Another, way much better movie Universal made after their Horror Universe to compete with MCU, collapsed spectacularly under Tom Cruise’s mummy flick. Their first was that scary invisible man thriller with Elizabeth Moss. Now they go for comedy with Dracula by examining the co-dependent relationship he trapped Renfield into. As you have seen in the trailers and commercial, Nicholas Hoult is the put-upon titular character who has spent decades looking after the Prince of Darkness’ needs for victims and other tasks. Now he’s decided to break this toxic situation to become his own person. Too bad Renfield chose a bad place to do it, modern-day New Orleans while a ruthless crime family is attempting to assert its power over the city and one of the few good cops.
This isn’t a spoiler alert but if you can’t handle the hyper violence and gore, shown in slow-motion with Matrix flourishes, maybe there will be a version for mainstream cable in a couple years. The humorous parts are what sold me, especially all the therapy buzz words and advice Renfield receives being in group sessions. Nic Cage obviously does the Nic Cage thing, channeling his inner Bela Lugosi to hilarious effect. It’s a clever modern-day tweak to a character who I think will be timeless. Lastly, I think the kinetic action was impressive thanks to director Chris McKay. He spent years directing episodes of Robot Chicken and I credit him for making The LEGO Movie a huge success.
Alamo Extras: Scenes from a Bollywood movie with a vampire; Nic Cage on a UK talk show circa 1990 to plug Wild at Heart; Trailers for Dracula, Dead and Loving It (sucked!) and Dracula Blows His Cool; Cage’s weird cameo in Never on a Tuesday; Nic’s face replacing Miley Cyrus for the “Wrecking Ball” video; Cage reciting The Telltale Heart at Alamo Drafthouse in 2017 for a fest in his honor; ads for monster soaky toys (soap) and free teeth or eyes if you attend a Hammer movie; montage of Cage’s overacting in The Wicker Man, Moonstruck, Zandalee, Face/Off, Dead Falls, Best of Times, Bad Lt: New Orleans, Ghost Rider, Raising Arizona, Vampire Kiss and Matchstick Men; some weird French TV with a Soul Dracula dancing display.