Mini Movie Review - Renfield (2023)

 

"Renfield" is a great movie to watch when you want your laughs with a good side dish of gratuitous violence. There’s a fair bit of bloody dismemberment, but it is also so outlandish that that it mainly registers as hilarious. I mean, I still cringed, but I also laughed. If you really, really don’t like blood or extreme violence, then consider yourself warned. This movie has buckets of (very fake) blood and bodies appearing to be ripped apart. There’s a scene where our hero, Renfield, appears to rip some bad guys’ arms off and then proceeds to defeat two other bad guys with an arm each.

At its heart, this is a movie of self-discovery. Of finding your place in the world and claiming it. And perhaps making amends for past sins and failures by realizing there are things worth fighting for. "Renfield" has the best use of positive affirmations I have ever seen either in real life or on film. It is worth seeing for that scene alone. And you’ll know it when you get to it. It was cathartic even just watching.

As for Nic Cage as Dracula, it was brilliant. He’s so good at making candy floss of the scenery, but in this movie, it was only when it fit the scene. And then he would just let loose and enjoy the moment. There are even a few nods at the beginning to the most iconic Dracula of them all, Bela Lugosi. It was beautifully done. Nicholas Hoult makes a delightfully vulnerable Renfield – someone you find yourself rooting for, even as he hangs yet another empty-sounding motivational poster on the wall. And Awkwafina managed to be both abrasive and likeable at the same time.

As for a gaming twist, I honestly don’t know. This would be an odd story to turn into a scenario. You could – maybe – use it to inspire your own redemption arc inspired game, where your player characters get sucked into helping some poor sod find his way to freedom and a new life. If you want to make it as over-the-top as Renfield, I’d suggest maybe making it a one off for some special reason. If you kept the horror aspect of a servant trying to escape a monster master, such as a vampire, it could be a fun game for Halloween. Don’t hesitate to make the idea fit your needs.

As always, if you’d like to see what movies I intended to watch this month, you can find them in this post. And if you’re curious what Pun’s original themes are, check out his blog, Halls of Nephilim, here.

Mini Movie Review - Jaws (1975)

 

The third night of our movie challenge was to watch a horror movie where nature strikes back. There are several movies that fall into this, but Jaws was the obvious choice for us. I mean, we did get to go to the beach again this summer, Rowan loves sharks, and I have a bit of a fondness for the odd creatures as well.

Jaws is considered one of, if not THE, first summer blockbusters out there, and Spielberg has malfunctioning animatronics to thank for it. We only see the shark towards the very end of the movie, while the first half is all about setting up the big showdown between man and shark. And that first serious look at the monster shark doesn’t fail to impress, leading to the classic movie line, “We’re gonna need a bigger boat.) And in the meantime we get plenty of blood and body bits.

This movie also showcases some social commentary, what with the mayor wanting to keep the beaches open at any cost, including the loss of human life. He even points out that during the July 4^th festivities his children were also on the beach. And this was after he bullied a friend to get in water, along with his wife and grandkids.

As already stated, most of the second half is simply the fishing trip to try and catch the shark. Just three men on a boat – the sheriff, the shark expert, and the crazy fisherman who owns the boat. I’ll let you figure out who, if anyone, makes it out alive. I will say that the tension building in the second half of this movie is a master class. And this was one of Spielberg’s first movies!

Not sure how I’d play this one up in a gaming sense. Maybe a small scenario for Call of Cthulhu? OR, it could be fun to move it to a fantasy setting, maybe, for Pathfinder or that other D20 game that’s popular. Could be fun. If you do, make sure that shark is a souped up version of the Monster Manual or Bestiary and that it has plenty of hit points or armor.

Seriously, this was a fun re-watch from when I was in high school. I’d forgotten how much humor it had. Unless you have a shark phobia, give it a watch.

 Check out the rest of my challenge suggestions here. And if you want to play along as well, check out Pun's themes on his blog, Halls of the Nephilim. . 

Mini-Movie Review - John Carpenter's The Fog (1980)

 

My mini reviews of the movies we’re watching this month are going to run a wee bit behind. October decided to come in with a bang and I’ve barely been home. Fitting in a movie in the evening has been challenging.

1 October – The Fog (Day’s theme was First Time Watch) This was the original version of the movie, from 1980. I really enjoyed it and loved how it didn’t play to the tropes we so easily toss about nowadays when discussing movies. It would be worth a re-watch.

My biggest problem was the age difference between Tom Atkins and Jamie Lee Curtis. I might not have discovered just how big of an age difference there was, except Jeff pointed out that he looked a little old for her. A little! Try he was 45 to her 22. Once I knew, it just became icky. However, you can already tell how good of an actress she is.

I really loved that the three female leads are the top billed in the credit, with Jamie Lee Curtis and Adrienne Barbeau having top billing on the movie poster. And the women were smart, too.

The movie makes the most of suspense, which I like. It’s also got some slasher vibes as the creatures in the fog exact their revenge, but you don’t see a lot of blood splashed about. I honestly think that would have been a distraction from the suspense John Carpenter kept building as the story progressed.

And since this is a, at least in theory, a gaming-related blog, I started thinking Call of Cthulhu by the mid-point. I mean, really, creepy fog with murderous monsters coming out of it? It practically screams Deep Ones – and I’m not talking about those Hybrid nasties either. Oh, and the movie backs up my philosophy of if you play well, and smart, you have a good chance of surviving.

That's it for now! Play along with your own Halloween movie challenge and check out Pun's themes here. 

Pun's October Horror Movie Challenge

 

You are invited to join me. Apparently October horror movie challenges are a thing this time of year. Who knew? A gaming friend of mine – Pun Issac, decided to create his own challenge. And me being not of a normal person’s right mind decided “Why not?”. And so, here we are. I spent HOURS yesterday coming up with the schedule below.

There are some caveats. I don’t watch a lot of horror, although there seem to be more movies and television seeping into my viewing nowadays. I was a teenager in the 80s, at the height of the slasher movies, where directors and producers kept pushing the limits of just how much fake blood they could toss around. Even action movies got into the game, upping both the blood and the body count. And I loved action movies, until it just got to be too over the top. As for horror, give me a good Hitchcock or similar movie any day. So you won’t really find any of those sorts of movies on my schedule. I also don’t do torture porn. Totally not my thing.

Also, 31 movies in 31 days is a lot to clear one’s schedule for. So, some movies will need to become part of a double feather either the day before or the day after. I’ve gaming commitments twice a week. Some movies, depending on length, I can watch after gaming on Wednesday nights, but our Monday group goes to 11 pm. And I’ve a podcast review livestream every other Sunday, but can probably still fit in a movie after.

All of these movies will be watched at home, except for Five Nights at Freddy's, which I hope to catch opening night. (I had to change New Movie and Found Footage to make that happen. Not a big deal. Most of the movies can be found on streaming services, although there are several I already have on DVD. I bought The Thing on Amazon last year, and will probably buy two others for this horror movie challenge.

I hope to provide quick reviews as we go, but that will probably depend on just how busy October gets. Anyway, I hope you watch along, leave your own comments, and generally enjoy the spooky fall weather and atmosphere of October. It’s one of my favorite months.

The original challenge can be found at Halls of the Nephilim, so you can see the various categories I needed to use. (And for the most part, I did!) And an easier to read/print version of my schedule can be found here. 

Happy Spooky Season! It's good to be back!

Melinda