“Mount” Dracula’s Eruption of Blood
Reviews and Comments by Ken Burke
I invite you to join me on a regular basis to see how my responses to current cinematic offerings compare to the critical establishment, which I’ll refer to as either the CCAL (Collective Critics at Large) if they’re supportive or the OCCU (Often Cranky Critics Universe) when they go negative. However, due to COVID concerns I’m mostly addressing streaming options with limited visits to theaters, where I don’t think I’ve missed much anyway, though better options may be on the horizon. (Note: Anything in bold blue [some may look near purple] is a link to something more in the review.)
Renfield (Chris McKay) rated R 93 min.
Here’s the trailer:
(Use the full screen button in the image’s lower right to enlarge its size;
activate the same button or use “esc” keyboard key to return to normal.)
If you can abide plot spoilers read on, but this blog’s intended for those who’ve seen the film or want to save some $ (as well as recognizing those readers like me who just aren’t that tech-savvy). To help any of you who want to learn more details yet avoid these all-important plot-reveals I’ll identify any give-away sentences/sentence-clusters with colors plus arrows:
⇒The first and last words will be noted with arrows and red.⇐ OK, now continue on if you prefer.
What Happens: We begin with Renfield (Nicholas Hoult) rushing into a 12-step program, desperate to end a “toxic relationship,” then it shifts to 90 years earlier with the screen ratio in the old 4x3 format, black & white footage, as Renfield first meets Count Dracula in Transylvania (this short segment uses the classic Bela Lugosi Dracula [Tod Browning, 1931] with superimposed contemporary actors), becomes the vampire’s familiar (a human under the monster’s control, acts as a constant helper), doesn’t age and commands superpowers (especially strength and agility) by eating bugs while his master needs regular doses of human blood to maintain his own undead, eternal existence. Then we’re back to wide-screen, color format (though the whole movie's not as green as these photos imply) as Dracula’s been captured by a couple of clerics ready to destroy him, but when the beast tells Renfield that the Count is his only friend the servant intercedes, Dracula escapes but badly burned in the fierce fire that erupts. In an attempt to move his master to a more hospitable environment while he recuperates, Renfield relocates them to New Orleans where Renfield suddenly realizes he’s tired of his enforced life, discovers the co-dependents therapy group, but: (a) doesn’t reveal the full nature of his situation, just says his “other” is too narcissistically-demanding, and (b) plans to bring the group members’ abusive others to Dracula for his meals, creating a win-win situation for everyone. One of the victims is a drug dealer using stolen goods, but when Renfield follows him to a warehouse suddenly they’re confronted with angry criminals who want to recoup their wares, plus an assassin from the rival Lobo crime family (run by no-nonsense Bellafrancesca Lobo [Shohreh Aghdashloo] along with her not-so-sharp-son, Teddy [Ben Schwartz]).
Everyone but Renfield is killed in a grossly-bloody-manner (in many confrontation scenes in this movie bodies are assaulted in such vicious manners that blood spews out like a volcano disgorging lava, so the sight of that might be one reason for serious consideration about watching all this gore), but as Teddy drives away from the scene he’s stopped at a sobriety checkpoint by police officer Rebecca Quincy (Awkwafina), who takes him into custody; However, at the station house he’s released by corrupt cops who take payoffs from the Lobos, frustrating Rebecca who also gets trouble from her FBI agent/sister, Kate (Camille Chen), who’s fond of reminding Rebecca she doesn’t measure up to the high standards set by their deceased father/cop. Dracula’s not pleased with the meal Renfield brings him, saying he needs pure people to further his recovery so Renfield goes to a local restaurant, looking for appropriate victims. Rebecca shows up there too based on a crime-tip, then they’re both assaulted by Lobo gang members sent to kill her in reaction to arresting Teddy, so (insect-munching) empowered-Renfield (kind of like Popeye with his spinach) and Rebecca fight off the intended killers, killing all of them in the process, with observing-from-afar-Teddy escaping again.
Mom Lobo wants Renfield dead for killing her goons so Teddy sets out to find him, ends up in Dracula’s lair (basement of the old Charity Hospital) while Renfield’s away, so they make an unholy alliance. Meanwhile, Renfield takes the advice of the self-help-group: rents an apartment, dresses in colorful clothes, works with honest cops against the Lobos. Dracula finds out about all this, comes to a group meeting, kills them all except Renfield. The Count leaves, Rebecca shows up, sees all the dead bodies, arrests Renfield (despite admiration of him for saving her life during the restaurant massacre), but then they’re confronted by corrupt cops and more Lobo thugs, leading to another scene of erupting blood and deaths as our 2 protagonists escape, with Rebecca wounded. Renfield saves her by pouring on a little of Dracula’s blood which has mysterious healing properties (why he has some in a jar I forget), so she’s once again sympathetic after he's explained the whole grim truth.
