Renfield

Renfield is a 2023 American horror comedy film directed by Chris McKay from a screenplay by Ryan Ridley, based on an original idea by Robert Kirkman. The film stars Nicholas Hoult as Renfield, a henchman to Count Dracula who decides to leave his line of work after falling in love. Nicolas Cage, Awkwafina, Ben Schwartz, and Adrian Martinez also co-star.
Renfield was released in the United States on April 14, 2023 by Universal Pictures.
== Premise==
Count Dracula's lackey Renfield finds a new lease on life in modern day New Orleans when he falls in love with Rebecca Quincy, a feisty but perennially aggressive traffic cop.
==Plot==
In the early 20th century, the Transylvanian vampire Count Dracula meets the English lawyer R. M. Renfield, who becomes his familiar after a failed land deal. However, Renfield is killed by Dracula and subsequently resurrected by the vampire to continue serving him.
Ninety years later, Renfield relies on the supernatural abilities bestowed upon him by Dracula, including superhuman strength and agelessness obtained by consuming bugs. Following a close call with vampire hunters, Dracula and Renfield relocate to New Orleans to recover. There, Renfield discovers a support group for individuals in co-dependent relationships and plans to target their abusive partners to provide sustenance for Dracula without remorse.
While tracking one of the abusive lovers to a warehouse, Renfield is confronted by a group of criminals who are then attacked by an assassin hired by the rival Lobo crime family. After killing the assassin, Renfield fails to capture the man responsible, Teddy Lobo. Weakened, Renfield brings the corpses back to Dracula's lair in the basement of Charity Hospital. Teddy encounters a sobriety checkpoint run by Rebecca Quincy, a police officer, who arrests him after he throws cocaine bricks at her. However, Teddy is released by corrupt officers, while Rebecca has a tense encounter with her sister Kate, an FBI agent.
Dracula informs Renfield that the criminals he brought as food are inadequate and desires the blood of someone pure and innocent instead. Renfield plans to abduct ordinary people from a restaurant while Rebecca independently investigates the crime scene. Both Renfield and Rebecca find themselves targeted in an attack orchestrated by Teddy to restore the Lobos' reputation. However, they defend themselves and escape, causing Teddy to flee.
Teddy's mother, Bellafrancesca, orders him to hunt down the person responsible for killing her henchmen. During Renfield's absence, Teddy encounters Dracula, and they form an alliance. Meanwhile, Renfield embraces the teachings of his support group and strives to establish a new life away from his master. He even assists the police by providing a statement to help stop the Lobos. However, Dracula discovers Renfield's betrayal and ruthlessly kills the members of the support group in front of him.
Rebecca arrives at the scene and finds Renfield amidst the carnage, leading her to arrest him. Corrupt police officers and the Lobos surround them, seeking revenge on Renfield. Rebecca refuses to hand him over and narrowly escapes with his help. The next day, Rebecca realizes that Renfield saved her life and learns about his true origins. He expresses his desire for redemption and reform. Together, they fight against corrupt officers and decide to confront the Lobos at their headquarters, only to discover that Dracula has bestowed supernatural abilities upon several gang members, including Teddy.
After a fierce battle, Renfield kills Teddy, while Rebecca confronts Dracula to find her sister Kate gravely injured. Dracula offers his healing blood to save Kate in exchange for Rebecca's loyalty. However, Rebecca outwits Dracula, leading to a final showdown between Renfield, Rebecca, and the vampire. They manage to capture Dracula within a magical circle.
Renfield and Rebecca dismantle Dracula's body, collect his healing blood, and scatter the remains across the water system, potentially destroying him or making it extremely difficult for him to reform. Renfield later resurrects his support group friends, feeling empowered to create a new life for himself.
==Cast==
* Nicholas Hoult as Renfield, the long-suffering servant of Dracula.
* Awkwafina as Rebecca Quincy, an aggressive traffic cop working for the New Orleans Police Department and Renfield's love interest.
* Ben Schwartz as Teddy, a mob enforcer and Bellafrancesca's son
* Adrian Martinez as Chris, a traffic cop and Rebecca's co-worker.
* Shohreh Aghdashloo as Bellafrancesca, a matriarch mob boss and Teddy's mother.
* Nicolas Cage as Dracula, a legendary Transylvanian vampire and Renfield's ill-tempered and narcissistic boss.
* Brandon Scott Jones as Mark, a support group leader
* Jenna Kanell as Carol, a support group member
* Bess Rous as Caitlyn, a support group member
* Camille Chen as Kate, an FBI agent and Rebecca's sister.
* James Moses Black as Captain Browning
* Caroline Williams as Vanessa
* William Ragsdale as Older Priest
* Miles Doleac as Vampire Hunter 
==Production==
===Development===
In July 2014, Universal Pictures announced its plan to reboot the "Classic Monsters" franchise and its properties, including the character of Count Dracula, as part of a shared universe known as the Dark Universe, with Alex Kurtzman and Chris Morgan attached to oversee its development. After the negative reception of Dracula Untold (2014), its connections to the shared universe were downplayed, and The Mummy (2017) was re-positioned as the first film in the series. The Mummy then proved to be a critical and commercial failure, resulted in Universal's decision to shift its focus on individual storytelling and move away from the shared universe concept.
