Renfield (Dracula Sucks Edition) [Blu-Ray]

Director: Chris McKay

Cast: Nicholas Hoult, Awkwafina, Nicolas Cage

Release Date: June 6, 2023

A Review By: Kevin Lovell

Film Rating: 7/10
Disc Rating: 8/10

Synopsis:

Nicholas Hoult stars as Renfield, the tortured aide to history’s most narcissistic boss: Dracula (Nicolas Cage). For centuries, Renfield has slavishly served Dracula by procuring his master’s prey and doing his every bidding, no matter how debased. But now, Renfield is ready to look for a new life outside the shadow of The Prince of Darkness, if only he can figure out how to end the toxic, co-dependent relationship…

Please Note: Universal Pictures Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Post. The opinions I share are my own.

‘Renfield’ tells the modern-day tale of Dracula’s assistant who after spending centuries helping his boss kill and feed off of the innocent and wreaking havoc across the world has finally decided he’s had enough. Visiting a toxic relationship support group in search of new victims for his rejuvenating master, Renfield begins to discover that the only relationship he’s had in countless ages is holding him back and keeping him down, and after assisting a police officer amid a brutal attack by the local mob family the two end up becoming friendly. As things begin to get out of hand with both the local mobsters and Renfield’s blood-sucking boss on the hunt, the two strangers will need to join forces if they hope to stand any chance of surviving the bloodshed.

Directed by Chris McKay (The Tomorrow War, The LEGO Batman Movie) from a screenplay written by Ryan Ridley (TV’s Rick and Morty, Community) and a screen story by Robert Kirkman, McKay does a nice job at the helm of ‘Renfield’ guiding along the ridiculously over the top fun with plenty of gore and laughs to offer around every turn. The film’s cast includes Nicholas Hoult (The Menu), Awkwafina (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings), Ben Schwartz (TV’s The Afterparty), Adrian Martinez (TV’s Stumptown), Shohreh Aghdashloo (TV’s The Flight Attendant), Brandon Scott Jones (TV’s Ghosts 2021), and Nicolas Cage (Pig) who each offer solid, if not at least fitting performances for the most part in their respective roles, although Cage tends to easily steal nearly every scene he occupies with his delightfully over the top portrayal of Dracula.

‘Renfield’ offers a massively enjoyable horror comedy hybrid that delivers ample blood-drenched violence and gore to keep the horror fans more than satisfied, along with some almost superhero like fight sequences paired with quite a few laughs that keep this delightfully goofy take on Dracula and his famous assistant Renfield from ever becoming the slightest bit dull or unamusing. It benefits tremendously from a marvelously over the top performance by Nicolas Cage who is nothing short of magnificent as Dracula and never hesitates to delve into the roll completely, and his incredibly fun performance is nicely balanced by Nicholas Hoult as Renfield and some other notable performances that may not be Oscar contenders but certainly fit splendidly within this silly ride and help to keep the fun moving along smoothly from start to finish.

The film does a great job of paying homage to the Dracula classics of old that introduced the character to the masses onscreen, even opening with an old film stock like black and white sequence focusing on the meeting of Dracula and Renfield centuries ago that nearly feels like it could fit neatly in with the original classics of the old monster-movie age and just makes us appreciate Cage as the legendary vampire that much more; then shifting into a drastically new approach as we head into modern day times and the significantly different world that it is. It can occasionally get carried away with its silliness and there are a handful of moments that don’t work quite as well as they should, but none of them keep this from being an awfully great time that horror-comedy fans will almost surely want to make a definite point of checking out.

Overall, ‘Renfield’ is a wild, carnage soaked good time packed with more than enough laughs and over the top, bloody action sequences to keep both comedy and horror fans thoroughly satisfied, along with enjoyable nods to the Dracula classics of old and a vibrantly colorful approach that works rather well for the tale. ‘Renfield’ is definitely recommended, especially for diehard fans of Nicolas Cage who is as delightfully over the top here as many surely hoped, along with those that typically enjoy a darkly humorous and notably bloody horror comedy that does a great job of going all out and meshing the genres together in an enjoyable way. If you’re already at all excited for this one but weren’t able to catch it in theaters, then I would strongly encourage giving it a chance whenever possible. It may not be an utter masterpiece, but it should be well worth your time and the price of a rental at the absolute least.

VIDEO:

The Blu-ray release of ‘Renfield’ features a full 1080p High Definition presentation with the film’s original 2.39:1 Cinemascope Aspect Ratio. The video presentation looks great as a whole and serves up a clean, smooth and richly colored presentation from start to finish. It holds up capably even during the fast moving and darkly lit sequences throughout and never suffers from any noticeable issues occurring along the way; showing great detail in everything from backgrounds to character faces and clothing, along with the blood and intestines flying about. Overall, this is a solid high definition video presentation from Universal that shouldn’t have any trouble pleasing fans and first time viewers.

AUDIO:

The Blu-ray release features a 7.1 channel DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack. This multichannel soundtrack delivers a clean, crisp and frequently immersive audio presentation throughout that repeatedly ads to the fun of the viewing experience. It takes advantage of all seven available channels in order to send music, vehicles and gunshots, plus bits of dialogue and carnage whipping throughout the various speakers, along with any other fitting content and never causing any dialogue or other audio elements that might be occurring simultaneously to become negatively affected or distorted in the process. Overall, this is a very nice 7.1 DTS-HD MA soundtrack that never disappoints and should easily satisfy viewers.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The “Dracula Sucks Edition” Blu-ray release of ‘Renfield’ includes a nice collection of bonus content that fans of the film should enjoy. Included on the release is an ‘Audio Commentary with Producer Samantha Nisenboim, Screenwriter Ryan Ridley, and Crew’, along with multiple ‘Deleted and Extended Scenes’ from the movie (running approximately 17 minutes in length altogether), and some ‘Alternate Takes’ (running approximately 3 minutes). The release also includes various Behind the Scenes Featurettes exploring different aspects of bringing the film to life and featuring interviews/comments with the cast and crew, plus behind the scenes footage and more. The included Featurettes are ‘Dracula Uncaged’ (running approximately 5 minutes), ‘Monsters & Men: Behind the Scenes of Renfield’ (approximately 12 minutes), ‘Stages of Rejuvenation’ (6 minutes), ‘Flesh & Blood’ (5 minutes), ‘Fighting Dirty’ (6 minutes) and ‘The Making of a Deleted Scene: Renfield’s Dance!’ (3 minutes).

*Please note that the above images are taken from the Blu-Ray and resized. They will additionally suffer quality loss as a result of .jpg compression. Larger versions of each image can be viewed by clicking on the image. All images and content included on this Blu-Ray release are the property of their respective owners.

–

Film Rating: 7/10
Disc Rating: 8/10

–

‘Renfield: Dracula Sucks Edition’ is Now Available to Own on Blu-ray, DVD & Digital from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment

–