Film / Renfield (2023)

Stop serving. Start living.

"Hello. My name is Robert Montague Renfield. And just like all these decent folks, I am in a destructive relationship."

Renfield is a 2023 action horror comedy film based upon the character from Bram Stoker's classic gothic horror novel Dracula. It is directed by Chris McKay, produced and based off an idea by Robert Kirkman, and stars Nicholas Hoult, Awkwafina, Adrian Martinez, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Ben Schwartz, and Nicolas Cage.

Set in modern-day New Orleans, the film follows Robert Montague Renfield (Hoult), now disillusioned from decades of playing familiar to the narcissistic Count Dracula (Cage). But when a chance encounter with badass cop Rebecca Quincy (Awkwafina) gives him a taste of life beyond servitude to history's most feared vampire, he sets out to find a way to end his co-dependent relationship with his master.

And you thought you had a sucky boss.

The film was released on April 14, 2023. Notably, it is the first of two 2023 films by Universal based around Dracula, the second being The Last Voyage of the Demeter. It was spun off from an idea gestating around The Dark Universe, the first attempt at a reboot.

Previews: Trailer 1, Trailer 2

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Renfield Includes the following tropes:

• Abandoned Hospital: Dracula's lair is hidden inside the Charity Hospital, already a Real Life example of this trope.
• Actor Allusion:
  • This wouldn't be the first time Cage had played a Mean Boss vampire, having played Peter Loew — a crazed, abusive yuppie who thought he was turning into a vampire (maybe) — in Vampire's Kiss. Ironically, Peter Loew was himself a modernized example of The Renfield.
  • The trailer ends with the twist that Nicolas Cage is playing Dracula, which feels very similar to the (fictitious) trailer for Werewolf Women of the SS (featured in Grindhouse), where Nicolas Cage plays Fu Manchu.
• Adaptational Badass: Renfield in the novel Dracula was an insane human who was kept incarcerated in an asylum most of the time. This version has superhuman powers and is capable of trouncing multiple opponents at the same time.
• Adaptational Personality Change: Many adaptations of Dracula would portray Renfield as a incredibly deranged and excitable lunatic. In this film, he is more of a passive and meek partner who feels trapped in an abusive relationship.
• Adaptational Protagonist: Renfield is a Horror Comedy movie based on Dracula, that surprisingly brings to the spotlight a lesser character of the book: Renfield, Dracula's sycophantic familiar. Renfield focuses on the master-servant/slave relationship between the vampire lord and The Renfield, but from the point of view of the latter, and how such a relationship can be psychologically detrimental to the familiar, who is exploited by his master.
• Admiring the Abomination: Mandy Lobo, a Lobo family underling who is revealed in a deleted scene to be Teddy's younger sister, applauds like a fangirl when she sees Renfield butcher Lobo family thugs at his apartment.
• Age Lift: The Renfield of the original story was 59 years old when he fell under Dracula's power. This version of Renfield appears much younger (Nicholas Hoult was 33 during filming). The film takes cues from the classic 1931 movie Dracula, where Renfield was played by the similarly aged Dwight Frye.
• Ambition Is Evil: While Dracula seemed content with simply traveling and eating people throughout the years, Renfield inadvertently gives him the idea to take over the world, joining the Lobo Crime Family being his first step in world domination.^note Then again, it was implied that Dracula's ultimate goal was world domination in the original book, too. According to Renfield's narration, this has always been a Fatal Flaw of his; every time he returns to full power, he can't help but go on a rampage, which just draws vampire hunters to his location and sets him back to square one.
• And This Is for...: When he prepares to kill Mitchell, Doug, and their friends and bring them to Dracula for feeding, Renfield introduces himself as "a friend of Caitlyn's," meaning it as a Pre-Asskicking One-Liner. They're not too intimidated until they see Renfield in action.
• Anti-Hero: By his own admission, Renfield isn't much of a hero, having delivered victims to Dracula for years. However, he's totally disgusted with himself and what he's become, tries to steer Dracula towards people who deserve it, and only sticks around because Dracula's trapped him in a codependent and abusive relationship that he's too scared to leave. The second he starts to believe there is a way he can move forward without the Count, he takes it gladly. He's still pretty vicious with his fighting, but he fights for the right reason.
  Neighbor: (watching Renfield eat her son's ant farm) You're a bad man, Mr. Renfield!
  Renfield: Sometimes, that comes in handy.
• Any Last Words?: Renfield and Rebecca ask Dracula if he has any last words after trapping him in the sacred circle. Dracula, knowing he's beaten, declares he's looking forward to spending a season in Hell, "Where the amusing people are." Then he throws up the horns and declares "HAIL SATAN!" before they cut him down.
• Asshole Victim: When choosing potential victims for Dracula, Renfield tries to ensure that he only selects horrible people who have hurt others. Unfortunately, according to Dracula at least, their low character has a detrimental effect on their blood’s flavour.