Renfield is based on an original pitch by Robert Kirkman and uses a screenplay by Ryan Ridley. In November 2019, Dexter Fletcher was hired to direct the film for Universal and Skybound Entertainment. The film was described as a comedic approach to the story of Count Dracula in the vein of Taika Waititi's vampire mockumentary What We Do in the Shadows (2014) that focused on the character of Renfield. In 2020, Leigh Whannell's The Invisible Man became a commercial and critical success for Universal and served as a relaunch to its monster universe. In April 2021, Chris McKay entered negotiations to direct after Fletcher left to work on a reboot of The Saint for Paramount Pictures. McKay was hired because he reportedly gave a successful pitch combining the story's mix of humor and action, "something the studio was looking to have more of".
===Casting===
Nicholas Hoult was cast as the title character in August 2021. Nicolas Cage was cast to play Count Dracula in November, Awkwafina and Ben Schwartz were added to the cast in December, and Adrian Martinez, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Bess Rous, James Moses Black, Caroline Williams, and Brandon Scott Jones were confirmed to star the following year. An "enormous" fan of Dracula and the source material, Cage prepared for his role by observing the distinctive ways Dracula was portrayed on screen by Bela Lugosi, Frank Langella, and Gary Oldman. "What can I bring that will be different?", he said, "I want it to pop in a unique way. We've seen it played well, we've seen it play not so well, so what can we do? So I'm thinking to really focus on the movement of the character ... [and] that perfect tone of comedy and horror". Cage mentioned An American Werewolf in London (1981), Ringu (1998), and Malignant (2021) as inspirations for the role. The film will mark Cage's first live-action film by a major studio since Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2011).
===Filming===
Filming began in New Orleans on February 3, 2022, with Mitchell Amundsen serving as cinematographer. On February 8, over twenty vehicles belonging to the production crew were burglarized. One security guard was present at the time of the incident, which occurred late at night in a secured parking lot. Crew member Elmo Peoples said the vandals had stolen his insurance papers, two bank cards, and a laptop. He added, "I'm supposed to be here all week and I don't even want to come back because I feel like they don't really care about us as much as the main characters or actors." Love Bugs Film LLC reassured the production crew that they would hire additional security. Filming wrapped on April 14, 2022, exactly one year prior to the film's scheduled release.
==Release==
Renfield had its world premiere at the Overlook Film Festival on March 30, 2023 and was released in theaters on April 14, 2023, by Universal Pictures.
====Video game====
Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, a video game based on the film, was developed by Mega Cat Studios, published by Skybound Games and released on April 12, 2023, for Microsoft Windows. Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood is a bullet hell roguelite game.
==Reception==
=== Box office ===
, Renfield has grossed $8.1 million in the United States and Canada, and $2 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $10.1 million.
In the United States and Canada, Renfield was released alongside The Pope's Exorcist, Mafia Mamma, Sweetwater, and Suzume, and was projected to gross $8–10 million from 3,375 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $3.1 million on its first day, including $900,000 from Thursday night previews. It went on to debut to $8.1 million, finishing fourth behind The Super Mario Bros. Movie, The Pope's Exorcist, and John Wick: Chapter 4.
===Critical response===
Rotten Tomatoes reports a 58% approval rating out of 212 reviews from critics, with an 5.8/10 average rating. The site's consensus reads "Although it fails to take full advantage of its committed stars and killer premise, Renfields batty horror-comedy blend sinks in just enough to leave an impression." Metacritic assigns the film a score of 53 out of 100 based on 46 reviews, reporting "Mixed or average reviews".
Tim Robey of The Daily Telegraph gave the film 3/5 stars, writing, "It fulfils the basic requirements of a beat-'em-up formula established by Buffy and Blade, but that's it. To get any further, we'd have wanted a real sharpening of the emotional stakes." Amy Nicholson of The Wall Street Journal wrote, "The small gags are great, the overall story arc is weak—particularly a quasi-romantic subplot where a cop (Awkwafina) challenges Renfield to turn from heel to hero", and gave the film a B grade.
Kevin Maher of The Times gave the film a score of 2/5, calling it "a gore-splattered, consistently tiresome, one-joke movie that could only have been pitched in a Hollywood development meeting as, you know, 'It's f***in' Dracula!'" Alison Willmore of Vulture praised the film's premise, but said it had "maybe a comedy sketch's worth of ideas to stretch over a feature-length run time." ABC News's Peter Travers wrote, "what started as a clever, contemporary spin on the Dracula myth gets swallowed up into a quicksand of cartoonishly repetitive, R-rated action cliches that make Renfield seem too long at a scant 93 minutes."
===Audience response===
Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B–" on an A+ to F scale, while those polled by PostTrak gave it an 86% positive score.
==Videos==
Renfield - Official Trailer
Renfield - Final Trailer
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