“Renfield” was released on April 14 and had a disappointing opening weekend bringing in only 10.1 million in the box office. The movie is directly a sequel of the Bram Stoker Dracula from 1931. It opens with a lovely recap of the original “Dracula” for those who have not seen it, while also explaining the character of Renfield, who does not come up a lot when the subject of Dracula is mentioned. 

Dracula, played by Nicolas Cage, might be one of the greatests castings of all time. Cage has an uncanny ability to take a role like this from just a classic evil monster into, well a classic evil monster turned up to 11! He does not do much in terms of underselling the pure aura of evil that he embodies when he is on screen. And at some points I was unsure if it was even Nicolas Cage.

The title character Renfield is played by Nicholas Hoult and he does a great job transforming such a sidekick or secondary character into someone I was rooting for in the end. Hoult was uncanny, strange, and someone that could easily be seen as hopeless. Hopeless romantic, hopeless servant and he even is a hopeless bug of a man. Using the strange but interesting powers given to him by his deal with Dracula, he becomes this antihero that has a charismatic charm to contrast his violent way of dealing with those out to get him.

Both Nicolas Cage and Nicholas Hoult are surrounded by a great supporting cast. Awkwafina, Ben Schwartz, Adrian Martinez and Shoreh Aghdashloo all bring fresh and exciting moments throughout the film. From character interactions to Awkwafina’s character Officer Quincy being the only person that seems to have any common sense in the film. Officer Quincy is surrounded by a world that just does not make much sense, but by the end she embraces this fact and the world around her. However, in a world with hundred year old vampires with servants that gain powers from being eating bugs what else can you do?