RENFIELD

Promising premise peters out quickly in this mangled genre mix n’ match.

I was looking forward to this movie enough that I caught the first showing in my area. The premise of centering Dracula’s familiar Renfield as the protagonist in his own story seemed ripe for creativity and humor. Boy was I disappointed. It wasn’t long before I realized the filmmakers just weren’t sure what they wanted this to be and in attempting to make it a little bit of everything they ended up with a whole lotta nothing.

It’s an action horror crime thriller dramedy spoof and it falls short in every single category. The uneven, meandering tone makes for a difficult, labored viewing experience made even more tedious by a complete lack of credible world building. Director Chris McKay is mostly known for his work on The Lego Movies and assorted projects on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim and this definitely tracks as the characters and the world they inhabit are as flat and two dimensional as any of the animated worlds he is obviously more used to.

Nicholas Hoult is fine as the title character although he never quite endears himself enough to render Renfield worth rooting for. He’s a simpering wimp, even when fighting like Neo in The Matrix. Yes in this version of the story, Renfield gains superpowers as a result of his notorious insect eating tendencies. Yes it’s pretty dumb but it qualifies for mythos in this half baked storytelling.

Awkwafina…more like awkward-fina amirite? As Renfield’s potential love interest she’s a cringe inducing mess with most her line readings coming across with middle school play levels of believability. I didn’t buy a moment of her aggressive and overdone presentation and I certainly didn’t feel any chemistry between she and Hoult. Judging by this film she should stick to rapping. Nicolas Cage is even a disappointment as a slightly goofy, completely melodramatic Dracula. He has his moments but the whole film I was waiting for him to fully unhinge and, well, still waiting. Even Ben Schwartz who always manages to get a little chuckle from me left me wanting.

There were several performances in the ensemble self help group that got a chuckle from me, especially Brandon Scott Jones, who I recognized from The Good Place, as group leader as well as my real life buddy Michael Sullivan who I did a couple of shows with in New Orleans. Saw my pal Mike Harkins in the background too. Actually playing I spy with the New Orleans setting was the only real entertainment of the evening.

I wanted so, so much more from this film. The action was repetitive, the CGI gore was very CGI, the comedy was feeble and the plot and performances all fell way short of their potential. I don’t recommend this one at all, as a matter of fact I think I’d rather eat bugs.