Drac Pack Part 1

It’s Nick and Nick time in Renfield (Spoilers)

Following the lead of Tod Browning’s Dracula, Robert Montague Renfield (Nicholas Hoult) is a solicitor who comes to the home of Count Dracula (Nicholas Cage) as part of a real estate deal, only to discover that his new client is a vampire. The film even includes footage from the 1931 movie, even though Renfield and Dracula both die at the end. Let’s ignore that and move on. 

Moving On

A hundred years later, Renfield, whose gained longevity and superhuman strength from eating bugs, is starting to have regrets. In addition to the innocent people he’s complicit in murdering, Renfield realizes that he’s in a seriously unhealthy, co-dependent relationship with his master, so much so that he joins a support group, though initially only to look for victims.

Around the same time, Renfield meets Rebecca Quincy (Awkwafina), who’s this New Orleans traffic cop who keeps arresting this one criminal named Teddy Lobo (Ben Schwartz), the son of a local crime lord. The Lobo family murdered Rebecca’s father, who was also a cop. Her sister Kate (Camille Chen) is also an FBI agent that Rebecca is estranged from because Kate sees her as too angry and reckless, and oh my god, who the hell cares?

Okay, let me back up. On the one hand, it’s great that the film’s main female character/ love interest has this whole backstory and motivation that doesn’t revolve around the protagonist. Seeing an Asian actress in a major role like this is also good. But I don’t think I’m alone when I say I’m not watching Renfield for the love story. At least, the love story that’s not between him and Dracula.

Strange Love

Of course, let me be clear, despite vampires being well known for their queerness, there’s nothing explicit between Dracula and Renfield. However, much like Jerry Dandridge (Chris Sarandon) and Billy Cole (Jonathan Stark) in Fright Night, there’s plenty of subtext. Dracula engages in textbook abusive boyfriend behavior, including love bombing and isolating Renfield from anyone else.

On paper, the vampire-familiar relationship as a metaphor for a toxic romantic relationship might seem silly. While a little humor is derived from it, such as the therapy group’s confusion over some of the things Renfield says, the scenes of domestic abuse themselves are portrayed seriously, like when Dracula splits Renfield’s stomach open because he wants to kill less innocent people.

It’s funny because Renfield punching a dude’s head off or Dracula turning into his mist form to blow someone up, I was like, whatever. The scenes like the after-mention stomach opening or (spoiler) Dracula murdering the entire support group (spoiler) were genuinely uncomfortable to watch.

Familiar Faces

Renfield has quite a list of horror actors in supporting or minor parts. For instance, among the vampire hunters who trap Dracula at the start is an Older Priest played by William Ragsdale, who was Charley Brewster in the original Fright Night. Ragsdale originally had more to do in the movie. There’s a deleted scene, part of which you can see in a trailer, where the priest tries to reassure Renfield they’ll protect him by giving him “the word of the most trusted institute on Earth; the Catholic Church.” Renfield frees Dracula immediately after he says that.

There’s also Caroline Williams as Vanessa, the Lobo’s lawyer. Her most famous role was as Vanita “Stretch” Brock in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2. You might also know her as Loretta the duck lady (NSFW) in Leprechaun 3. Beyond that, Williams played a vampire herself in Ten Minutes to Midnight. According to the Blu-ray Commentary track for Renfield, Williams also had a lot of her screen time cut, though her deleted scenes haven’t been released.

Besides them, Jenna Kanell plays Carol, one of the members of Renfield’s support group. She played Tara Heyes in Terrifer, whose performance I really should have complimented in my review of the movie. Kanell also wrote a bunch of lines for Renfield. I’m guessing that includes the bit where Carol says, “My life is like a never-ending hallway of funhouse mirrors, but all the clowns are me,” because that can’t be a coincidence.

Conclusion

I could have used a little more Hoult and Cage along with a little less Akwafina and Schwartz, but Renfield is still a highly entertaining movie. Initially, I was apprehensive about the action scenes when watching the trailer, but they don’t detract from the film. There are also several funny parts. For instance, if you hate Ska music, this is the movie for you.