Nicolas Cage licks his fangs in ‘Renfield’, a vampire comedy about toxic couple relationships in which he makes life miserable for Nicholas Hoult.
Like the Latin cover of the static, boring and theatrical, but untouchable, Tod Browning’s ‘Dracula’ (1931), shot at night while Universal’s star crew rested in luxury residences, stood up to Bela Lugosi and company to become best picture, ‘Renfield’, which begins with a hilarious and rebellious digital intrusion into Browning’s film to the greatest glory of Nicolas Cage, he emancipates himself with a brainless kaffir and with assumption of the parasitic condition of vampire cinema of the Bram Stoker canons, and also the always more erotic ones of Hammer (with which, however, he shares the theme of the class struggle), to embrace the children of the night exploitation, be in terror as in humor.
‘Renfield’ is as much a comedy with the Transylvanian count looking down in awe and contempt on the modern world (America infected by political correctness, goodness, cancellation, puritanism and self-help) as George Hamilton arched his eyebrows at the women’s liberation in the 70s of ‘Love at first bite’, and that Eddie Murphy showed the gangstas that for the godfather of Harlem, himself, as a wild action movie that could be ‘Blade’, but who wants to be ‘Signaled for death’, Steven Seagal’s against Haitian drug traffickers, with the shameless seventies of ‘Black Dracula’ and sequel.
Scripted by Ryan ‘Rick and Morty’ Ridley and Robert ‘The Walking Dead’ Kirkman (in the mix is the resulting explosive Molotov cocktail), Chris McKay’s film gets a laugh (not the laugh it deserves) at cheap literature and therapy about toxic couple relationships using some not hidden codes of gay comedy, the unmistakable invisible thread that unites a properly mannered Nicholas Hoult and a Nicolas Cage who licks his fangs in each sequence (not all that we Cage addicts would like) in which it appears, intended to expand the catalog of Cage memes. A relationship reminiscent of George Hilton’s with Klaus Kinski in a cult Eurowestern, ‘The Gold Professionals’, as sadistic, bitchy and amoral as this ultimately romantic comedy.
In its extremely tight hour and a half of footage, ‘Renfield’ does not invent, nor does it pretend to, anything in terms of visual language. It links comic and parodic moments with brilliant action sequences (that rereading of ‘Dredd’ and ‘Murderous Raid’ in the apartment block), it relies on CGI gore and perhaps in all of this it is making the most of the bite on the neck of the crestfallen latest superhero films than that frustrated Universal Monsters Cineverse that has never materialized. Or at least until now. This is the way.
For acolytes of exploit vampirism, the gay romcom and the prince of darkness Nicolas Cage
DATA SHEET
Address: chris mckay Distribution: Nicholas Hoult, Nicolas Cage, Awkwafina, Ben Schwartz, Adrian Martinez Country: USA Year: 2023 Release date: 14–4-2023 Gender: Comedy Script: Robert Kirkman, Ryan Ridley Duration: 93 min.
Synopsis: Renfield is the tortured assistant to the most narcissistic vampire in history: Dracula. Renfield is forced to procure victims for his master and do whatever he orders, no matter how immoral. But now, after centuries of servitude, Renfield is ready to find out if there is life beyond the long shadow of the Prince of Darkness. The problem? That he doesn’t know how to break that dependency relationship.
Source: Fotogramas
Emily Jhon is a product and service reviewer at Gossipify, known for her honest evaluations and thorough analysis. With a background in marketing and consumer research, she offers valuable insights to readers. She has been writing for Gossipify for several years and has a degree in Marketing and Consumer Research from the University of Oxford.