Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
Director: Chris McKay
Writers: Ryan Ridley, Robert Kirkman, Ava Tramer
This was so much fun! A retro-style, over-the-top vampire-themed gory horror comedy about Dracula’s underling/familiar/follower/servant, Renfield, deciding to stand up for himself after centuries of thankless servitude to his megalomaniac boss.
Nicholas Hoult is a total hoot as the titular protagonist of the 2024 movie Renfield, while Nicholas Cage plays the legendary Prince of Wallachia, AKA Dracula, who loves to drink the blood of happy young couples, nuns, and cheerleaders. Renfield is expected to hunt prey for his boss, while he himself is sort of the vegan version of vampires—he only eats bugs and, in an interesting twist, doesn’t combust when exposed to sunlight. Sick of being overworked and underappreciated, Renfield starts going to a support group to work on ending his co-dependent relationship with Dracula. However, when Dracula learns of Renfield’s rebellious new streak, he isn’t thrilled at all, and vows to destroy his lackey for even thinking of leaving.
Toxic bosses are the worst. But at least they are human, and you can wishfully hope for their death or, well, simply quit the job. Now imagine having the all-powerful, immortal Count Dracula as your employer, who wants you to be his eternal slave. Is quitting even an option? Renfield thus serves as both a horror-comedy and an inflated modern satire on toxic work cultures—if you’re willing to look at it that way.
Renfield also pays homage to the classic 1931 Dracula by featuring scenes of Nicholas Cage in black-and-white flashbacks as Dracula from scenes of the old film. I thought it was hilariously likable how Nicholas Cage’s makeup as Dracula is very campy, old-school, and garish, yet he manages to make the character convincingly evil and intimidating. Nicholas Hoult, on the other hand, as I already said earlier, is a riot as the nervous, tired Renfield, who tries his best to murder only the ‘bad guys’ to serve his master to feel less guilt and is exceedingly exhausted from constantly being on the run from vampire hunters and the law.
In an interesting subplot, Renfield’s path crosses with honest cop Rebecca (Awkwafina) at a bar, where Tedward Lobo (Ben Schwartz), the son of a notorious crime boss, puts a gun to her face and asks her to apologize to him, but she dares him to shoot her. Inspired by Rebecca’s ballsy courage, Renfield defends her from Lobo and his armed goons, resulting in a thrilling violent face-off at the bar. We’re talking The Boys level explosion of blood and guts. Lobo escapes, so now Renfield is not only wanted by the scary Dracula but also by a criminal syndicate for brutally killing several of their members. Awkwafina wasn’t in her best element as the earnest, principled cop intent on cleaning up crime in the city, and her slumpy posture throughout the runtime was distracting. But I guess fit cops with great posture are only for action movies.
Obviously, Renfield is not a serious movie, and it’s got several silly, exaggerated comical moments. I think my favorite was the one where Tedward (the name is probably meant as a dig at Twilight’s Edward) runs away from a crime scene, only to run into cops. He then flees from them with packets of cocaine, claiming they are prescription drugs. LOL. Lots of vampiric tropes find their way into the film and the climax delivers a funnily intense battle between Renfield and Dracula. The violence, laughs, are pretty consistent in this crisp 90-minute film, even though the special effects seem to be deliberately ghastly.
If you’re looking for a fun, silly, vampiric-themed horror-comedy, Renfield is very entertaining. I would love to see a prequel featuring Dracula & Renfield’s bloody adventures, because Nicholas Cage was simply perfect as the narcissistic, blood-sucking antagonist.
Renfield is on Netflix, JioCinema, Zee5, or you can rent it on Prime Video.
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