Although the reviews of Renfield have been mixed thus far, there is one common theme: everyone loves Nicolas Cage as Dracula. This role is chewing scenery at its best, in a way that few actors can pull off in 2023 as well as Cage does. It’s a bit campy while still feeling sincere, and is both deeply dumb and a little scary. This is maximalist Dracula, unafraid to be a blatantly evil vampire man with little motivation other than “murder and eat nuns.” In sort, Cage commits to the role of this supernatural comedy without ever winking to the audience or hinting that he is indeed in on the joke.
Renfield is a supernatural comedy horror directed by Chris McKay. It tells Bram Stoker’s Dracula story, but from the perspective of his familiar R. M. Renfield (Nicholas Hoult). In this version, however, no vampire hunter was successful in ending Dracula’s reign of terror thanks to Renfield’s intervention. With no one to stop them, the two have made it to the present time — although Dracula’s last run-in with the forces of good has left him needing a regeneration.
Nic Cage’s Dracula Is Everything Universal’s Dark Universe Needed
Back in 2017, Universal released the Tom Cruise-led action thriller The Mummy. This much-hyped project was intended to kick off a whole new cinematic universe, based on the classic monster movies from the the studio’s early days. Unfortunately, Universal’s focus on the Dark Universe killed The Mummy — rather than making a good movie, it ended up being a slapdash, awkward compromise of conflicting genres, motivations, and tones. Too much emphasis was placed on getting in Russel Crowe’s Dr. Jekyll (and his Mr. Hyde persona) and setting up the Prodigium secret society. Not enough effort was made in making the titular Mummy Ahmanet interesting as a character — let alone a convincing, entertaining villain for Cruise’s Nick Morton to defeat.
The positive attention directed at Nic Cage for his portrayal of Dracula in Renfield is proof of two things: one, Nic Cage is awesome, and two, the Universal classic monsters are best when they’re a bit silly. This isn’t to say that you couldn’t do a serious take on Dracula — in fact, the upcoming film The Last Voyage of the Demter looks to do just that — but the Universal brand of classic monsters is hard to take seriously, especially in “monster mash” format. 2017’s The Mummy tried to combat this by shifting the tone towards action, but it didn’t really work. Even Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in 1994 — almost 30 years ago — struggled with making a purely serious take on the story. In 2023, audiences want their Frankenstein’s monsters, blood-sucking vampires, and ferocious werewolves to come with a dash of amusement.
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