‘Renfield’ Review: Nicolas Cage Is a Stylishly Overwrought Dracula, But This Ultraviolent Vampire Action Movie is Mostly a Flip Grab Bag

variety.com:

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic In one of the many jacked-up, bodies-leaping-and-flying, vampire-meets-action-film sequences that punctuate “Renfield,” Dracula (Nicolas Cage), jutting into the movie well before we expect him to, does all the throat-ripping damage he can in a montage that culminates in drapes being thrown open, the sunlight flooding in, and the vampire, in his red bathrobe, bursting into flame.

It looks like the climax of many a vampire film, and it leaves Dracula a charred husk. But has he been killed? No way! As Renfield (Nicholas Hoult), Dracula’s self-described slave and disciple, explains to us in voice-over, when something like this happens it takes a lot of work to return Dracula to his previous state; it takes many victims for him to feed upon.

But with enough blood and enough time, he can claw his way back to his old robust undead form. A little later, Renfield, who feeds off Dracula’s powers, faces off against some criminals in a sleazy New Orleans bar, and a hulking hitman in an executioner’s mask uses a knife to slash Renfield’s guts right open.

We think that might be the end of him, but no: Renfield eats a bug, which fortifies his strength, and he pops back into action like a superhero who got momentarily knocked for a loop.