The movie "Renfield" asks what Dracula's relationship with his familiar Renfield
might look like in the twenty-first century. Well, there'd be a lot of therapy and even more blood.
"Renfield" is usually a propulsive and loud movie,
but for one moment before its big finale, there is calm. Renfield and police officer Rebecca
Quincy recover in a small café after a grisly battle at an apartment complex.
"You know when something crazy happens, and someone's like,
'It's okay, I've seen way worse'? Everything I saw you do today is gonna be my way worse."
It's there that Renfield comes clean about leaving
his wife and child behind to serve as Dracula's familiar. But the moment is
short lived. The duo quickly learns that Count Dracula has a powerful new ally:
the Lobo crime family. Not only that, but these gangsters have taken Quincy's sister hostage.
This development ensures Quincy and Renfield both have high stakes during the climax of the
movie. Renfield is, as ever, impressed with Quincy's willingness to charge into battle
against their enemies. Seeing Renfield's admiration, Quincy reminds him that anyone
can stand up to bullies and abusive people. It's at this point that Renfield decides to
help her battle the combined power of Dracula and the mob. But they can't rush into battle
empty-handed. This is where Renfield's decades of experience fighting Dracula's
enemies becomes invaluable. He knows the best weapons to use when you need to kill a vampire.
As the unforgettable opening chords of My Chemical Romance's "Na Na Na" kick in one
thing becomes very apparent: it's time for an energetic montage. Renfield and Quincy start
to gather all the tools they need to fight Dracula and his minions. As they scramble
across New Orleans looking for crucifixes and anything else associated with killing vampires,
their determination to finally take out this blood-sucking creep grows ever higher. But
the most important part of the duo's arsenal is…bugs. Since Renfield gets
his supernatural powers from chomping on insects, it's time to go to every
bait-and-tackle store he can find and buy as many tiny critters as possible to consume.
This mission results in a gross-out comedy moment where Renfield gobbles
down a horde of insects loudly in the passenger seat of Quincy's vehicle,
completely grossing her out in the process. It's not a pretty sight,
but it's a necessary one. Once Renfield is powered up, he's ready to confront danger head-on.
As the finale begins, Renfield easily takes down random goons with his powers. But it's
when he finally encounters Teddy Lobo that the real battle begins. Dracula
has chosen him as his new familiar, and as a result, has been given supernatural
powers just like Renfield. This discovery changes the nature of the battle. Renfield
has to use everything he's got to fight the new and improved version of himself.
During their skirmish, Lobo constantly taunts his rival, including emphasizing how he's "the
yin" to Renfield's "yang." As Lobo viciously attacks, Renfield shouts, "We've barely met
twice!" It calls out how little the two know about each other and how ridiculous Lobo's claim is.
The battle between the two familiars rages for a while before Renfield finally gains
the upper hand. In the final moments of the battle, Dracula's original servant
takes out Lobo in the most over-the-top way possible. He kicks the mobster so hard in
the stomach that he spews out fluids from both his mouth and his rear before dying.
While Renfield is off fighting Teddy Lobo, Quincy makes her way to the office of Ella Lobo,
where she hopes to find her sister. When she arrives, Ella greets the police officer then
vanishes and the windows to the office are sealed shut. With every window closed, sunlight can't
enter the room and harm the dark figure creeping up behind her: Dracula. Decked out in a fabulous
red-colored cloak, Dracula doesn't go for the jugular. Instead, he decides to make Rebecca
an offer. Her sister is dying from incredibly vicious wounds and the medicine of mortal men
can't save her. The blood of Dracula, which can heal any wound, is her sister's only hope.
It's a particularly tense moment as the sisters lost their father to Lobo earlier in the movie.
Renfield bursts into the room as Quincy moves closer to Dracula's embrace. Renfield begs her
not to give in to the dark lord, but she says that she doesn't care about
the consequences of being Dracula's servant. She can't lose another member of her family.
Quincy finally hugs Dracula closely, but the whole moment is a stunt. Her real goal
is to get close enough to the vampire to activate the shutters and open the windows.
Unfortunately for Quincy, her immediate betrayal of Dracula doesn't go as planned.
As she mashes the button to open the windows, nothing happens. Her desperation rises as she
continues to mash the controller. Things look grim for the cop until finally,
after several more presses, the windows finally cooperate and open, bathing Dracula in sunlight.
As the light pours in, Dracula howls in pain and catches fire. He escapes by turning into
a pack of bats, though now they're in flames. As he flees, the Dracula bats crash into Ella Lobo,
still in the hallway, and knock her out cold. Renfield and Quincy chase
after the dark lord and track him to a torture chamber in the Lobo family
compound. The battle between the three of them continues in the foreboding room.
