I watched this movie yesterday but I wanted to watch it in April but I hadn’t been able to.
So Renfield was released on April 20th 2023. This movie starrs thee Nicolas Cage as Dracula. Nicolas Hault (“The Menu”) as his butler Renfield. Nora from Queens’ Star, Awkwafina is a police officer. This movie also starrs voice actor Ben Schwartz (Sonic: The Hedgehog 2) as the son of the crime family Theodor Lobo. And thee Shohreh Aghdashloo (“The Flight Attendant”) as the mother and leader of the Lobo crime family. This movie also starrs Brandon Scott Jones (“The Other Two”).
This movie was directed by Chris McKay (“The Tomorrow War”) and written by Ryan Ridley (“Rick And Morty”).
This movie was rated R for violence, gore, language, and drug use and frightening imagery.
Trigger Warnings for body horror, flash lights, bloody violence, mention of toxic and domestic violence.
This movie is a Comedy/Fantasy/Horror.
Onto the premise: In this modern monster tale of Dracula’s loyal servant, Renfield, the tortured aide to history’s most narcissistic boss is forced to procure his master’s prey and do his every bidding, no matter how debased. But now, after centuries of servitude, Renfield is ready to see if there’s a life outside the shadow of The Prince of Darkness. If only he can figure out how to end his codependency. According to Universal Pictures.
I honestly had so so so much fun with this movie! All the cast members were amazing, especially Nic Cage and Nicolas Hault! I overall I really enjoyed this movie and laughed my butt off!
Over the top chaotic fun with buckets of blood and gratuitous violence. Both Cage as Dracula and Hoult as Renfield are superb with excellent acting and an authentic master/servant relationship.
The plot wasn’t groundbreaking but the moral message is well woven in between the frequent fast paced action scenes. Great special effects, makeup and use of music and color grading.
The movie’s script was super well done to be funny, so many techniques to bring laughs like: catch phrases, curse words.
I had to go back a few times in between to certain scenes because those were way too funny to movie on!
I liked the A&A-meeting aspect of this movie.
The dynamic style really works between Cage and Hault, but add the slapstick humor and over the top action stunts and it only further makes this movie a joy to watch. Ridiculous, but a joyful!
The pacing of the movie was fast and entertaining but yet contains a lot of merit in the way that it presents the story.
Liked the chemistry between Hault and Awkwafina, she has a great dynamic of both silly and serious with her assigned partners, Hoult’s engagement has so much depth that he really just meshes with so many of the people, and Cage might be a one direction, but again works with the characters.
You might not expect a serious story in this over the top comedy, but again I was surprised by the what they did in this film.
Did you know? Despite a history of turning down non-leading roles in studio films, Nicolas Cage signed on to play Dracula. It was a life-long dream of his to portray the legendary figure.
The film is Nicholas Cage’s first live-action film by a major studio since Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2011).
Filming began in New Orleans on February 3, 2022, with Mitchell Amundsen serving as cinematographer. On February 8, more than twenty vehicles belonging to the production crew were burglarized. One security guard was present at the time of the incident, which occurred late at night in a secured parking lot. Crew member Elmo Peoples said the vandals had stolen his insurance papers, two bank cards, and a laptop. He added, “I’m supposed to be here all week and I don’t even want to come back because I feel like they don’t really care about us as much as the main characters or actors.” Love Bugs Film LLC reassured the production crew that they would hire additional security.
Rebecca’s father’s full name is revealed to be Morris Quincy when we see his portrait on a wall of the precinct that is dedicated to officers who died in the line of duty. This is a reference to the character of Quincey Morris from the original novel, an American who joins the rest of the characters in defeating Dracula after Dracula kills his friend, Lucy Westerna.
Film is set in New Orleans where Nicholas Cage already has a pyramid shaped tomb waiting for him in St. Louis Cemetery No. 1.
Chris McKay described the film as a “quasi-sequel” to Universal’s 1931 English-language film Dracula, depicting the same characters of Dracula and Renfield ninety years on, with the film’s black-and-white opening scene depicting the beginning of Dracula (1931) with Nicolas Cage and Nicholas Hoult respectively inserted in place of Bela Lugosi and Dwight Frye as Count Dracula and Renfield.
Nicolas Cage’s mannerisms as Dracula are all explicitly based on Christopher Lee’s Dracula.
The circumstances of Renfield meeting Dracula and falling under his control are presented as an extended reference to how Dracula (1931) depicted these same events. Several key shots from the 1931 film are even recreated with Nicholas Hoult and Nicolas Cage in place of Dwight Frye and Bela Lugosi. Likewise they play music from Swan Lake which is a shout out to the fact the music was used for the opening credits in the 1931 movie.
During the ending credits, one of the books shown (with “Power” in the title) seems to be modeled after the cover of ‘I, Strahd.’ The book is about Strahd, a powerful vampire in D&D inspired by Dracula.
Kyle, the cop who asks if Renfield is Quincy’s boyfriend, wears a vest with the name tag “K. Raimi”. This is an homage to the film-making Raimi brothers – pioneers in the comedy horror genre.
This is the second time Nicolas Cage plays a Vampire who is a horrible boss for his employees, the first was Vampire’s Kiss (1988).
The first of two 2023 Universal films featuring Count Dracula, the other being The Last Voyage of the Demeter (2023).
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