Nicolas Cage's Dracula Film Renfield Hits All The Vampire Tropes
Stories of vampires have long fascinated humanity. The idea of a supernatural being that appears as a human at first glance but requires blood to sustain itself makes for fantastic stories, which can straddle genres ranging from horror to comedy and everything in-between. Some folk stories invoke a blood-drinking murderer like Vlad the Impaler or Elizabeth Bathory from centuries ago, though these days vampires can take many different forms. From HBO's romantic drama "True Blood," the "Twilight" franchise, the butt-kicking "Blade" movies, the dry comedy of the television series "What We Do in the Shadows," or even the greatly maligned "Morbius" movie, recent years have brought us a wide range of children of the night.
The upcoming film "Renfield," set to release on April 14, is yet another take on vampire lore. Starring Nicolas Cage, Nicholas Hoult, Awkwafina, and Ben Schwartz, "Renfield" focuses on Renfield (Hoult), one of the most famous minions of Dracula (Cage), introduced in Bram Stoker's classic novel. As one can tell from the trailer, the movie looks at the dynamic between Dracula and Renfield through the lens of modern "toxic relationship" discourse. Despite the comedic twists, however, astute fans of the vampire genre will notice that "Renfield" packs in references to other iconic bloodsucker stories.
Renfield is full of vampire lore and references
The trailer starts off with Renfield, aiming to get out of his toxic relationship with Dracula, showing up to a group support meeting looking rather disheveled. It's eventually revealed that Renfield can tap into incredible powers by ingesting insects, not unlike his counterpart in the pages of Stoker's book. Renfield can also hear Dracula's thoughts, a connection Dracula uses to issue commands to his servant. Needless to say, the "Renfield" movie borrows fairly liberally from the original story and characters.
In addition, several other vampire tropes are front and center throughout the trailer for "Renfield," including the vampire rule that says that they cannot enter a location unless invited in. Chances are, there will be more of these types of examples when the movie premieres, and most people can probably rattle off a few vampire rules and regulations off the top of their heads — vampires can be killed with a wooden stake, are weak to sunlight and holy symbols, cannot cross moving water, and do not cast a reflection.
"Renfield" also offers a clever nod to Anne Rice's "Vampire Chronicles" by featuring the skyline of New Orleans, which is where many of her books take place. One of the scenes is even set in a real life New Orleans restaurant called Mulates. We can't promise you'll see Louis or Lestat pop by, but "Renfield" is clearly shaping up to be an interesting romp through vampire lore.