Renfield (2023)

Renfield (2023)

 

6/10

 Starring

Nicholas Hoult

Nicolas Cage

Awkwafina

 

Directed by Chris McKay

 

The movie isn’t half bad; it has some Buffy the Vampire Slayer vibes. The comedy is well-woven into the horror of Dracula’s character. If you haven’t read Bram Stoker’s Dracula (please do), you might be wondering who the Renfield character is. In the book, he’s a mental patient who believes he can become like Dracula by consuming life. So, he starts eating insects, then he kept moving up, feeding the insects to another animal, then that to another animal and continues to progress until a point he is eating birds. He worked for Dracula but eventually turned on him (I’ll stop here in case you want to read the amazing book). This movie, however, remixes his character a lot. Other than the name Renfield and the bug-eating, nothing about him in this movie is from the book. In this version, he eats bugs, but that gives him superhuman strength and speed, which wasn’t the case in the original story.

The movie portrays Renfield as a lawyer who initially hoped to broker an estate deal to change his fortune. This led him to willingly serve Dracula and eventually become his familiar. As a familiar, he gained immortality like Dracula and could unlock superhuman abilities by eating bugs. Their relationship lasted nearly a century, but now, in the present day, they live in filth underground, with Renfield tasked with capturing people to feed Dracula.

Renfield is fed up with serving Dracula and desperately wants out. He joins a self-help group for codependents of abusers, hoping to learn something that could free him from his burdens. This new situation, combined with his growing desire to change, fills him with self-doubt but also pushes him to take action.

At one point, Renfield saves an officer from being killed, which becomes a turning point for him. From then on, he does everything he can to stand up to Dracula and leave his life as a slave behind. However, his journey isn’t easy, and he faces the risk of losing everything he cares about.

In the end, I can only say it isn’t half bad. It’s not one of those fantastic movies that will make you want to run out and see it again. But if you’re in the mood for a bloodsucking movie, this one won’t quite fill that void. It has gore, sure, but only a few bites. But if you want some comedic Dracula movie, then this will be alright.