THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Getting out of a toxic relationship ain’t easy for everyone. You don’t buy that? Look at Renfield.
PLOT
The 2023 film follows former lawyer Robert Montague Renfield who has been the familiar to the infamous Count Dracula for decades. When inadvertently becoming such in an attempt to purchase land in Transylvania, he would be granted immortality and unlimited strength by consuming insects. After recently killing the last line of vampire hunters, the two recuperate at an abandoned hospital in New Orleans. But having grown tired of his master's verbal and physical abuse, he attends a 12 step self help group for people in codependent relationships. When targeting an abusive lover of the group, he inadvertently gets into a confrontation with an assassin sent by Teddy Lobo of the titular surname crime family. When Teddy finds his assassin killed, he would drive away and find himself arrested by second generation officer Rebecca Quincy after being spotted at a sobriety checkpoint with cocaine in his possession. Lucky for him, the police station filled with corrupt cops lets him go. This pisses off Rebecca due to doing things by the book and her sister Kate (Camille Chen) whose an FBI agent has had minimum success in placing the Lobos in custody. When Renfield brings Dracula deceased criminals, it displeases him because he deems their insufficient and prefers innocent people. So when the familiar attends a local restaurant intending to abduct commoners, Rebecca would attend as well due to clues Teddy left behind at the crime scene. However, the restaurant gets held at gunpoint by Teddy and his goons who hopes to re-establish his family's reputation by killing the young officer. Renfield would end up doing the right thing by saving her life, killing multiple goons and injuring Teddy before he retreats. This would now inspire him to take the teachings of the self help group serious by moving into his own apartment, intending to separate himself from his master. As Teddy tries tracking him down, he ends up finding Dracula at the hospital and tells him what Renfield has done. The Count would confront his familiar of his betrayal, making him suffer by killing each one of the group members. When Rebecca arrives at the scene, she plans to arrest him until being swarmed by corrupt cops and Teddy's mother Bellafrancesca (Shohreh Aghdashloo) who wants revenge on Renfield. They got there in the first place due to being tipped off by Quincy's partner Chris (Adrian Martinez). Despite getting shot, she is still able to escape with Renfield. The now former familiar take her to his apartment to recover and when she wakes up the next day, he confesses who employer is and admits wanting to reform himself. When she plans to meet up withe Kate, they get ambushed by corrupt cops again, but Renfield uses his abilities to escape with her. After they do so, Teddy introduces Dracula to his mom, who plan to rule the world together. When Rebecca gets a call that Kate is taken hostage by the villains, she stockpiles weapons while Renfield has enough bugs to power up for the fight. Renfield is able to wipe out the remaining Lobo gang including Teddy, after all of which were granted his abilities by Dracula. When Rebecca encounters the Count, he confesses to killing her sister and promises to resurrect her in exchange for loyalty. Refusing to break, she tricks him long enough to expose him to sunlight, causing him to fight Renfield underground. The two protagonists are able to outsmart the vampire by trapping him in a holy circle made out of the Lobos' cocaine packages. Not wanting to take any chances, they mutilate his body to the point of dividing pieces of his corpse and scatter it in the sewer, ensuring it highly difficult for his body to ever be reformed. After this, Rebecca would have enough proof to arrest Bellafrancesca and Renfield would use what remains of Dracula's blood to resurrect Kate. The film would end with him also using it to bring back the self help group, feeling empowered to make a new life for himself.
THOUGHTS
Horror comedies ain't easy to pull off because you want the jokes to land while feeling creeped out of the environment. Little would I expect Director Chris McKay and writers Robert Kirkman & Ryan Ridley pull off making something that came off more entertaining than it should have been. The whole time, I was either laughing my ass off to the absurdity of jokes while being in shock on how violent it would get. Seeing how visible it was to notice how computerized the blood was, they went as far as they could to make it as graphic as possible. The jokes would just land in the most unconventional ways that left me satisfied via laughter. Most of my laughter went to the self help group because cast mates from the said group, especially Brandon Scott Jones' Mark were standouts for showing their hearts to Renfield when they didn't even know the full gravity of his situation. Even the bullying towards officer Kyle (TC Matherne) got to me when it likely shouldn't have. I was also laughing when things got violent because again I couldn't believe it went there. Looking past the violence and the jokes, I've been able to have a soft spot for this lately because it creatively tells viewers you can break away from the people who don't care about you. It won't be easy, but there is no doubt it will be worth it once doing so. As long as you accept only you can control your life, you can pull it off. I was moved to see this message be captured through the most unlikely lead protagonist to behold. For over a century now, Renfield has always been looked at as one who let his selfishness lead to his downfall. Little would we all expect to see him have a chance to redeem himself. Nicholas Hoult shows him to be very conflicted he helped Dracula for so long just so he himself can survive as well. He knew he never needed him and should've found a way out sooner. But the time it took for him to pull it off show it's never too late for anyone to do so. The self help group was his inspiration to take a chance, whereas his newfound relationship with Rebecca reminded