Renfield (2023)

Relationship Therapy

Nicholas Hoult heads up an excellent cast in 2023’s slightly bonkers Renfield. The film utilizes characters from Bram Stoker’s famed book, Dracula…….to a degree. Specifically, the film utilizes characters from Stoker’s book as portrayed by Dwight Frye and Bela Lugosi in 1931’s Dracula and expands upon their stories. Hoult takes on the title role and Nicolas Cage stars as Count Dracula. In the film, Renfield has been the count’s loyal servant for decades, bringing him fresh victims to feed upon and taking care of his daily needs. Renfield has also been given the gift (or curse) of immortality and super speed and strength in order to stop any would-be vampire killers that come calling for Dracula’s head. Renfield has grown tired of being a servant and of the physical, mental, and emotional abuse that he must endure from the count.

While in New Orleans, Renfield begins attending group therapy for people in codependent and abusive relationships. He tracks down the abusers in the relationships and uses them as food for Dracula. He also begins to listen and participate in therapy and decides to break free from the count. He also crosses paths with the Lobo family, a crime syndicate that has all of New Orleans in its clutches, and one of the last honest police officers in the city, a young woman named Rebecca (Awkwafina). Renfield teams up with Rebecca in order to take down the Lobo family and Dracula. The Lobos and Dracula, on the other hand, team up in turn and give chase to the duo. Will Renfield break free of Count Dracula’s rule? Will the Lobo family run roughshod over New Orleans and then the world with Count Dracula as their leader? Watch Renfield to find out!

Renfield performed poorly in cinemas and, in all honesty, I don’t know why. Yes, it’s a horror comedy that goes hard with the humor and even harder with the gore, but it’s not to a degree that it should turn off fans of either the classic Universal Monsters or any more modern horror fans. It just seemed to struggle to find an audience and that’s sad in my opinion. We probably won’t get another Renfield film and I want one. We deserve to see these characters at least one more time.

This film is fun. Cage hams it up big time as Count Dracula and Nicholas Hoult does a great job as an updated version of Renfield. As much as I dislike Awkwafina’s stage name, I have really grown to like her as an actress. She provides plenty of laughs in this movie. Ben Schwartz is cast perfectly as Teddy Lobo in his first role as a villain. He’s probably the most believable character in the film. His mother is portrayed by Shoreh Aghdashloo to sinister perfection. The rest of the cast, especially the group therapy members, are excellent as well.

One other thing that I’d love to mention is how well this film nailed the corruption in the city of New Orleans. As a Louisiana native who has lived here all of my life, it’s a well known fact that New Orleans’ politicians and public servants are almost always corrupt. The film also does a nice job of presenting different locations around New Orleans that natives will know very well.

Give Renfield a chance. Fans of the classic Universal Monsters and modern horror fans will find something to enjoy about this movie. I know that I enjoyed it!

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