Renfield

In 2022, Nicolas Cage took on the role he was born to play — himself in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. Now, he’s following up that dream casting with his next logical goofy role, embodying none other than Count Dracula in Renfield.

Similar to last year’s wild romp squeezing practically all the potential from a silly yet inspired concept, director Chris McKay’s unapologetically bloody and violent action/comedy about the legendary vampire and his titular familiar (Nicholas Hoult) at odds in modern-day New Orleans makes the most of its premise without overstaying its, er, invitation.

Cage as Dracula lives up to that inspired casting decision — and exceeds it with some truly exceptional makeup effects — while Hoult pulls from his genre-rich resumé (namely Mad Max: Fury Road, the X-Men films, and Warm Bodies), bringing a charming fish-out-of-water comic awkwardness to the demented servant popularized by Dwight Frye in Tod Browning’s 1931 Dracula.

And the Renfield team indeed knows its history. The winning combination of McKay (The Lego Batman Movie) and screenwriters Ryan Ridley (Rick and Morty) and Robert Kirkman (The Walking Dead) flex their reverence by brilliantly transposing Cage’s and Hoult’s faces onto their counterparts from the B&W original. And in an homage to Gary Oldman’s bloodsucker in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Cage also favors a fancy red robe.

But the fun melding of tradition and creativity is merely a bonus atop the film’s many comically gory action sequences. Though initial fight scenes suffer from repetitiveness, Renfield soon ushers in greater variety as the familiar runs afoul of the Lobo crime family and, eventually, his boss.

Renfield seeking help for his toxic employment via a co-dependence support group is a witty touch and helps counteract the parallel cliché “good cop fights corrupt colleagues in league with local criminals” narrative, though the delightful rapport between Hoult and Awkwafina’s principled PDNO officer Rebecca elevates many of their shared scenes as well.

Supporting it all is impressive production design, particularly Dracula’s blood-bag tapestry in his condemned hospital lair, and comparably sharp special effects — a nice surprise for such an unabashedly B-movie idea. Each of these elements mesh remarkably well, and if this wacky, blood-spraying, limb-snapping diversion is the start of a new era for Universal horror, we welcome our new, gleefully psychotic masters.

Grade: B-plus. Rated R. Now playing at AMC River Hills 10, Carolina Cinemark, Grail Moviehouse, and Regal Biltmore Grande.

(Photo: Universal Pictures)