Vampires have been a cornerstone of modern horror literature since 1819 and cinema since 1913.
That being said, almost all of the works focus on a main head vampire doing rotten and evil things before finally being slain by humans or disappearing into the night.
Overall, I found the movie pretty entertaining in its irreverence for old-school horror expectations and its use of comedy to brighten an otherwise dark and gory ride.
In fact, this take is reminiscent of Taika Waititi’s vampire mockumentary “What We Do in the Shadows” (2014).
The film stars Nicholas Hoult, Awkwafina, Ben Schwartz, Adrian Martinez, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Camille Chen, and Nicolas Cage.
It’s 93 minutes long and rated R for bloody violence, some gore, language throughout, and some drug use.
In the early 20th century, Transylvanian vampire Count Dracula (Cage) meets English lawyer R.M. Renfield (Hoult).
Renfield hopes to broker a deal for some land, but ends up becoming Dracula’s familiar.
After killing Renfield, and being killed himself by Van Helsing, Dracula reforms himself and elects to resurrect Renfield to continue serving as his assistant.
Ninety years later, Renfield relies on the superhuman strength and agelessness Dracula gave him through regularly eating bugs.
Dracula has recently had a close call with some vampire hunters who almost killed him, so the duo moves to New Orleans to recuperate.
There, Renfield discovers a 12-step self-help group for persons in co-dependent relationships and plans to hunt out the group’s abusive lovers so he can kill and give to Dracula to feast on without feeling remorse.
On following one to a warehouse with stolen drugs, Renfield is confronted by several criminals before they are all attacked by an assassin hired by the rival Lobo crime family.
After killing the assassin, Renfield unsuccessfully attempts to hunt down the man who hired him, Teddy Lobo (Schwartz), who drives off in a hurry.
That leads to a weakened Renfield dragging the corpses back to Dracula’s lair i.00n the basement of the dilapidated Charity Hospital.
Teddy runs into a sobriety checkpoint that is run by Rebecca Quincy (Awkwafina), a second-generation police officer, who arrests Teddy after he hurls bricks of cocaine at her.
At the police station, Teddy is released from custody by corrupt police officers, while Rebecca has a confrontation with her sister Kate (Chen), an FBI agent.
Dracula tells Renfield that the criminals he has brought as food are insufficient and that the vampire desires the blood of someone pure and innocent instead.
Renfield goes to a restaurant to abduct commoners while Rebecca is also led there by clues from the crime scene.
The two are caught in an attack on Rebecca’s life that Teddy has been pressured into making so that the fierce reputation of the Lobos will be re-established.
Instead, Renfield and Rebecca defend themselves, killing several gang members and leading Teddy to escape.
Teddy’s mother, Bellafrancesca (Aghdashloo), orders him to hunt down the man who killed her footsoldiers and he ends up encountering Dracula when Renfield is away.
Unfortunately, that also means that the villains form a team and are going to make Renfield’s new attempt at freedom a lot harder than it needs to be.
There’s just something so epic about a full-fledged fight scene between gang members, corrupt cops, and the good guys that can only be appreciated on the big screen – so don’t miss your chance to catch ‘Renfield’ in theaters now!
