun with buckets of blood and gratuitous violence. Both Cage as Dracula and Hoult as Renfield are superb with excellent acting and an authentic master/servant relationship.

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The plot wasn't as special as it could have been, but it's still pretty good and the moral message is well woven in between the frequent fast paced action scenes.

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Great special effects, makeup and use of music, but it did feel a bit of a mish-mash at times and there wasn't as much comedy as I was expecting.

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Overall, I would score this film as a seven out of ten.

Renfield. 2023. Comedy horror,featuring Nicholas Hoult as Renfield, Count Dracula's trusty familiar. Dracula played by and I hadn't realised that I really like Nick Cage. It's a enjoyable romp, think "What We Do In The Shadows" but with more gore and fighting. Similar to Shadows in that it's the everyday mundane stuff which makes the film, along with gory fight scenes with use of dismembered limbs as weapons which is nice and lots of bugs which will please the hungry among us. The subplot with the drug barons is a bit pointless but the counselling group which Renfield joins is great fun. It's worth seeing horror fans 8/10.

Last year, Nick Cage starred in a major theatrically released movie for the first time in over a decade. It was the pleasant surprise, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. I love it. And I hoped it would be the movie to bring him back to prominence. (Not that he ever left ;)

So I was immediately excited to see a new Nick Cage movie, Renfield, in theaters. Not to mention I love vampires. And in many ways, this movie is exactly what I wanted. It's entertaining, over-the-top, and borderline outrageous. I laughed a bunch, both at the comedy and at the craziness/gore. There is one scene near the end that perfectly captures the absurd fun (at the apartment complex).

At the same time, those crazy and outrageous scenes make up a very small portion of this movie. And overall, it's not put together very well. The story doesn't feel smooth. Seems more... frantic. Same with the action. It's not bad, but it's a little... frantic. Same with the movie as a whole. I could tell as soon as it started. It's kind of... hectic.

I was still able to get a lot of enjoyment out of Renfield. Cage gives a great performance. Six stars is a positive score for me. I had a good time and I'll probably watch it again at some point. But for a theatrical Nick Cage vampire movie, I can't help but be a bit disappointed. I should have LOVED this.

On to the next. I was already watching most of his movies when they were low quality streaming movies. You better believe I'm watching all Cage theatrical movies. More crazy and weird stuff, please :)

(1 viewing, early screening 4/12/2023)

Cage was born for this role. He's not in the movie as much as I would've liked though. I was expecting him to go full Nic Cage mode here, but he takes a slightly different approach and it works pretty well.

The gore is amazing with some really spectacular dismemberments and blood effects. They're really fun to watch. Only issue I had with it is the CGI blood doesn't stain clothes, walls, and floors etc so it kinda gave an unfinished look.

Then there's Awkwafina. She can't act at all. Her line delivery is terrible. I have no idea why she keeps being cast in so many movies. She plays a cop but I didn't buy a second of it. If her role was switched with the woman that plays her sister the movie would been better.

This was an incredibly silly and fun movie that you really don't have to think too hard about.

The humour is arguably the best part of the film, and I had many laugh out loud moments. Nicholas Hoult delivers as our lead, Awkwafina plays exactly what you'd expect which suits the role well, but Nicholas Cage as Dracula is just fantastic. He hit the tone perfectly with this one, scary, funny, manipulative, honestly the perfect casting for this horror comedy.

It's not a perfect film, the action; whilst enjoyable, is at times incredibly difficult to follow exactly what us happening - which is a problem with a lot of movies now days. They're also some silly plot holes, as well as just not enough as Nick Cage as you'd like, but overall it really doesn't matter.

If you're looking for a horror comedy with some very gory and silly moments, you've come to the right place. Fans of Cage are going to love this one.