• Ax-Crazy: Teddy Lobo was already unstable, but once Dracula gives him vampiric power, he loses any humanity he previously exhibited and becomes an insane killing machine.
  • The Lobos as a whole have a reputation for this, as they make up for lacking the resources or territory of other major gangs by being unnecessarily cruel to their enemies and victims. Their headquarters' walls are adorned with countless weapons and torture tools.
• Back from the Dead: Renfield uses Dracula's blood to resurrect the support group that Dracula murdered. Mark, the support group leader, still has memories of the other side and is visibly disturbed by them.
• Bad Boss:
  • The main conflict of the film is that Renfield is stuck working under Dracula, a narcissist and literal monster who abuses and emotionally manipulates him, and he wants out of that relationship.
  • One member of the support group specifically empathizes with Renfield's comments about his boss being a monster, and accurately pinpoints how Dracula makes Renfield feel, "Like he could kill you with a snap of his fingers," implying that he, too, is there because of a toxic and abusive employer.
• The Bad Guys Are Cops: Aside from Rebecca, every officer at her precinct is either on the take from the Lobo gang or are too intimidated to go after them. Da Chief goes out of his way to shame Rebecca for challenging this status quo, and there are no other cops willing to go to bat for her. It crosses fully into this trope when it's revealed that all of the cops on the force are on the take, and they spend the rest of the movie trying to kill Rebecca and Renfield so they can't interfere with the Lobos anymore. Emphasis firmly on "try".
• Battle Couple: Renfield and Rebecca make a very effective team during the fight sequences.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Although Renfield is a likeable guy trying to get out of a bad relationship, he's still very good at kidnapping and murdering people for his master. When Teddy Lobo and his gang breaks into his and Dracula's hideout, they're horrified to discover the piles of corpses. Later, Rebecca's sister describes him as much worse than the Lobos, a prolific international serial killer who's been operating for decades.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: Dracula is naturally the main villain, but he's eventually joined by Bellafrancesa Lobo, who allies her crime family with the vampire so they can both Take Over the World.
• Big Bad Wannabe: Teddy Lobo desperately wants to be feared and respected as a gangster, but he's too much of a spineless tool to genuinely pull it off. He even fancies himself Dracula's partner, when really he's just The Renfield like Renfield was.
• The Big Easy: The main plot is set in New Orleans, and you can tell. Renfield uses the abandoned Charity Hospital as a hideout for Dracula, and Rebecca mentions Café du Monde while trying to set up a meeting with her sister.
• Blasting It Out of Their Hands: Rebecca shoots a knife out of a mobster's hand at one point.
• Bloody Hilarious: Almost every kill by Renfield is comically over the top with how much blood goes flying everywhere.
• Bond One-Liner: More of a Bond Villain one-liner when the police chief severs ties with the Lobos, saying he wants out, then leaves the room only for Teddy to tear his head off and send it back into the room.
  Teddy: Looks like he's back in.
• Book Ends: The film starts and ends with Renfield attending a support group meeting for people in abusive relationships. The first time, he's watching quietly from the sidelines. The second time, he's speaking openly about his experiences with Dracula and expressing happiness that he's able to start moving forward.
• Bring My Brown Pants: Renfield kicks Teddy so hard that he spews blood and violently shits himself.
• Butt-Monkey:
  • Carol, a support group member whose shares keep getting interrupted by Renfield.
  • Kyle who keeps being told "Fuck you, Kyle!"
• Card-Carrying Villain: Teddy Lobo outright identifies himself and his family's business as Evil in order to appeal to Dracula's contempt for the good guys.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • Dracula's blood has the power to heal wounds. Rebecca uses this to save Renfield's life during the Final Battle, and it's later used offscreen to resurrect Rebecca's sister and Renfield's support group.
  • The Lobo family's stash of cocaine. It's used to make the protective circle that finally stops Dracula, because the spell doesn't specify what sort of powder is required.
• Chewing the Scenery: It’s Nicolas Cage playing a comedic version of Dracula, this was inevitable.
• Church Militant: The Church has been sending out vampire hunters to kill Dracula for centuries. While they're no longer as prominent now (with the last official cell being killed some time ago), Dracula associates every church as a threat to him, including, sadly, the church where Renfield's support group meets.
• Composite Character: As in the 1931 film, Renfield's backstory is changed so that he was a British lawyer who came to help Dracula buy up land, much like Jonathan Harker. In fact, the opening scene is from the 1931 Dracula film, with Cage and Hoult's heads digitally inserted.
• Conservation of Ninjutsu: Renfield has far more trouble fighting Teddy than the rest of Dracula's new familiars. Justified given that Renfield's Hour of Power wore off during the fight.
