Giving new dimension to the phrase "Dracula sucks." (The character, not the movie.)
Robert
Montague Renfield is a name familiar to anyone who knows the lore of
Count Dracula as depicted in the classic 1931 Universal horror film
starring Bela Lugosi. In the early 20th Century, Renfield (Nicholas
Hoult), a British solicitor, is hired to broker a real estate deal for
Count Dracula (Nicolas Cage), who seeks to set up residence in England,
and once within the Count's Transylvanian castle to settle the
paperwork, Renfield's journey into undying horror begins when he
discovers that his host is a vampire. And not just any old undead
suckface, either. Count Dracula is possibly the most evil creature on
the planet, and poor Renfield is subjugated to his will as Dracula's
pathetic slave. Through periodic infusions of his diabolical master's
blood and the ingestion of bugs (apparently his main form of
sustenance), Renfield gains the gifts of immortality, impossibly fast
reflexes, physics-defying agility, super-strength, and hand-to-hand
combat acumen unlike anything previously seen by man, and he has used
those powers to procure victims for Dracula to feed on for the past 90
years or so. Hopelessly enslaved by Dracula, Renfield lost his family
and home, traveling to wherever Dracula finds himself after his latest
routing by vampire hunters and making sure that the master's coffin is
protected during the daytime. And it's bad enough that he's the complete
and utter bitch of the undead aristocrat, but insult accompanies injury
as Renfield's existence is one of being Dracula's favorite target for
vicious psychological and emotional abuse. The Count strips down
Renfield's dignity and self-esteem at every turn, and their domestic
situation is the very textbook example of a toxic relationship, and
there appears to be neither any end in sight nor a way out.
Skip
to 2023. In the wake of their latest run-in with vampire hunters, a
confrontation that nearly ends Dracula, the pair relocate to New
Orleans, and Renfield once more hits the streets in search of victims to
sate his master's insatiable blood lust. At some point Renfield
encounters a 12-step program for people in toxic co-dependent couples,
and while there the seeds are planted for him bolstering his self-esteem
and taking back the reins of his life. But first, moved by the stories
of mistreatment related by his fellow 12-steppers, Renfield resolves to
kill two birds with one stone and eliminate his fellow sufferer's
abusive "monsters" by chloroforming them and dragging them back to
Dracula's lair, where his regenerating master can feed on them at his
leisure while Renfield suffers no guilt.
While out hunting an
abuser who, unbeknownst to Renfield, stole a sizeable amount of cocaine
from the Lobo crime family, Renfield decimates the abusive lover, his
cohorts, and the hulking Leatherface-like professional killer "Apache
Joe," who was sent by cowardly asshole mob prince Teddy Lobo (Ben
Schwartz) to kill the coke thieves and retrieves the goods. Terrified by
the gory takedown that he witnesses, Lobo flees the scene and blows
through a sobriety checkpoint manned by cop Rebecca Quincy (Awkwafina),
and is promptly apprehended. Teddy is released in short order, which
pisses Officer Quincy off to no end because Lobo killed her father, an
exemplary policeman who inspired his daughter to join the force, and she
harbors an obsession with taking down Tony Lobo and his entire crime
family.
When Renfield brings home his haul of bodies for Dracula's
feast, the Count berates him for bringing him what is in essence trash,
and sends him out again to find blood that is "pure." Renfield cruises a
restaurant for suitable fodder, and at that moment the paths of Tony
Lobo, Officer Quincy, and Renfield cross in a spectacularly gory
shootout/kung fu fight wherein Quincy and Renfield lay waste to a small
army of heavily-armed Lobo goons. Renfield's moves are nothing short of
astonishing, and when the dust settles, the restaurant is strew with
corpses and body parts, and Renfield and Quicy, now heroes, acknowledge
each other with respect. Teddy Lobo, however, has escaped, and he now,
on orders from his mob boss mother, Bellafrancesca Lobo (Shohreh
Aghdashloo), seeks to avenge his wounded pride by hunting down the
mysterious super-badass who wiped out his hit squad.
His
confidence bolstered by his heroic reduction of the hit squad to
sandwich spread, Renfield takes the lessons of the 12-step program to
heart. He moves out, gets his own apartment, buys colorful new clothes,
and in general sets out to fix his life. But he still has to contend
with Dracula, who is none-too-pleased at his whipping boy's change in
attitude. Upon finding out about the 12-step program, Dracula crashes an
evening session and kills all present, leaving a blood-drenched
Renfield to be discovered by Officer Quicny and her partner, who
automatically assume that Renfield was the killer. But shit really hits
the fan when Teddy invades Dracula's lair with another gaggle of hitmen
in search of Renfield, and Dracula, who has been using his regeneration
period to begin planning world domination, joins forces with the Lobos
and grants Teddy the vampiric "gift," which finally gives him the means
to become the badass he always fancied himself as.From there, the mayhem
only escalates, and Renfield and Quincy find themselves wanted
fugitives. With no other option, the pair team up and take the fight to
the fortified stronghold of the Lobo family, where they engage in a
final insanely violent showdown with the mob and the Lord of vampires.
Ignoring
the fate of Renfield in the classic 1931 Dracula film, RENFIELD can be
taken as a direct sequel to the Bela Lugosi horror landmark, the film
that lit the fuse of the Universal monster cycle during Hollywood's
golden age. Though gory as hell, the film is a pitch-perfect black
somdey, and a damned funny one at that. The entire cast is perfect, even
Awkwafina, whose presence usually sinks movies for me, and and let us
not forget that this is a Universal release, so I say it's a rightful
heir to the Universal Monsters pedigree while at the same time taking
the piss out of it. Horror comedies are a dicey proposition and they
more often than not fail at both flavors, but this film absolutely nails
the tightrope walk of laughs and scares.
But if I had to single
out the one absolute selling point of the film (aside from the amusingly
excessive torrent of spewing blood, offal, and severed body parts),
it's the stunning performance of Nicolas Cage as Count Dracula. I love
Cage anyway, for his cornucopia of over-the-top roles, and his full-tilt
crazy histrionics liven up even the worst of the films that he's in, so
casting him as Dracula and turning him loose with the material was a
stroke of genius. Cage's Dracula is simultaneously howlingly hilarious
and utterly terrifying, and I hope his performance here is at least
given a nod when it's time for Oscar nominations. He's mean,
manipulative, selfish, slyly playful and seductive, and, above all, just
a total bastard to poor Renfield. In short, he's simply perfect and the
film would not have been half as good without him. No lie, comedic
interpretation or not, Cage's Dracula may just be my favorite take on the
character.
Nicloas
Cage pulls off a bravura performance as Count Dracula, seen here in a
dead-on accurate recreation of Bela Lugosi in DRACULA (1931), managing
to be simultaneously pants-pissingly hilarious and absolutely
terrifying. So, I heartily recommend RENFIELD, especially
if you are already well-versed in the classic Universal films, and also
as a damned good vampire movie in its own right. I will definitely be
adding this to my DVD library, where it will occupy a place of honor,
right next to my set of all of the Universal monster flicks.
Poster for the theatrical release.