Film Friday: Renfield

Film Friday: Renfield

 

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You've seen the trailer. But it's tradition.

Guys, I had so much fun with this movie.

Remember last week, when I reviewed Scream 6, and I mentioned that sometimes perception of a film can be unfairly influenced by the theater-going experience? 

For me, Renfield is the opposite of that - in that the movie stood out and I had a blast with it in spite of my sister being pouty and dour, my brother being all muted and grumpy, and barely getting to say hi to my nephew since he was running late.

 

Now, let's address the biggest elephant first: 

 

Nicolas Cage fandom is quite a sliding scale, from detestation to adoration. I fall generally in the middle of that scale. I enjoy Nic Cage, I find him compelling & talented & immensely watchable. I don't watch everything he's in just because he's in it, but generally I think his particular brand of insanity lends a certain something-something to his roles. 

If you haven't seen the brilliant, hilarious, ridiculous, and bizarre cult classic Vampire's Kiss, I highly recommend it. 

 

It makes his performance as Ghost Rider (another movie where his brand of crazy makes the film better), appear positively sane.

So. All this to say that if you are all about that Cage, you'll probably enjoy this movie and wish he was in more of it. If you actively dislike the Cage, you're probably not going to like it as much. 

 

 

That being said, Nicholas Hoult is just absolutely fucking delightful. (I do have a thing for those British boys.) 

 

So, Renfield is a dark-comedy-action-horror flick where Hoult plays R.M. Renfield, a supporting character from the novel, one who helps complete the circle of how all the characters intertwine. Hoult kills it, so to speak. Heh heh,

The movie doesn't drag - right from the opening we have action, humor, and quick pacing. 

I honestly thought the self-help/group therapy angle was pretty funny. 

It has been said that some of the movie's pacing and scene-jumping made it feel as though some things were chopped and left on the cutting room floor. 

What can I say? Probably so. That's how movies are made. I would love to see any deleted scenes, but for me it didn't hinder the movie too much. I still found it excellent fun, a quickly-paced popcorn film that honestly, I find more realistic than say, the Fast & Furious franchise. 

The final two minutes were my least favorite of the movie. I don't HATE them, exactly. I just feel like it could've been done better. The way the movie closes leaves it so it can be a fun one-off or, more likely, open for a sequel. So I kind of get why they did what they did with the end, but it still could've been better for the final two minutes. 

Heads Up: Gore, violence, (lol so much violence), language, adult themes?