Poor Renfield. Always a blood sipper, never a blood sucker.

Dracula’s familiar has always settled for hand-me-downs, usually in the forms of insects he eats that keep him immortal, if unsatisfied.

Here, though, he gets his just desserts in the form of a full-fledged feature. Renfield crackles with dry wit, Tarantino-esque violence and a theme that borders on the tender. And Nicolas Cage was born to play the prince of the red tide.

Nicholas Hoult (Warm Bodies) plays the accursed second banana, and he’s top notch here as a realtor who makes the mistake of inviting Dracula into his life. When he finds a support group for toxic relationships, Renfield sees a lifeline for his bloodline. Never mind that Dracula sees the exact opposite.

While technically a franchise film, Renfield feels fresh in a sea of studio sequels and spinoffs, and its plot doesn’t sound like it was written by baby Yoda. Credit director Chris McKay with a From Dusk to Dawn aesthetic, particularly as it draws to the bloodbath showdown. And Awkwafina makes a fine cop/love interest as Rebecca, whose “you are enough” dinner scene almost makes you forget who she’s talking to.

But the movie flatlines without over-the-top supporting performances by Cage and, notably, Ben Schwartz, who plays Tedward Lobo, a crime boss competing with the Count for the souls of the city’s hapless. He’s superb with a semi-automatic. Cage literally chews scenery as only he can.

Renfield telegraphs its fanged punches a bit with its empowerment messaging. But the film focuses just enough on the loneliness of over-committing — to a person, a job, even the charismatic undead — to right itself just fine.

While Renfield has always been the engine that drives Dracula (he even inspired a medical term, “clinical vampirism“), he was perennially a thankless henchman — until now. He may not take cinema off life support, but Renfield is worth a taste.