Nicolas Cage is enjoying another stunning few years of ridiculously camp movies, and Renfield is no different according to early reviews: although he might just be the only noteworthy part of the film.
Whoever first thought up having over-the-top, eclectic actor as Dracula deserves all the praise in the world. No other actor could ever possibly be so perfectly cast for the role of Dracula. Perhaps it’s more surprising Cage had never played the vampiric lord before in his lengthy career. His performance in Renfield is seeing plenty of praise, although the general reaction to the film is it, well, sucks. Sorry.
Reviewers are out for bloodshed early on, with critics almost universally agreeing the film is a bit all-over-the-place, and is neither funny enough to be a comedy, nor scary enough to be a horror. If you were hoping for some fun action, well, don’t get your hopes up much there either.
But we all know exactly why we were interested in it in the first place: Nicolas Cage. Put succinctly by Brian Lloyd, “Renfield lacks teeth, but it’s got Nicolas Cage and that’s enough”. The positive reviews for Renfield also don’t paint much of a picture beyond a fairly average 3-star film, with it currently sitting at a tenuous 72 percent on Rotten Tomatoes after 29 reviews.
Refreshing, however, is Hollywood’s renewed interest in just throwing roles at Cage and telling him to do whatever on earth he pleases with the role. There are few actors with name recognition quite like him, and even fewer who devote themselves to such outlandish performances.
Renfield will hit cinemas April 14.