When was the last time a great vampire movie was out in theaters? The genre has been a little quiet over the last few years with the exception of the brilliant hit What We Do in the Shadows. The new movie Renfield aims to capitalize on that very same market though with dark humor bleeding all into the new vampire movie.
The movie is coming out on April 14 and will feature Nicolas Cage playing Dracula. But the star of the film is actually going to be his lackey Mr. R.M. Renfield, played by Nicholas Hoult. While Dracula is usually the star of his own movies, this one appears to be doing something different with the character by using him in a small part rather than a lead star. With the trailer out now, let’s take a closer look at what we might be in store for on this one.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
From Humble Beginnings to Dracula’s Assistant
Universal Pictures
We open in dramatic fashion with our main character Renfield kicking open the door to what appears to be a sort of alcoholics anonymous style group begging for help to escape a toxic relationship. The group, without context, assumes he’s just talking about a normal office boss rather than Dracula himself in a comedic fashion. They’re definitely not afraid to lean into the comedy elements on this one with the dialogue here with the movie taking a decidedly dark-humored tone right out of the gate.
More commentary from the patrons in the meetings, “You just feel like he could destroy you with the snap of his fingers.” They seem to be going for an HBO’s Barry style of grimness that hard cuts with absurd humor which delights in dual meanings. The movie has also earned an R-rating to further close the gap here. Renfield is sitting in a restaurant in conflict as Dracula, over narration, asks Renfield to bring him nuns, cheerleaders, and more. This sounds like it could result in some tricky situations whereupon Renfield will have to convince a passing bus of cheerleaders to stop by Dracula’s not-so-welcoming mansion.
The trailer also showcased him awkwardly trying to drag someone over to Dracula’s feeding table, which is very similar to some of those first few episodes of What We Do in the Shadows with Guillermo awkwardly trying to keep up with an escalating list of ridiculous demands.
One thing to note about the restaurant would be that there’s a quick flash of a neon sign denoting it as a Mulates, which is a sure sign that this film is taking place in New Orleans. What’s especially cool about this is the fact that Nicolas Cage actually owned a house in the New Orleans Garden District for many years, having a deep interest in anything related to Anne Rice. She previously owned the same house in the Garden District and the surrounding area was a place for her character Lestat de Lioncourt to roam around in her novel Interview with the Vampire. Dracula in New Orleans might be new, but vampires certainly are not.
After a group of armed thugs breaks in, Renfield eats a spider and proceeds to go full John Wick mode on these clowns, even cutting a man’s arm off with a dinner tray. This is actually derived straight from the source novel, as Renfield is lured into service to Dracula through the promise of insects and immortality. What the novel does not mention, however, would be the vampiric speed and strength that these bugs seem to give him in the trailer. His initial draw to this though was to just become more like a vampire himself and consume the life force of other beings in his own strange way.
Renfield gets to speak with a cop in the aftermath, and she seems quizzical about his impressive feats being something a normal human is remotely capable of. We then have a few more cuts of Renfield doing some pretty impressive stunts like jumping up three-story buildings, basically flying, punching some guys harder than The Rock, and some speed that would make Kate Beckinsale of Underworld jealous. These scenes definitely draw inspiration from the action sequences that made the Underworld series so memorable and fun.
Cutting back to the meeting, Renfield actually realizes that all he has to do to stop Dracula is just quit feeding him. This poses a question for the rest of the movie: is this a teaser for the final act or is this just the start of the movie? Will the movie feature Renfield being obedient or realizing his own power to stop Dracula very quickly? At any rate, Dracula crashes the party and presumably drinks the blood of every person there giving us a good look at Nicolas Cage’s version of Dracula, which looks spectacular.
What’s Next for the Vampire?
For once though with their classic monsters, Universal appears to be taking an exciting approach to the franchise. Instead of doing the serious Tom Cruise approach, they seem to be going back to what a lot of people loved about The Mummy with Brendan Fraser. Something funny and action-packed rather than a straight-up serious tone to it trying to develop all these different half-baked ideas.
The plan seems to be doing a one-off story that may very well kickstart a universe of its own with one really good movie that doesn’t even focus on the character you might expect. If they play their cards right with this one, they could have a real fan favorite on their hands.