him doing good is better than breaking bad. So when the two teamed up against the Count, it was very satisfying because you sense the relief he has now regaining control of his life for the first time. Awkwafina definitely was a treat when playing Rebecca because you respect how vocal she chooses to be about how she feels. Anger is the only thing that drives her to do right by the city she chooses to protect since her father was killed by the Lobos. She got along with Renfield so fast because both understood how important it is to make a difference. What he taught her in return is that patience is a virtue, which is exactly what it took for her to put Bellafrancecsa behind bars once and for all. Now that she attends the self help group with Renfield now, I'm sure they'll have more adventures together, whether or not vampires are a factor. Casting an actor to play Dracula is a challenge because the standards have always been high ever since Bela Lugosi crafted perfection to the original character. Knowing this, it felt like jackpot when Nicolas Cage made the role his own. He doesn't outdo what he did in Vampire's Kiss, but instead outcages himself here and the makeup/costume design combo benefits him big time here. The big difference he has from Lugosi is that he dismisses the charm and focuses on being pure cruel to get the message clear he doesn't care about anyone but himself. He didn't have to manipulate Renfield to turn him into a familiar, but did just that to keep him around for so long. Once he was on his own, he was confident enough to trust the Lobos to help him get what he wanted. But of all things, he should've known better than anyone it is never easy to get a replacement to whoever did it best. Since Renfield and Quincy went out of their way to ensure it's harder for him to never come back, I would like to hope it doesn't because the last thing we need is a vampiric dictator. But if he does return with whatever kind of miracle, I'm sure the protagonists will find another way to stop him. Dracula may have been the villain, but he wasn't the only one who got my attention. While Bellafrancesca was the brains of her family organization, it's clear she wanted Teddy to become the muscle. But if Ben Schwartz proved anything in hilarious fashion, he was far from that. The whole time, he was trying and failing miserably to be the toughest guy in the room and it was too fun for us to watch. I mean he was willing to snitch before his lawyer would take back what he said. The lengths he has to go to show any kind of potential proves how weak he is deep down. He went so low that he thought being Dracula's bitch would be an upgrade. I'm sorry, but I can never get through the rest of the movie where he got so excited to introduce him to his mom that he pretends to bite on her neck like he is a vampire. At that point, he couldn't have any better of a demise when Renfield punched him so hard he shat blood. Since I call this movie better than anticipated, it didn't surprise me finding a handful of issues that bothered me. For instance, how come the vampire hunters were the last of their kind? It's kinda bullshit they wouldn't train proteges because whether or not Dracula's around, there are still vampires out there to go after. I know it's part of Teddy's character to be an idiot, but it's so painful at least twice. Because for one, he is too lucky to survive pressuring his neck in time after Renfield after stabbed him with a fork. And on the other hand, he could've lunged while shooting at Casey with his new powers. Hell, he even could've zipped up the bag containing the coke because there was no K9 at the checkpoint. I'm just saying he could've made things a little easier for himself. All of that was dumber than him choosing to take off his mask when attacking the restaurant. I was even thrown off on how calm his mom was to meet Dracula. Even if they had the same goal of domination, she should be a little more shook of what she's encountering. It's also a given for Renfield to make mistakes because he's bound to put himself in trouble, but there's a few here I had a hard time tolerating. Like I don't understand why he would tell the assassin he was a friend to Caitlyn because even if he was bound to kill the guy, he is still putting her in danger. He also could've ran for it at the front because he had the speed to pull it off. And I don't even get why he didn't have a stash of bugs in his apartment. I know he wants to cut himself off from Dracula, but it's hard to believe he'd quickly let go of such a convenience so suddenly. I give Rebecca a lot of credit for being self aware for the majority of the film, but she messes up thinking Carl needed to go outside to call it in. If she knew her whole station was corrupted, she should've not left him out as a suspect. I know the little things can get you caught, so it was smart for Rebecca to narrow down going to the Mulates restaurant after finding Renfield’s pen. My problem is how come he never went back to cover his tracks? If the restaurant was near the crime scene, I’m sure he could’ve had time to do so. It was cute for Renfield to give an ant for the kids’ ant farm, but I’m so thrown off on how the mom doesn’t find it odd of an offer. We know Renfield means well, but it’s such a random act of kindness that I would flinch if it was me. At least she freaked out seeing the guy eat the whole damn farm.And I really don't want to get too technical, but how the hell is it possible for a 'Welcome' mat count to invite vampires? It's a random gag that's funny at first, but it doesn't make sense to me to be honest. Another thing that bothered me is how Kate has her phone on speaker when talking to Rebecca after telling her to keep her guard up over corrupt coworkers. That’s like setting yourself up there and I’m surprised that didn’t lead to the Lobos getting abducting her. Other than that this is still a bloody good time. In short, Renfield is easily an underrated film from 2023 for finding joy in the most unconventional manner. If you dig horror comedies, I hope you can give this a chance.
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