Director: Chris McKay (USA). Year of Release: 2023
New Orleans, what looks like a meeting of addicts. One of them, bearing a name badge reading “Hello. My Name is Renfield”, tells stories about his co-dependency with his gaslighting boss. As no-one who has seen the trailer, or indeed heard anything about this film, needs to be told, Renfield’s boss is Prince (please not Count) Dracula, and his day job is finding victims who can provide the blood on which his royal boss feasts.
Renfield is growing increasingly dissatisfied with his job, but just when he thinks he’s out, they pull him back in. Whenever he appears to be ready to strike out on his own, Dracula appears and appeals to his vanity and low self-image. But when Renfield interrupts a drug deal and comes across the unremittingly nasty Lobo family, he feels that he can finally act as a force for good, while finding food for his master without having to off any good guys.
Renfield is joined in his quest by Rebecca, who is apparently the only non-corrupt cop in New Orleans. Rebecca’s father, who presumably held the “only non corrupt cop in New Orleans” title before her, was killed by the Lobos. The familiar trope of a systemically corrupt police force confronted with ever worse baddies is often used as a new form of copwashing – there may be problems with the police, but the criminals are worse so we still need a heroic cop.
The Lobo family consist of the domineering Bellafrancesca and her snarling sons who have spent a little too much time on the steroids. When someone crosses the Lobos fights ensue. Of course, fights ensue. Ensuing fights is the only way that this film knows of getting from one scene to the next. Meanwhile, Renfield gains superhuman powers when he eats bugs. These powers ensure fight sequences between apparently invincible forces which become tediously repetitive.
“But you really must go and see Renfield. Everyone is talking about it”. Oh, really?
Things “everyone” is saying about Renfield #1 “Nicolas Cage is overacting. It’s great”
You say this as if overacting is not Nicolas Cage’s default position. With the possible exception of Raising Arizona, one of Cage’s very early films, I cannot think of a single appearance where he leaves the scenery unchewed. If you open a dictionary and turn to “Nepo baby”, you’ll see matching photos of Cage and his equally talentless cousin Sofia Coppola, followed by a list of the terrible films which some producer paid them good money to make.
Things “everyone” is saying about Renfield #2 “It stars that kid who was in About A Boy.”
What “everyone” leaves out is that About A Boy was a terrible film. Based on a Nick Hornby book, it removed a whole subplot of a goth girl struggling to come to terms with the suicide of Kurt Cobain – that is, the best and most moving part of the book. It replaced this with Hugh Grant getting happy clappy with an acoustic guitar. Well that kid has now grown up now and he sounds so posh that you want to throttle him with his entrails.
Things “everyone” is saying about Renfield #3 Renfield compares the title characters dependence on his role as a familiar of Dracula with that of members of a self-help group. That’s funny, isn’t it?
Yes I know, I’ve seen the trailer. I already get the joke. And when I say “the joke” I mean exactly that – this is the only joke with any pretence of depth that appears in the whole film. While it is a decent enough joke, it is not one which improves on the re-telling. And goodness does the film try to retell this joke. The constant repetition of “oh isn’t it hilarious that Renfield ‘s relationship with Dracula is just like other toxic relationships” swiftly becomes highly tedious then annoying.
Most of the film consists of ultra violence and people swinging around on high wires and beating the crap out of each other. I guess this is ok if you like that sort of thing, but it’s utterly predictable and however hard the different people hit each other, you know who’s going to win and who’s going to lose in the end. Maybe there’s supposed to be something balletic in all this, but the (mainly) male characters always hit and shoot each other in much the same way. Yawn.
Renfield is a one joke movie which is thematically all over the place. What do you want? A vampire thriller? A cop revenge story? A Matrix-type action film of Strong Men hitting each other over and over and over again? Tell you what, you can have all of these and more. Not with any depth or subtlety of course, but you’ve now become the film’s familiar, and can unquestioningly accept all this nonsense while the rest of us are irritatedly checking our watches every few minutes.
Other opinions are possible. This evening’s showing was followed by a round of applause, and people grabbed film posters to put on their wall. I realise that there’s something in all this that I’m just not getting. But I’m not sure that I want to get it. It all feels like humour made for a Superhero Franchise audience – you don’t have to worry about anything being actually funny if you provide lots of special effects and bright lights.
Renfield is (fortunately) less than 90 minutes long, but it struggles to fill even this. It is a concept which might fill a short sketch, and then it’s said whatever it has to say. Which is why it keeps switching genres and applying the dazzling explosions. Anything to distract you from the fact that there’s nothing of substance. I think I’d be less angry with Renfield if there was a general consensus that it’s just not very good. Maybe hating it is me overcompensating, but if that’s what it takes…
CinePhil 