Director Chris McKay shot quite an interesting take on Dracula in the modern world. After spending decades as Dracula’s (Nicolas Cage) thrall and constantly being forced to relocate in order for Dracula to continue feeding off others and doing whatever his heart desires, Renfield (Nicholas Hoult) finds himself attending a support group for co-dependents so that Dracula can heal and have a reliable source of food.

Renfield manages to find himself saving Rebecca (Awkwafina) a cop hell bent on arresting Tedward Lobo (Ben Schwartz) the heir to the most powerful gang in the city, to take down the gang responsible for her father’s murder. Renfield grapples with his dark master’s wishes for pure and innocent blood (because it tastes significantly better than that of murderers and the like), is instantly enamored with Rebecca, and finds the strength to confront his own relationship with Dracula (as a result of sitting in on the support group).

The fight scenes are good and gory, and the comedy expertly crafted. Nothing quite like hearing Ben Schwartz tell someone he’s not going to bring up how offensive his hitman’s name is (The Apache) because he’s a massive beast of a man that disembowels his targets, only to have his head come flying out of a window and hit the side of his car moments later. There was one point where for whatever reason someone decided one of the killing blows at the end of a fight sequence needed to be in the X-ray style of a Mortal Kombat finishing move which felt extremely out of place.

I enjoyed watching Renfield address who he thought he was and did, what he actually was, and what he wanted to be, watching Dracula listen as though he cared about what Renfield had to say and then immediately cutting him open and telling him how much he needs his him to survive, then cutting open one of his veins to pour some of his magic healing blood on Renfield’s fresh wound. As expected from a Nic Cage film, it’s a little over the top at times, but it is absolutely worth the watch.

Overall I’ve landed at 8 stars for this film, it’s a good, funny movie I wouldn’t mind seeing again.