• The Corrupter: The film plays up this aspect of Dracula's personality. Renfield outright says that the vampire's greatest power isn't supernatural, but his ability to bring out the worst in people and exploit their desires to bring them under his control. This is most blatantly seen with Teddy Lobo, who drops his previous apprehension towards violence and killing once he gets some of Dracula's power.
• Creative Closing Credits: The main cast and crew names are displayed on posters from the support group's meeting room. After that, the rest of the credits are laid over stylized film stock depicting events from the movie.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: A small army of corrupt cops and Lobo gunmen storm Renfield's apartment. Renfield and Rebecca kill all of them, so many that they form a literal pile of corpses and the actual Lobo headquarters has only a few defenders left. They get the edge for a bit because they've become familiars, but Renfield and Rebecca slaughter them all anyway.
• Cursed with Awesome: Being Dracula's familiar comes with a few perks — immortality, along with Super-Strength, Super-Speed and Super-Reflexes when eating bugs — but they are essentially Dracula's slaves for all of eternity. While there does seem to be some supernatural element to their thralldom, Teddy having to catch himself saying "the Master" when he means Dracula, it's implied that most of it is purely gaslighting and psychological manipulation. Renfield outright refers to it as a curse during the Final Battle.
• Decapitation Presentation: The first thing we see of Teddy Lobo's new superpowers is the police chief head he tears off and sends rolling into an open door.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: Renfield is this to...well, The Renfield. Renfield the character shows that a servant like him forcibly turned into a mindless henchman can, over time, be transformed into a disillusioned and passive partner in the middle of an abusive relationship.
• Deconstructive Parody: The film is a comedic take on the classic Bram Stoker Dracula novel. It deconstructs the very relationship between Dracula and his servant Renfield. The movie shows how the connection between a literal monster and someone he forcibly turns into his mindless henchman could become an abusive, emotionally manipulative, and co-dependent relationship over time. From that point on, the story is about Renfield breaking free from Dracula's control, adapting to modern times, forming a sincere relationship with someone, and learning he is enough, as himself, to be happy.
• Did Not Think This Through: Given that Renfield has been Dracula’s servant for the better part of a century and is therefore very familiar with Vampire lore, you have to wonder what possessed him to have a welcome mat at his apartment with an open invitation for anyone to enter.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: Mark, the last of the support group to die in the massacre, passes away in Renfield's arms.
• Dirty Cop: It is eventually revealed that just about every cop in Rebecca’s precinct, save for Rebecca herself, is on the Lobos’ payroll.
• Does Not Like Spam: Dracula prefers the blood of the pure of heart. Renfield is trying to assuage his guilt by capturing bad people and feeding them to his master. When Renfield drags a scuzzy drug dealer and the beheaded corpse of a contract killer to Dracula, he finally gets fed up.
  Dracula: Renfield, what is this?
  Renfield: Um... this is Doug.
  Dracula: DOUG IS TRASH.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Renfield's dynamic with Dracula is deliberately paralleled with an abusive romantic relationship.
  • Much of what Dracula does is textbook abusive boyfriend behavior, with physical violence, manipulation, coercion, and threats mixed in with meager Pet the Dog moments that keep Renfield hooked and thinking maybe, maybe Dracula can change and actually does care about him.
  • Renfield's description of their relationship is also very familiar to anyone who knows how these kinds of relationships tend to go: Dracula lured Renfield in with, essentially, lovebombing and grand gestures of kindness and generosity, before slowly revealing his true nature and becoming more controlling and exploitative. By the time Renfield realized what a bad situation this was for him, he was too reliant on and scared of Dracula to leave.
  • The scene where Dracula confronts Renfield at his new apartment is very reminiscent of an abusive boyfriend tracking down his ex after she dumps him and tries to start over elsewhere, with Renfield completely terrified of being lured back in and Dracula trying every trick in the book to bring Renfield back or, failing that, punish him for leaving.
  • To drive the point home, Caitlyn, the woman at the support group who is trying to recover from a breakup with her abusive ex-boyfriend, describes things similar to what Renfield goes through. Like Dracula, her ex convinced her it was them against the world to further isolate her and endear himself to her, and like Dracula, her ex got her on board with things she wouldn't have agreed to on her own. (Though in Renfield's case, it's murder. In Caitlyn's, it's listening to ska music.)
• Domestic Abuse: Several people at Renfield's support group are there because they were in a codependent and abusive relationship with their exes. Dracula and Renfield's relationship isn't portrayed as romantic, but the subtext is definitely there. And it's pointed out in-film that a relationship doesn't need to be romantic to be abusive and codependant.