Of course, even more corrupt cops and Lobo henchmen come to Renfield's apartment to kill them both which (naturally) results in the assaulters becoming the assaulted as Renfield and Rebecca escape again. She tries to contact Kate, learns her sister’s captured by Dracula and Bellafrancesca, so Renfield and Rebecca stock up on weapons to assault the Lobo HQ, but when they arrive they find Dracula’s provided 6 gang members (including Teddy) with Renfield-like-powers so the battle’s even harder this time, yet our warriors prevail with their antagonists all dead. ⇒However, Rebecca finds Kate’s been beaten to near-death with Dracula offering to heal her in return for Rebecca’s loyalty (as he’s now ready to impose himself on our entire planet, with all humans turned into followers or food); she tricks him, though, by using a remote to raise the window coverings of the room they’re in exposing him to deadly sunlight. He fights back, but she uses cocaine (?) to ignite a magic circle, capturing him, allowing her and Renfield to beat him into little pieces which they mix with concrete, dump into the sewer system. Renfield uses his stash of Dracula blood to heal Kate (who, along with Rebecca, arrests Bellafrancesca [the rest of her crime family deceased, I guess]), with Renfield somehow in possession of a lot of Dracula blood allowing him to use this magical elixir to revive all of his self-help-group-members as a part of the beginning of his renewed human life.⇐
So What? Through the chance-occurrence that last Saturday my wife, Nina, and I had tickets for the Berkeley (CA) Repertory Theatre’s production of the stage version of Let the Right One In (Jack Thorne, 2013), based—as are the Swedish (Tomas Alfredson, 2008) and U.S. (Let Me In, Matt Reeves, 2010) film versions of this story—on the book by John Ajvide Lindqvist (2004), I decided to declare the beginning of our weekend as “Vampire Saturday,” so we saw an afternoon matinee (very strange staging at times, somewhat fascinating at others [review by Lily Janiak]) about the vampire girl who falls in love with a local, bullied boy, has to protect both of them by allowing her brutal powers to manifest, then Saturday night we watched this latest twist on the long-celebrated-vampire lore that’s been featured on the big screen since Nosteratu (F.W. Marnau, 1922)—somewhat based on the famous Dracula book (Bram Stoker, 1897), although an unauthorized adaptation—on through Universal’s use of the Count with Lugosi (and John Carradine) in the 1930s-‘40s (beginning with the 1931 Browning movie), then Hammer Studios take on this deadly monster in the 1950s-‘70s (mostly Christopher Lee as the coffin-dweller), and occasional variations on the tale in the ensuing decades.
Possibly the most unusual of the lot is Dracula 2000 (Patrick Lussier, 2000) where we learn that Dracula is actually Judas Iscariot, punished by God for his betrayal of Jesus (Although that becomes a matter of debate, in that without the suffering/death of the Savior of Mankind none of us would be free of the eternal bond of Original Sin and whatever transgressions we make on our own [at least according to the traditional Catholic interpretations of human existence I was long-ago brought up with—but now have little interest in]; therefore, wasn’t Judas actually an essential part of the Divine Plan? Ponder that for a bit.) so he didn’t die by hanging himself but instead lived in misery as a vampire by God’s command for centuries until he’s finally killed (yes, that’s a spoiler, but, damn it, that movie’s been out for a couple of decades already; besides, it’s still interesting to watch because it too has a New Orleans setting with plot points that could legitimately be tied to the Stoker/ Marnau/Browning originals). To some degree, Bram Stoker’s Dracula (Francis Ford Coppola, 1992) also explores a similar plot line to some of what we witness in Renfield because that … Dracula largely follows the novel, except for an opening bit where Vlad (the Impaler [Coppola literally connects a possible Stoker inspiration in his cinematic-rendition of the Count]) Dracula finds his wife dead by suicide, thinking he was killed by enemies, so he rejects God, becoming a vampire in the process, until at the end as he’s about to be killed back in Transylvania (as in the book) he comes to redemption (yeah, I spoiled another one, but you really should have seen it by now, shouldn’t you? It’s also got great special effects, mostly using early-20th-century cinema tricks which look modern).
