Renfield
Universal Pictures | Release Date: April 14, 2023 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
53
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 49 Critic Reviews
Positive:
16
Mixed:
30
Negative:
3
Watch Now
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
ColliderMaggie BoccellaMar 31, 2023
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. Read full review
83
ConsequenceLiz Shannon MillerMar 30, 2023
Renfield knows exactly what it wants to achieve and does so effectively, anchored by its lead performances and some very enjoyable super-violent action sequences which earn its R rating honestly. Read full review
80
Total FilmJamie GrahamApr 12, 2023
While it hardly stays with you like The Invisible Man, Renfield is a fun Friday night at the movies. Read full review
80
EmpireKim NewmanMar 31, 2023
A dark action-comedy rather than a spooky gothic picture, Renfield is pitched to please long-time Dracula fans while reminding new generations that this Count was the first and arguably best monster villain in Hollywood horror history. Read full review
75
Original-CinJim SlotekApr 13, 2023
If Renfield were a serious movie, all the gory fight and slaughter scenes would seem overindulgent. But judging from the audience laugh-meter at the screening I attended, the right decisions were made for the material. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperApr 12, 2023
With Cage delivering the goods in a juicy supporting role, and Hoult and Awkwafina developing a nice buddy-cop type chemistry, Renfield is an uneven but entertaining enough vampire comedy that gets as many laughs from creative slicing and dicing than it does from the dialogue. Read full review
75
The PlaylistMatthew MonagleMar 31, 2023
Even if we don’t overly connect with the personal growth stories of either Renfield or Rebecca, thanks to Cage, “Renfield” is the rare horror-comedy to find the balance between respect and playful irreverence. Read full review
70
IGNMatt DonatoApr 18, 2023
Renfield makes a mess of its story at times, but does a good enough job getting gorgeously gruesome with its vampire action sequences to win us over with cartoonish gore – and Nicolas Cage's Dracula is one for the ages. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubJordan HoffmanApr 12, 2023
Though Nicholas Hoult is charming as he struggles to find inner strength, Renfield lives or dies by Nic Cage camping it up. And he delivers. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleAlejandra MartinezApr 12, 2023
Despite its faults, the affection the movie has for its predecessor (most notably in its opening black-and-white sequences) is clear and contagious. There’s also fun work being done by the players rounding out the support group, clueless to the gravity of Renfield’s situation until it’s too late. Read full review
65
TheWrapKristen LopezApr 10, 2023
Hoult’s charm and sweetness is tempered by Cage’s showy, maniacal performance as Dracula and it’s frustrating that there aren’t more scenes where the two just play off each other. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comChristy LemireApr 14, 2023
The material meant to beef up this story is so bland and underdeveloped it makes Renfield feel like a sketch concept stretched thin to feature length. Read full review
63
The Associated PressJake CoyleApr 12, 2023
Renfield never lets Cage really sink his teeth into the movie, leaving us still hungry for more. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreApr 12, 2023
Splattered geysers of blood, ripped off limbs and the like aside, this is a slight comedy, and McKay has the sense to get in, get gory, get his close-ups and get out of there before 93 minutes have passed. That makes for a vampire comedy everybody can sink their teeth into. Read full review
63
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldApr 11, 2023
There are pleasures to be found in Renfield, particularly a stylish black-and-white sequence early on, and in Hoult’s wistfully debonair portrayal of a well-meaning chap trapped in a job he never applied for. But even with its brief running time, the movie runs out of steam too quickly, and Awkwafina’s character in particular seems like a first draft Read full review
63
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottApr 10, 2023
Blending old-school practical effects with computer-enhanced explosions of blood and viscera, Renfield tips its cap to the past without being overly reverential to it. Add in frequent outbursts of meticulously choreographed action sequences, and we end up with a film that is more fun than frightening. Read full review
60
We Got This CoveredAbhishek SharmaApr 17, 2023
A mixed bag of elements, Renfield resonates with eclectic vibes. There was a potential for a huge hit here, but there’s just occasional intrigue and leisure that relaxes the audience to a considerable extent without coming close to greatness. Read full review
60
Film ThreatAlan NgApr 14, 2023
Renfield is a good movie that squanders its potential to be great. Read full review
60
The Irish TimesDonald ClarkeApr 14, 2023
Mid-grade comedy Drac at best. Diverting for all that. Read full review
60
Wall Street JournalAmy NicholsonApr 14, 2023
Mr. McKay’s comedy is at its best when his tone is big, ridiculous and cheerfully subversive. Read full review
60
The IndependentClarisse LoughreyApr 13, 2023
It’s only regrettable that the film itself didn’t heed one of cinema’s most important lessons – when you put Nicolas Cage in a movie, it’s guaranteed no one will care about anything other than Nicolas Cage. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesKatie WalshApr 13, 2023
The stylish Renfield is a bit of frothy fun. It may be too flip for some, but flippancy isn’t the issue — it’s the flimsiness. Hoult and Cage sell the toxic odd-couple dynamic well, but a sturdier story is required to fully support their performances, especially Cage’s operatic Dracula, who delights in terrorizing his foppish familiar. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzApr 12, 2023
The actors are having fun here and, for a while, so will the audience. But the payoff just isn’t there. It’s not-a-stake-through-the-heart disappointment, but the only eternal life Renfield will enjoy is in late-night channel surfing. Read full review
60
The GuardianEllen E JonesApr 12, 2023
As you’d expect from a movie originated by Robert Kirkman of The Walking Dead zombie franchise, Renfield is also resplendent in gore. Dracula’s grotesque visage – decaying in reverse as he gathers strength – is a prosthetics triumph. Read full review
