Big Picture Big Sound

Universal Pictures continues do what no major studio is willing to do these days and release weird and original movies onto several thousand screens. Their output this year has been a smattering of ready-made cult films ("Megan" and "Cocaine Bear, thus far) that are interesting conceptually but never totally get over the finish line in a satisfying way. Chris McKay's "Renfield" operates in the same key.

There are glimmers of something truly fun in the new gonzo horror-comedy, but the screenplay by Ryan Ridley and Robert Kirkman tries to pack a lot into the 93-minute film and focuses on the least interesting aspects of the story.

Nicholas Hoult stars as Renfield, who joins a support group where he expresses his frustrations about being Dracula's (played by Nicolas Cage) assistant. Renfield has his own form of life-sustaining needs (that feels barely explained), but he can no longer see purpose in finding humans for his boss to feast upon and supporting his nefarious intentions. He responds to his boss' demands dutifully, but Renfield is just going through the motions.

All of that description sounds great on paper - as it probably did when the writers where drafting the screenplay - but "Renfield" gets bogged down in a plot featuring a cop named Rebecca (Awkwafina) and her attempts to bring down the Lobo crime family, led by Bellafrancesca Lobo (Shohreh Aghdashloo). The conventionality of the cops-versus-the mob storyline often dulls the boldness of the wackiness surrounding Renfield's attempts to leave Dracula behind, and attempts to intertwine them never fully congeal.

Everyone is having the time of their lives in "Renfield," and that translates to the audience. Hoult's status as a deadpan comedic player has been on the rise, thanks to his Emmy-nominated performance on Hulu's "The Great" and his wonderful supporting turn in 2018's "The Favourite." He's good here, but the reason anyone would be attracted to this film is to see Cage have the time of his life playing Dracula. Cage is no stranger to manic, over-the-top and obnoxious characters, and playing Dracula fits him like a glove. The most recent stretch of Cage's long career has seen him performing in disposable VOD action pictures, but 2021's "Pig" - the best film of that year - has brought his movies back to multiplexes. His ardent supporters will enjoy his ghoulish rendition of Dracula.

Even with funny moments and goofy and gloriously exaggerated violence, "Renfield" feels like a missed opportunity. The script isn't focused enough to highlight what works in the movie, and this lets the whole movie down. It will not derail Cage's resurgence into the mainstream, but it will hopefully encourage creators to utilize him in stronger projects.