Anyone who knows what’s good for them knows exactly why they want to see Chris McKay’s Renfield. The appeal of Nicolas Cage, a magnanimous star most of us grew up with, playing the Prince of Darkness is sure to excite anyone, horror fan or not. (Even my mother, who’s notoriously bad with scary movies, is chomping at the bit to see it.) It’s a promise that feels exactly as outlandish as one would expect from someone like Nic Cage, and on that alone the film seems determined to propel itself, leaning harder into that than even the star power of its lead, Nicholas Hoult.

Now, I’m picky with my vampire films. It’s easy to slap some fangs on any old scary movie and call it a vampire story, whether the logic makes any sense or not. It’s a genre that’s been oversaturated for decades, with most of its titles — especially the teeming horde of Dracula films that have been made — barely worth a look, let alone a place in the canon. The worst of them try to make too much of a relatively simple monster (see: Dracula Untold), and the best of them lean hard into camp. Because what is an ancient monster who dresses his finest and seduces his victims with a mystic thrall if not Susan Sontag’s wet dream?

Director McKay seems to understand that special balance between terror and camp, and it’s that which makes Renfield, which premiered this week at the Overlook Film Festival, such a delight to watch. From minute one, star Hoult is at his best as Dracula’s faithful servant Robert Montague Renfield, who’s been saddled with the worst kind of indentured servitude for the last hundred years or so. The film is no-holds-barred, both with its comedy and its scares, wasting no time in introducing us to the most fearsome vampire of them all: Cage’s Count Dracula.

Nicolas Cage as Dracula in Renfield
Image via Universal

RELATED: 'Renfield' Behind-The-Scenes Featurette Teases the Monster Movie’s Blood-Soaked Madness

To absolutely no one’s surprise, McKay seemingly allowed Cage near-full freedom to be as Cage-y as he wanted with this project, and the result is a hypnotic, Technicolor, over the top Dracula who anchors the film’s silliness with Cage’s signature brand of expressionism. There’s no question that Cage knows how to command a scene, and letting him loose on Renfield’s New Orleans feels like a long time coming for someone with a penchant for taking on the strange and unusual. It’s exactly as batshit insane (no bad vampire pun intended) as his other recent work; if you’re a fan of The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, you’ll love everything going on with this Dracula, right down to his killer threads and tendency for dramatics, even as he’s about to rip someone’s head off.

And no, that’s not an exaggeration — many, many heads are torn off, as well as limbs, torsos, and pretty much any other body part that it’s physically possible to rip apart via blood-fueled rage. McKay isn’t shying away from blood and guts with Renfield (most of it caused by the titular familiar himself), and though it’s played for laughs, the John Wick-level destruction is taken to the next level with gallons on gallons of gore, creating some truly kickass fight scenes when combined with the film’s excellent choice in music. (Lizzo and My Chemical Romance in the same film? My Gen Z heart is singing.)

Nicolas Cage's Dracula standing behind Renfield, played by Nicholas Hoult, with a huge smile on his face in Renfield
Image via Universal

While some of the set pieces feel fairly underdeveloped — imagine me looking pointedly at everything Awkwafina was given — it’s Hoult and Cage’s partnership that fuels the film and keeps you hooked, particularly when things begin to go south. The plot is fairly bare bones, meaning there’s not much depth beyond what you see in the trailers, but McKay knows how he’s getting butts in seats: by promising captivating, flamboyant, belly laugh-inducing chemistry between two men who are doing The Absolute Most at every possible moment. And boy, does he deliver.

This film is almost a natural extension of Hoult’s role in Warm Bodies, giving him another opportunity to play a lovable sweetheart in a horror film, something I will never not be a sucker for. (There’s a moment when he changes from the old clothes he’d been wearing for a hundred years into new ones, and myself and at least three other people audibly aww-ed in the theater.) His Renfield is pathetic like a sopping wet puppy — and I mean that as a compliment — right up until he isn’t when he is given a chance to take center stage in the action. Hoult’s always been a stellar leading man, and it’s endlessly fun to see him in such an off-the-wall film, much the same way that it is to watch him place a royal dunce in The Great.

Renfield Nicolas Cage Dracula
Image via Universal

Ben Schwartz proves to be a phenomenal scene stealer as well as the bumbling crime lord Teddy Lobo who puts up a front like he isn’t half as pathetic as he really is. What little scenery isn’t being chewed to bits by Cage and Hoult is fervently chomped on in his part, rounding out the trifecta this film needed to carry its specific brand of comedy. Not every joke lands, but in large part, the commitment of all three male leads makes this exactly what it needs to be: a high camp romp that makes beautiful use of its historic setting, bloodbaths and all.

And Ryan Ridley’s script makes surprisingly sharp use of the allegory of codependency and abusive relationships, which Renfield labels his life with his master as in an AA-style meeting for those experiencing “destructive” relationships. Sure, the jokes about Renfield quoting a book on dealing with narcissists are funny, but the tenets taught in those meetings make Hoult’s performance in particular all the more poignant, using the concept without abusing it the way Dracula abuses Renfield. The film juggles an awful lot, including plotlines about crime families and corrupt law enforcement, but when it focuses on those moments, that core manipulation so beautifully performed by Cage, it’s a goddamn blast, a perfect watch for any vampire fan looking to sink their teeth into something new.

Is there really much of substance in Renfield? Absolutely not. Without a doubt, it’s one of the silliest movies I’ve seen since pre-COVID, peppered with awkwardness and off-the-shelf jokes that could’ve been replaced with meatier stuff that digs into Dracula lore. It’s peak horror-comedy, much more American Werewolf in London than Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and ultimately it’s fun primarily because it doesn’t commit too hard to any one thing. But really, I don’t think anyone dying to see Renfield is looking for much more than to laugh at Nic Cage in the sickest Dracula threads imaginable, and for that, I can guarantee that this film delivers.

Rating: B+

Renfield premieres in theaters on April 14.