Well, compared to the silent wonders of Nosferatu, the established presence of the Lugosi vampire (even with the technological limitations of cinema of that time), the constantly-death-defying-Lee rendition of Dracula, and the marvelous majesty of the Coppola version, this current telling of the tale with Renfield as the focus leaves a lot to be desired (just as it leaves behind most everything else from the Stoker tale including how Dracula was seemingly put to final rest way back when), although it does give more substance to the character of Renfield as he admits here he was originally attracted to the power Dracula offered him rather than just being an insane victim, eating insects and vermin not for superpowers but just as a not-fully-transformed-vampire subjugated to his master, so he understands he must suffer for his sins (as Dracula reminds him at one point [paraphrasing]: “Without me to protect you, you’ll have to pay for the crimes you’ve committed over the years.”), although this movie ends on such an uplifting note (as well as probable appreciation from the non-corrupt-cops for all the local hoods he’s cleansed from New Orleans) you don’t get the sense he’ll be facing any sort of retribution. (Maybe without Dracula in his life, he reverts to being an ordinary human again, just living out his years with Rebecca and his grateful self-help-group. Who knows?)
But, do you want to watch this blood-fest that reminds me in its own sick way of the comedian Gallagher who used to end his act by smashing a watermelon with a sledge hammer, spewing fruit, seeds, and water all over the nearby-patrons (who often came in raincoats if they sat up front), be my guest. There's comedy sprinkled throughout the running time, Cage is effective as a self-centered, power-driven creature of the night, good does emerge after all the blood dries, but this is not a tale for a large general audience. (Nor for Nina, who called it quits before the last group-slaughter was done—she wasn’t terribly impressed with the play either [told me later she doesn’t care for vampires much, tried to endure the play as best she could], although I might sneak a chance to watch the Swedish Let the Right One In due to its many awards, but I don’t think she’ll be joining me if I do.) Take that R rating seriously where kids are concerned, because at times this movie’s about as unpleasant to watch as a documentary about the bloody horrors of animal slaughterhouses.
(Finally, a photo that’s not mostly green; poor resolution, though. Limited choices were available.)
Bottom Line Final Comments: Renfield opened in domestic (U.S.-Canada) theaters on April 14, 2023, didn’t make much of an impact grossing only $17.2 million ($25.9 million globally) before exiting to stream on Peacock (free to Comcast subscribers due to the corporate NBC connection; otherwise $4.99 monthly or a limited-option $19.99 for a year, but if you’re really interested in this movie—for whatever odd reason—you can buy it for that same $19.99 at Amazon Prime Video, Applet TV+, Vudu, a few other platforms). The critical community won’t be much help in making such decisions, though, as it’s veered into OCCU territory with the Rotten Tomatoes positive reviews at 58%, the Metacritic average score at 53%. Had it not been for the Let the Right One In connection for me, I might have skipped it (as I did when it was in the theaters), but I generally enjoy seeing which direction Cage will take in heading over the top (in that respect, he’s marvelous here), I hadn’t found much else on streaming that attracted me (hence, just the one review this week), and I definitely wasn’t compelled to go to a moviehouse to see Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (Steven Caple Jr.)—I saw 1 of those some years ago; that was certainly quite enough—despite how popular the silly thing seems to be ($61 million domestically in its debut weekend, about $80 million worldwide), but maybe The Flash (Andrés Muschietti)—opening June 16, 2023—and/or Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (James Mangold)—opening June 30, 2023—will be enough to lure me back into a darkened auditorium with hopes that my neighbors are all vaccinated.
In the meantime, as I wrap up comments on Renfield I’ll leave you with my usual Musical Metaphor on what it’s about, this time with an emphasis on how the title character yearns for/achieves release from his bondage to Dracula with the Who’s “I’m Free” (from their 1969 rock-opera-album, Tommy) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ux1vBolJf5Q (can’t say for sure, but looks like their set at the original 1969 Woodstock Festival) where that physically-restricted-pinball-wizard finally breaks loose of his self-imposed-hindrances (“I’m free, I’m free / And freedom tastes of reality / I’m free, I’m free / And I’m waiting for you to follow me”) to find a new beginning, not as a pop-Messiah but as an ordinary, evolving human being, just as Renfield seems eager to put away fantasy aspects of his life.
SHORT TAKES
Related Links Which You Might Find Interesting:
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