“Renfield” is not Nicolas Cage’s first blush with a vampire.
It’s a nifty enough idea that the filmmakers have wisely chosen not to over complicate. Even though “” features a monster with growing desires for world domination and an alarming number of exploding human heads, the stakes are low in this Dracula spinoff. The tone is antic and blood-splattery, slotting in closer to a gory, middle-of-the-road “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” episode than, say, the wittier “What We Do in the Shadows.
Vampires have been in vogue for some time, but usually in more extrapolated interpretations with greater sympathies for vampires — elegant, sexy or childlike — as worldly outsiders. Edging closer to Dracula, himself, has been rarer, and it’s probably a sign of the lesser, shlocky ambitions of “” that he still remains off to the side. But whenever Cage’s Prince of Darkness is around, the movie has a bite.
Cage, returning to major studio territory after an often thrilling, sometimes befuddling decade in indie pastures, is, as always, fully prepared for the moment. The actor, long a devoted fan of F.W. Murnau’s “Nosferatu,” channels some of the classic interpretations of Dracula — including Bela Lugosi, over whom Cage is superimposed in an early flashback taken from 1931’s “Dracula” — while animating the character with his own comic, campy rhythm.
It’s easy to see the purpose in some of this: Bring in some funny people to populate the backdrop for‘s attempted succession from Dracula duties . Awkwafina is a welcome presence with her own comedy chops. But by trying to amp things up, McKay, the director of “The Tomorrow War” and “The Lego Batman Movie,” loses what ought to have been the film’s focus.” is enjoyable enough in a disposable sort of way. A lack of self-seriousness is a quality to be appreciated in any movie like this.
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