59
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzApr 13, 2023
The trouble with Renfield, though, is the fact that it’s called Renfield and not Dracula. Snivelling when not stiff, the title character is a bore, as is Hoult’s shoulder-shrug of a performance. Read full review
55
ABC NewsPeter TraversApr 14, 2023
Before this frightfest chokes on its own relentlessly repetitive blood-splatter, Nicolas Cage proves fiercely funny as a modern-age Dracula whose malignant narcissism sends his errand boy Renfield (a soulful Nicholas Hoult) into therapy for co-dependency. Read full review
55
CNNBrian LowryApr 13, 2023
What’s billed as a horror-comedy thus can’t entirely decide where it wishes to land on that spectrum, in a movie that benefits from letting Cage cut loose without fully capitalizing upon his full-throated performance. Read full review
50
The Film StageJohn FinkApr 20, 2023
Caught between a horror action flick that delivers gallons of splatter and a well-cast high-concept comedy, both seemed pushed aside for mediocre thrills and a few chuckles. Read full review
50
SlashfilmChris EvangelistaApr 18, 2023
I found myself annoyed that such a fresh new take on Dracula, and from Nic Cage no less, is wasted on such a lousy movie. Nicolas Cage's Dracula deserves a better movie, and so do we. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliApr 17, 2023
Cage’s performance provides the glue for an uneven film. Read full review
50
Screen RantMae AbdulbakiApr 17, 2023
Renfield is goofy, with fantastic action sequences and a few comedic beats that land, but it could have also been so much more. Read full review
50
Little White LiesHannah StrongApr 14, 2023
What could have been a charming odd couple film about a supernatural break-up is tonally mismatched, not quite a comedy, not quite a horror, not quite a crime caper, not quite a romance. Read full review
50
The New YorkerRichard BrodyApr 14, 2023
It’s bouncy, clever, amiable, and idiosyncratic, but its virtues seem inseparable from its over-all inertness and triviality. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsApr 14, 2023
Mainly, Cage keeps finding the damnedest ways to topspin his line readings so that you never know where a sentence is going. May the next outing with Renfield and Dracula, should the public and Universal decree it, be a little funnier and little less too much. Read full review
50
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiApr 13, 2023
Cage is amusing though, and exemplifies the old stage wisdom “if you’re having fun, they’re having fun.” However, that’s the biggest problem for Renfield: Whenever Cage leaves the frame, which is often, we immediately stop having fun — as if Dracula commanded us to. Read full review
50
Washington PostAnn HornadayApr 12, 2023
Cheesy, strident, ridiculous and sometimes disarmingly, stupidly funny, Renfield doesn’t go for the jugular as much as give it a playful and quickly forgotten love bite. Read full review
50
USA TodayBrian TruittApr 12, 2023
There’s plenty to sink your teeth into when Cage is this superbly outrageous and manically inspired while Hoult, who’s got great comedic timing, is just as batty in his own way. Everything else about Renfield needs to go back in the coffin. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleBob StraussApr 12, 2023
This sometimes clever, outrageously gory and slickly violent horror comedy is more “John Wick” than Tod Browning, and that’s just the tip of its tonal confusion. Read full review
50
ObserverDylan RothApr 12, 2023
Given the necessity of finding some new angle on source material that’s been adapted for the big screen roughly a hundred times, a sideways look at what it’s like to work for Dracula isn’t the worst idea. But it’s not the most original take, either, and Renfield is basically (un)dead on arrival. Read full review
50
VarietyOwen GleibermanApr 11, 2023
Cage’s Dracula, sipping blood out of a martini glass, is so quick, so in thrall to his legend, that he’ll slice you with sarcasm. It’s a witty and luscious performance, unhinged but never out of control, and it deserved a movie that could serve as a pedestal for the actor’s seasoned flamboyance. Read full review
42
IndieWireKate ErblandApr 12, 2023
It’s all an approximation of fun, mirth in tiny portions, amusement of the thinnest variety. Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)Alison WillmoreApr 17, 2023
Hoult, playing a pallid, anxious, disconcertingly dreamy Renfield, and Cage, fully Cageing it up as the count, manage to be compelling even when vamping (sorry) with all their might to make this material work. Read full review
40
The Observer (UK)Xan BrooksApr 15, 2023
Your standard vampire film would have put Cage centre stage. Renfield, God help it, elects to bury the lede and drive a stake through his heart. Read full review
40
BBCCaryn JamesApr 14, 2023
Renfield is worth watching for Cage, Hoult and Awkwafina's entertaining performances, and not much more. Read full review
40
The Daily BeastNick SchagerApr 13, 2023
[Cage] is the prince of pretentious darkness, and the saving grace of this otherwise slapdash variation on the Bram Stoker legend. Read full review
40
Paste MagazineBrianna ZiglerApr 13, 2023
It’s not willing to be goofy and gonzo enough for the inanity of its concept, not cool enough for the slick fight scenes it wants to impress you with, and not worthy enough of Cage as Dracula (the real star of this show). Read full review
38
Slant MagazineJake ColeApr 12, 2023
The film frustratingly shrouds Nicholas Cage’s manic intensity in thick blankets of winking irony. Read full review
30
PolygonSiddhant AdlakhaApr 13, 2023
Tyranny of tone and language aren’t the movie’s only problems. Its story is similarly half-baked, with allusions galore to overcoming demons and finding inner strength that are only ever lip-service, rather than being dramatically or even comedically expressed. Read full review
0
ObserverRex ReedApr 14, 2023
The worst film since Babylon, this surfeit of loud, obnoxious, violent junk audaciously claims to call itself a vampire farce, but there isn’t a genuine shred of originality anywhere in sight and it’s as witty as an ambulance with a flat tire. Read full review
More From This Movie

53 Critic Reviews

6.4 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 81 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2 77 Project Hail Mary
3 75 Send Help
4 73 Hoppers
5 72 The Sheep Detectives
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL