Renfield

Renfield was definitely one of my most anticipated releases of the year due to Nicholas Cage taking on the role of Dracula! You can call me a fan of gothic literature due to how much I love Murnaus's Nosferatu and Stroker's Dracula. I was expecting myself to enjoy this film but boy oh boy was I wrong about it. "Renfield" follows Renfield who is forced to procure his master's prey and do his every bidding, no matter how debased but after centuries of servitude, Renfield is ready to see if there's a life outside the shadow of The Prince of Darkness. 

As you might have guessed from the title of my review, I partially enjoyed this film of Cage's excellent performance. Wow! He really fits the role and never fails to entertain you when he's on-screen with Hoult. What fails to entertain you here is the story. It was off to a good start then it went downhill and crumbled really quickly. It's thin, It's predictable, it's generic and basically soulless. The "funny" dialogue and cheesy lines did not add to my enjoyment and actually disrupted the whole film. I personally think that a mix between story beats of both Nosferatu and Dracula shot in black & white could have worked here. It would have been a dream come true, especially with Cage's and Hoult's excellent performances. On that thought, the movie suffers from having okay performances. I found Awkwafina and Ben Schwartz's performances to be extremely weak. When those 2 are on screen the movie becomes a boring and dull mess which will certainly leave you disappointed. 

Furthermore, I would like to mention the film's major problem here. Knowing that this movie got an R rating I was really excited to watch it. Well, I left with a big sad face when I left the theater. The film is gory, yes, but the blood was completely CGI except for some small parts. It ruined the whole R rating and made the movie look and feel cheap. Additionally, I absolutely hated the blue/green light present here. I really am sad that I did not enjoy the film the way that I was expecting and I think it's due to how badly the story and style of film is executed here.