I reckon we’re in somewhat safe hands here because, no matter how this turns out, there’s little chance of this being the worst Dracula fanfic I’ve reviewed on here. We also have director Chris McKay, who has a healthy pedigree for legitimising the fanfic mentality in mainstream storytelling, from his ambitious work on Robot Chicken to the IP free-for-all of The LEGO Batman Movie (before Warner Bros. went way the hell too far with that idea for films like Space Jam: A New Legacy), and of course, Nic Cage as Dracula. Honestly, I could have just left it at “Nic Cage as Dracula” and that would’ve been enough to sell why this deserves to be watched… but that would still be leaving out a lot of the surprising delights of this feature.
While I missed out on Chris McKay’s The Tomorrow War for a review in 2021, I’ll admit that I’m tempted to circle back round to it at some point because this shows that McKay knows how to handle the live-action realm. He brings a lot of the same manic energy that made his Robot Chicken work so good (seriously, check out those early season finales again, and look at how divine that camera work is), and he basically approaches this story of Dracula’s familiar like it’s a live-action cartoon, with bright colours, kicked-across-the-room fight scenes, quite a bit of bodily dismemberment and even a few explosions. Sure, the digital blood spray can be a bit distracting, but it still fits the over-the-top tone of the rest of the film.
Same goes for the performances, from Nicholas Hoult’s titular timid arse-kicker, to Ben Schwartz as a local mobster, to Awkwafina’s One Good Cop routine, right down to Cage licking the scenery clean as the legendary vampire. They are all so… well, animated that they add to the overall atmosphere to create this goofy mood that not only makes the quips land just right, but also adds some counterweight to the film’s thematic ideas.
This feature is basically sold on its high concept, that of Renfield and his toxic co-dependent relationship with Dracula, initially pitched by Walking Dead creator and walking idea factory Robert Kirkman. The dialogue from Ryan Ridley that puts forward this notion is… well, quite blunt. Both the depictions of said toxicity, and the myriads of self-help affirmations proffered in response, can read like they were pulled directly out of any of the books that take up space in the background of the support group that Renfield attends.
However, it being as to-the-point as it is kind of fits with the cartoon vibe of the presentation. It reminds me a bit of the more pointed shows off Adult Swim or… fuck it, even Friendship Is Magic, where the message has been broken down so it can be easily digested, but that doesn’t make the message itself any less worthwhile. Cage delivers on the campiness of his role (along with getting through all those layers of decomposition makeup), but he’s also incredibly good at showing the more seductive aspect of Dracula through the lens of a possessive and domineering arsehole within a personal relationship. Beyond bringing gay subtext to the original Dracula story (always a plus), I like how it delves into Renfield’s own psychology regarding his submissiveness, his fight to regain his sense of self, and even how all the self-help jargon could just be a delusion to avoid taking responsibility for what he did as part of that coupling. Can you tell that a former Rick & Morty writer worked on this?
While the film mainly focuses on that duality between Renfield and Dracula, work has been put in to flesh it out into more than just a simple sketch. With the inclusion of Awkwafina’s Rebecca and her troubles with the local crime element and her fellow officers, and even the Lobo syndicate that seemingly runs everything in New Orleans, the story mainly deals in notions of control. How readily some will relinquish their own agency and being, just for a taste of ill-gotten power, while others have to fight against the current if they have enough of a spine to see the wrong in that trade. There’s an argument to be made that this lets the crooked cops off the hook somewhat, showing them as well-meaning but easily influenced, instead of… well, ACAB, but I think there’s enough emphasis on just how rotten the law system is in this world to smooth that out.
It probably helps that I can empathise with both Renfield and Rebecca wanting to do some good in the world, while being under the thumb of those doing questionable things and worrying about how much of that falls under their own responsibility. I mean, I used to work for a federal politician; I’ve wrestled with this shit myself.
This is already worth checking out on pure entertainment value, as it delivers on its gonzo promise of Nicholas Cage as a vampire (again) along with its wacky action beats, but there’s plenty of depth to this feature too. Underneath the zaniness and the comedic tone, the way it depicts and seems to genuinely understand what being on the receiving end of a shitty relationship can do to a person is quite affecting, with Nicholas Hoult absolutely shining in the lead role.
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