“I deserve happiness,” says the young man, his voice quavery but resolute, carefully reciting the words he’s learned from self-help books. “I will no longer tolerate abuse.”
The abuse in question is not the typical sort, however; this handsome fellow in the pastel sweater is Robert Montague Renfield (Nicholas Hoult), the familiar to Count Dracula (Nicolas Cage), which means his job is to fetch fresh bodies, clean up the mess left behind by bloodsucking and deal with the boss’ foul moods for all eternity. It’s a pretty lousy job, which is why Renfield has shown up at a weirdly greenlit Dependent Relationships Anonymous meeting in contemporary New Orleans, hoping to shake free of the destructive patterns in his life.
This is the premise behind Chris McKay’s horror comedy “Renfield,” and as premises go, it’s a good one; there’s plenty of scope for laughter in the mashup of classic monsters and support group culture. (It’s a great running gag that when Renfield tells the group of his dream that the boss “won’t grow to full power,” they all think it’s a metaphor.) But while there are indeed some giggles in “Renfield,” you watch it wondering why it isn’t funnier, and waiting for Cage to stagger back on screen, sporting teeth that look like hell’s picket fence and looking weirdly confused, like a few script pages maybe got lost.
Hoult — who I still can’t help picturing as that awkward kid in “About a Boy,” though he’s built himself a fine career since then — has the job of holding the film together, along with an underused Awkwafina as a New Orleans cop to whom Renfield is attracted. But there isn’t much to hold: “Renfield” is mostly chaotic blood-spurting action sequences, interspersed with scenes outlining a thin plot involving a New Orleans crime family headed by the wonderfully throaty-voiced Shohreh Aghdashloo, whose Scotch-and-sandpaper rendition of the phrase “butt-dial” is almost worth the ticket price right there. And if you bought that ticket to see Cage, be warned that he’s actually not in the movie all that much, and that his enjoyable hammy performance is sometimes blocked by elaborate makeup. In one scene, his face resembles a melted candle; appropriate, as he delivers his lines like they’re dripping hot wax.
There are pleasures to be found in “Renfield,” particularly a stylish black-and-white sequence early on, and in Hoult’s wistfully debonair portrayal of a well-meaning chap trapped in a job he never applied for. But even with its brief running time, the movie runs out of steam too quickly, and Awkwafina’s character in particular seems like a first draft. Ah well, the entire summer movie season still lies ahead of us; hope springs, or bleeds, eternal.
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‘RENFIELD’
2.5 stars (out of 4)
Running time: 1:33
Rated: R (for bloody violence, some gore, language throughout and some drug use)
How to watch: In theaters Friday
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