FOR over a century, Dracula has been an irresistible muse for cineastes. Even before Universal and Hammer got their fangs into the fiend, Bram Stoker’s seminal text inspired F W Murnau’s expressionist classic Nosferatu in 1922.

Many acting greats have seized the opportunity to play Stoker’s devilish Count in the decades since. Christopher Lee is perhaps the most widely recalled but who can forget the varying degrees of success achieved by Gary Oldman, David Niven, Louis Jourdan and Morgan Freeman.

Nicolas Cage, riding on the high of a career renaissance in recent years, has made no secret of his wish to join this hallowed roll call. Beyond announcing the fact at any and all opportunity, Cage has signalled his interest with the sort of grand gestures only the star of Face/Off and Moonstruck could.

While 1988’s Vampire’s Kiss saw Cage go full method in eating a live cockroach for the camera, an extraordinary spending spree between 2005 and 10 saw the star purchase a string of castles, ostensibly for literary inspiration. A year spent in one of them, however, proved fruitless when Cage’s laptop was allegedly taken out by malevolent spirits.

Cage may not be the star of Renfield but there’s no questioning it’s mission accomplished. That his take on the Count is a scene-stealing hoot must surely be the inevitable consequence of such personal interest in the character.

The film is directed by Chris McKay, a fellow devotee to the Count, having slipped the character into both his biggest hit to date - The Lego Batman Movie - and the TV series that made his name, Robot Chicken. A script by Ryan Ridley frames itself as the direct sequel to Tod Browning’s Dracula, with Marco Beltrami’s score stealing direct notes from the film and an opening sequence literally splicing Cage’s head over archive footage from 1931z McKay knows his Hollywood lore.

Nicholas Hoult leads the film as Renfield. A henchman to Dracula for many centuries, the film opens to find a Renfield growing tired of being under appreciated as lackey a murderous vampire.

Awkwafina plays Rebecca Quincy, a spiky traffic cop in New Orleans and Renfield’s burgeoning love interest in a new lease of life.

Breaking free of the Count is no picnic, however. Expect thrills, black comedy, action romping and a smattering of horror. Scenery will be chewed, mostly by Cage.