Yet another big, mainstream release in 2023 that’s under two hours long. Stuff like this is slowly restoring my faith in modern cinema and its future. This was WAY cuter than I was expecting. Feels weird to say that about something so full of gore and profanity. It’s a charming, hilarious little horror-comedy romp with surprisingly exciting action and a message about emotionally abusive relationships that helped make it easier to not get back together with my ex right as she decided to pop into my life again recently.

I am enough. And I have enough. I deserve happiness…

• Renfield

What really made it for me though were the performances. Nicolas Cage is of course as fantastic as you would expect him to be in the role of a more animated Dracula, providing further proof that the star has truly found his niche in this late career resurgence. I wish he had more scenes. This is also a great showing for Nicholas Hoult who, if we’re being honest, hasn’t really been in too much of note over the past few years and builds a good case for himself on why he should receive more protagonist roles moving forward. Then there’s the comically entertaining Ben Schwartz as the villain and Awkwafina as the co-lead who the more I see, the more I realize none of us really acknowledge how pretty she is. I imagine as a rapper she probably was/is insufferable, but as an actress I’m really liking her. In this era of superhero cinematic universe insanity dominating all media, absurd cash grab revivals of popular ’80s franchises, and a seemingly endless array of movies trying to copy the MCU blockbuster formula it’s refreshing to see Hollywood slipping stuff like this, Cocaine Bear, and 65 out with their compelling (if irreverent) concepts and reasonable runtimes. It may be too early to say for sure, but guys and gals if things keep going like this we may be okay.