Renfield

Renfield is a movie that I have been torn about since we first saw the trailer. On the one hand I am a diehard vampire fan and I have made a personal vow to myself to see every vampire related piece of media that exists. On the other hand I am very loud about my deep disdain for Nicholas Cage…he’s a terrible actor, he has no real range and makes every movie he is in campy whether that was the original intention or not. That said, Nicholas Cage was the best part of the movie.

Structurally I immediately hated it, the narration is fine because the movie is supposed to be camp but the weird and unnecessary flashback could have been cut. We all knew what movie we were walking into and the audience really didn’t need the obvious recap. The cop stuff really slowed the movie down, I had time to go pee without missing anything. The mobster stuff would have been interesting if it wasn’t intertwined with the cop stuff.

Every interaction with Renfield and Dracula was incredible and honestly we should have had more of it. The movie did this thing where it was trying to be camp and also be sincere which did not work. The juxtaposition in tone was mainly brought on by the cops' involvement. For some reason the writer felt the need to bring in a somber and cliché storyline for a beat cop and her sister who lost her father to mobsters that have corrupted the city. Now if they had just gotten rid of the cop storyline (and Awkwafina with it), and made Renfield’s ragtag group of support group friends get in the middle of Dracula and the mobsters the movie would have continued to be campy, hilarious and genuinely insightful. By removing the overused and tired cop vs mobsters trope, the dirty cops trope, and the justice as revenge trope the film would have been a truly deep and lighthearted commentary on toxic and manipulative relationships and how to overcome them. The inclusion of the cops took the overall movie rating down about 4 points.

Okay so Awkwafina is a terrible actress, let's all agree to stop casting her in stuff. She has one single facial expression and her “humor” is just delivering all of her lines in an overly hostile manner and if there is a tone change she just yells. She has 0 range, and really she isn’t funny. If we simply removed her from the movie it would have brought it's point rating up a little.

I said Nicholas Cage was the best part of this movie and that is unfortunately true. The campiness of the movie fit his style and strengths very well. And his screen time was in short supply. I never thought I’d say that I enjoyed a Nicholas Cage movie let alone that I enjoyed Nicholas Cage but here we are.

Overall I think the movie was okay, it wasn’t good and it wasn’t bad. And nothing really offensive happened narratively speaking but it was really lackluster. The cop storyline really dragged the pacing down and stepped on the only parts of the movie worth watching. I also wish there was more with Renfield and the support group because that fit the tone really well. The movie as it was earned a generous 5/10, with my very correct adjustments it would have been a 7.5/10. Recommended watch, but I wouldn’t actually show it to anyone. It's more of an, “if you have nothing else to watch” kind of movie. Entertaining and not a total waste of time.