Though badly burned by the sunlight, Dracula's far from defeated. He's still an incredibly
intimidating figure. At one point he levitates into the air and grabs Quincy by the neck. With
Renfield collapsed on the ground, succumbing to his wounds, this is the moment where all
hope looks lost. Fortunately for Quincy, her arms are free enough to stab Dracula in the
foot. It's a move that the vicious vampire initially laughs off as being a foolhardy
attempt to save her life. However, this maneuver wasn't meant to kill Dracula or free herself.
Instead, it was meant to force some blood out of Dracula's injured foot,
so it can drop onto Renfield and heal Dracula's old familiar. The plan works like a charm, with
the mystical blood reviving Renfield, who promptly saves Quincy from the clutches of Dracula.
It's time for the final confrontation. Over the course of the movie, Renfield
has grown as an individual through his work in the support meetings.
"Sorry to interrupt."
"Are you okay?"
"I need to get out of a toxic relationship."
The most important lesson he learned at the meetings is that victims in toxic
relationships are the ones with all of the power. He violently hammers this
point home to Dracula. While he's pummeling his former boss, Quincy proceeds to trap the
vampire in a spiritual containment field. She learned the spell through some kind
of weird "wiccan Tumblr." After the dust and blood settle, Renfield has finally taken his
power back from Dracula and stopped the evil creature of the night dead in his tracks.
It's not enough to keep Dracula suspended in a circle though, magical or otherwise. Renfield
and Quincy have to completely destroy the beast. Luckily, the final battle took them to a torture
chamber filled with weapons. Renfield and Quincy go to town dismembering, burning,
and torturing the vampire in every way imaginable. Renfield's recurring narration throughout the
movie pops in again to remark to the audience that neither he nor his partner is sure what
can actually kill Dracula, so they try to just throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.
Going this route inspires some of the more amusingly heightened gags in all
of "Renfield." The inexplicable presence of items like a cement mixer and an ice cube tray
as ways of brutally killing Dracula are amusing sight gags. This is especially true since these
cartoonish vampire-killing "weapons" are far from common in the pantheon of vampire movies.
Eventually, the barrage of sight gags and creative murders gives way to Renfield and
Quincy dropping a bunch of chopped-up cubes of Dracula's corpse into a pit.
Renfield notes in the narration that he's far from certain that this will kill off Dracula
forever. But he knows that at the very least, the dark lord won't heal easily.
With Dracula defeated, it's time to take care of one last Villain. Renfield and Quincy return to
the scene of their final confrontation with Ella Lobo. Still incapacitated from Dracula's flight,
Quincy manages to cuff the mobster and send her off to prison. Quincy finally rescues her sister,
who has been brought back to life with Dracula's blood. The pair reconcile their differences,
share a hug, and then Quincy heads over to regroup with Renfield. Now free of his master,
the former familiar has understandably complicated emotions swirling around inside him.
Though he still doubts that he's much better than Dracula, Quincy reassures
Renfield that he's given something important to the world. When he asks what that is,
Quincy says that he's shown that it's never too late for someone to be a hero. It's an exchange
that closes out Renfield's character arc and lays the core theme of the entire film bare.
Life begins to calm down after Dracula's defeat. As the movie closes,
we discover that Renfield's narration has all occurred
while speaking to his support group for victims of abusive relationships.
"But if you were to stop focusing on his needs, what would happen?"
"He won't grow to full power."
"Exactly! He won't grow to full power!"
However, in a twist perfectly suited to Renfield's world,
the members of the group are all the resurrected victims of Dracula's attack from earlier in
the movie. Renfield has brought them back from the dead using the dark lord's blood.
Though it might be a little convenient to bring back all of these characters so easily, it's a
fitting end for a film that relishes in silliness and over-the-top antics. The camera even lingers
on a jug of blood situated next to cookies and napkins for the final shot of the entire feature.
Viewers expecting "Renfield" to conclude with teases for further adventures involving
Nicolas Cage's Dracula will leave the film sorely disappointed. Despite Renfield not
being sure that he and Quincy have truly destroyed Dracula, the movie ends on a
definitively standalone note. There are no hints for potential sequels or even an after-the-credits
scene. It's clear that "Renfield" is meant to function as a one-off story.
Fans can still hope though. The chemistry between Nicolas Cage and Nicholas Hoult
is the absolute standout of the film, and it would be a shame to not revisit their dynamic.
"Hello, Renfield, marvelous attire."
And Awkwafina as always delivers a hilarious counterpoint to the violent existence of her
superpowered partner. Seeing how Renfield matures with his new knowledge of overcoming
toxic relationships could be a great starting point for a sequel. And it would be hilarious
to watch how he brings his emotional maturity with him to battle creatures of the night. Only time,
success, and maybe a little bit of Dracula's blood will tell.