Flying at you faster than a diseased bat through a plate glass window, the horror-comedy “Renfield” will be hitting Blu-Ray, DVD & Digital services on June 6th, and we’ve got your review of the finished product right here!
Starring the ever-present entity known as Mr. Nicholas Cage as Count Dracula, and Nicholas Hoult as his tormented servant, Renfield, the film uses ample dosages of humor & CGI crimson in buckets to amplify the display. When a downtrodden & seemingly regretful Renfield enrolls himself in a toxic-relationship help-group, the audience gets a front-row visual to just how impacted his situation has become. He’s looking to shed his centuries-old relationship with the bossy bloodsucker and start to regain control of his own life…hell, eating bugs and transporting bodies to the butcher for sustenance just doesn’t have that illustrious glow to it anymore.
Co-starring Awkwafina, Shohreh Aghdashloo & Ben Schwartz, the movie has plenty of talent to rely on for laughs, although I’ve never found Awkwafina’s humor to be substantial, and she just looked to be standing around while eating stale lines. However, both Aghdashloo & Schwartz play the crime-timing Mommy/Son duo, and they both played off of each other with capital ease. Quite simply, the shining star in this (as if there were any question) is Cage himself – looking like he’s been studying a lifetime for this role, he snatches it with his talon-like claws and soars away with it, so much that any scene WITHOUT him in it has the tendency to lag unapologetically.
Atmosphere is also a colossal plus, with the sets offering up that New Orleans neon-glow – it truly is a gorgeous film to lay eyes on, as the colors pop out of the screen with a sharpness that’ll do more damage than Drac’s fangs on a bare nape. The fight scenes were painstakingly choreographed, and the end results will make action-film aficionados proud as well, with flying bodies, broken bones (sometimes amplified in x-ray fashion), and more blood leaving arteries faster than an audience at a Little Mermaid screening…too soon?
The “Dracula Sucks” edition is jam-packed with a bevy of special features that will make you want to howl at the moon, with deleted & extended scenes, alternate takes, making-of documentaries and a feature commentary with Producer Samantha Nisenboim, Screenwriter Ryan Ridley & crew. All in all, I can recommend “Renfield” to those wanting some laughs with their dismemberment & pernicious alliance therapy sessions – it’ll be escaping from its coffin on June 6th so make sure to snag your copy before the sun rises.
Special thanks go out to Mandy Rogers @ Mandy Kay Marketing for the Blu-Ray & promo goodies!
