Renfield (2023) was a box office corpse—$65M budget, $26M gross—yet it’s a surprisingly fun splatter-comedy that deserved better.
Nicholas Hoult plays Renfield, Dracula’s eternally abused familiar. For centuries, he’s been the one covering up massacres, dragging corpses back to the lair, and nursing his master to health every time a vampire hunter gets lucky. The cycle never ends.
Now, he’s sneaking off to therapy groups, wondering if self-actualization is possible when your boss is the Prince of Darkness. That opening sequence even splices Hoult and Cage into footage from Dracula (1931), erasing Dwight Frye and Bela Lugosi as if Universal’s monsters had been quietly recast all along.
Of course, the main draw is Nicolas Cage. He isn’t just chewing scenery for the meme reels—he literally had his teeth shaved down so he could wear ultra-thin 3D-printed fangs and still enunciate through dialogue. Some prosthetic setups weighed twenty pounds, giving him a hulking, unnatural presence. His performance is theatrical, imperious, magnetic. The tragedy is that we don’t see nearly enough of him.
Hoult, though, is no slouch. His Renfield is a perfect blend of pained and pathetic, especially when he pops bugs for power. Those aren’t CGI snacks either—Hoult actually ate potato bugs, crickets, and caramel cockroaches on set. Director Chris McKay even joined him for solidarity, while Cage—who once swallowed live roaches in Vampire’s Kiss—declined this time. The running gag works because Hoult sells both the disgust and the absurdity.
The side cast adds texture. Shohreh Aghdashloo commands the screen as a crime boss in New Orleans, and Ben Schwartz revels in playing her inept, whiny son. Awkwafina, unfortunately, is stranded in the role of a hard-boiled cop—it’s a part that never quite fits her comic timing or voice.
What really makes the movie tick are the fight scenes. McKay insisted on gallons of practical blood—enough to paint half of Bourbon Street—and it pays off. Limbs fly, torsos burst, and the choreography gleefully turns gore into slapstick weapons. Even behind the camera, chaos spilled into real life: during production, more than twenty crew cars were broken into, a touch of crime mirroring the crime family on screen.
Renfield wasn’t the launchpad Universal wanted for its “Monsterverse.” Opening against Mario, John Wick 4, and The Pope’s Exorcist sealed its fate. But what survives is a film that reframes Dracula as a toxic boss and Renfield as a burnt-out employee desperate for freedom.
For that alone, it’s worth watching. And as long as Nicolas Cage keeps sinking his fangs into projects like this, I’ll keep showing up.
Where to watch:
My experience with this film was overwhelmingly positive but cut the other way.
What I saw was a deliberate and not-at-all veiled allegory for classic narcissistic abuse, its victims, and how victimhood can be self-perpetuating until you get help and break free. I would go as far as to say that it’s both affirming, supportive, and informative to that end. There’s even a not-so-subtle explanation as to why you don’t see group therapy for this sort of thing (it’s on purpose and absolutely necessary).
Everything else is fun acting, action scenes, special effects, set dressing, homage to old horror films, you name it, it’s in here. It all serves the story’s core premise brilliantly and keeps an otherwise dreadful topic - perhaps all too real for some of the audience - palatable for the film’s runtime.
Movie was non stop hilarity. Nick was doing w/e that was. he felt so out of place but it worked. Benjamin Joseph Schwartz nailed his role and Hoult was perfect. Only problem was it was a bit too excessive with the gore. I thought it added to movie absurdity but others disagreed with me.
What I love about Cage’s performance in this movie is that he’s not just playing Dracula, he’s playing Bela Lugosi playing Dracula.
It really serves nicely as a legacy sequel to the Universal horrors. I’d love to see a similar approach taken with Frankenstein.
Idk how people saw Nic Cage as Dracula and didnt fall all over themselves grabbing tickets. That shit is golden.
I will watch absolutely anything with either Hoult or Cage in it. I thought Renfield was fantastic, and genuinely had no idea it performed that poorly sales-wise.
Truly hope it picks up cult status. It’s such a good movie.
Def fun.
Good movie. Worst part: Awkwafina is in it.
I wanted to see that but missed it in the theatwrs… i got the video game though. Not too many movies make video game tie ins like they did in the early 2000’s, so I felt it was novel.
I didn’t know about the game. Is it any good?
I also wanna know.
It’s alright. It’s really just a wannabe vampire survivors like game.
There’s a moment in the trailer where the support-group leader is casually inviting Dracula into the room, and Renfield panics as he’s realizes what’s happening. As soon as I saw that, I knew I needed to see this movie. 10/10 did not disappoint. Nick Cage as Dracula is just perfectly cast for the intended tone.
The success of a movie being measured at the box office is so outdated. With the cost of going to the movies what it is, I won’t go for 99% of movies, unless it’s something to justify the big screen and sound. Renfield looked good but it was one of those “I’ll wait till it’s streaming” movies and not one I needed to rush to the theatre and spend $50 for
It’s quite a fun movie. Cage as Dracula is priceless.
Yeah it was not super awesome or anything but you come away having been entertained.
I’m a little surprised because it’s a really good movie and Cage and Hoult fit perfectly in their roles.
Hoult is a treasure
I think it was the marketing. I had never heard of it when it popped up buried in new releases on a streaming service. Based on this I assumed it’d be shit but something in me was excited to see Cage as a vampire. Glad I did; 8/10 for me.
It came and went so fast that I assumed it was terrible… until I caught it on streaming and had a blast watching it.
It’s no Citizen Kane, but it’s a great way to spend a couple hours being entertained.