• The Dreaded: The Lobo crime family are explicitly the top crime family in New Orleans because of how much they're feared, with Bellafrancesca stating the other families are larger and more powerful but still fear them, mostly due to their habit of Disproportionate Retribution.
• Enemy Mine: Dracula joins forces with the Lobos partially because they have a common enemy in Renfield since he killed their men and has turned his back on the Count.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Bellafrancesa Lobo doesn't think too highly of her son Teddy, but when he disappears after running into Dracula, she wastes no time mustering the entire New Orleans police force to help find him.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • Teddy and his associates think Apache Joe's nickname is racist. Not that they'd say it to his face.
  • In a more subtle example, Teddy is horrified when he finds the myriad blood bags and mutilated bodies in the abandoned hospital, not yet knowing he's in a vampire's lair.
  • Dracula himself asks that Renfield not "make it a sexual thing" when asked if he specifically wants female cheerleaders to feed on, showing that there are some things even Dracula finds too depraved.
• Evil Is Hammy: The obvious result of combining Nic Cage and Dracula, which results in much of the film's humor while at the same time not diminishing his menace.
• Exact Words: A protective circle has to be made with powder and the proper Latin words. Nowhere is it stated that a specific kind of powder has to be used. During the climax, Rebecca makes a protective circle out of cocaine.
• Exactly What I Aimed At: In the final battle, Renfield is downed and Dracula has Rebecca by the throat and gun hand while hovering overhead. The most Rebecca can do is put some bullets through Dracula's foot… and drip his blood onto Renfield.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: Renfield tries to talk Teddy out of working with Dracula by saying he'll just become Dracula's slave like he did. Teddy starts to blow him off, saying that his master would… and then he stops the thought there, realizing what he just said.
• Eye Scream: At one point, Renfield rips the eyeballs out of a cop's face.
• Face Death with Dignity:
  • When Teddy offers to spare Rebecca's life if she admits that his family owns her, just like they own the city, she instead irritably tells him to Get It Over With.
  • Once Dracula realizes that he's already lost, he tells them how he's looking forward to meeting all of the "amusing people" in Hell and screams a defiant "Hail Satan!" right before Renfield strikes the killing blow.
• Facial Horror: Renfield tears the skin off a cop's face in gory detail.
• Famed In-Story: Everyone seems to know who Dracula is, though it's not clear from what, since they've never heard of Renfield.
• Foil: He may be an Unknown Rival, but Teddy Lobo does function as a foil to Renfield. Both men are stuck in a master/servant relationship with a domineering, abusive authority figure: Renfield has Dracula, and Teddy has his mother. Neither of them seem fully comfortable with the violent acts they're expected to carry out, either. But while Renfield decides he's had enough and breaks away from his master to live life on his own terms, Teddy's desire for outside approval leads him from one toxic relationship right into another. Once he becomes a familiar like Renfield was, he revels in his newfound capacity for bloodshed and decides that having power is worth the cost of his soul.
• Fun with Acronyms: The support group Renfield attends is called DRAAG (Dependent Relationship Addiction Anonymous Group).
• A God Am I: Dracula openly compares his abilities to a God, part of his ambitions for world domination being based off of this inflated sense of self.
• Grievous Harm with a Body: Renfield dismembers the mooks coming for him and uses one guy's arms as nunchucks.
• Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: Justified in that Renfield has superhuman abilities which make him a formidable brawler while Rebecca’s police training gives her proficiency in firearms.
• Half the Man He Used to Be: Renfield jumps off the top floor of his apartment and stomps on a mook right down to the bottom floor, smashing his body in half in a squeamish sequence.
• Heal It with Blood: Dracula's blood has healing properties. We see him use it to heal a disemboweled Renfield instantly, Rebecca heals a dying Renfield by shooting Drac through the foot, and they manage to salvage enough blood to revive not just Kate, but also the support group Dracula had killed midway through the film.
• Healing Factor: Dracula's fangs grow back almost immediately after Renfield rips them out.
• Heel Realization: Sort of, since Renfield is already aware that he's a bad person working for a murderous vampire. He spends the entire film blaming Dracula for his actions and leaving his family, and while he is trapped in an abusive relationship with the vampire, Dracula points out that Renfield left his family due to his own moral weakness and desire for a better life. Renfield later admits to Rebecca that Dracula was right, that he chose to leave his family of his own free will, at which point he becomes more determined to actually stop Dracula.
• Hope Spot: After Renfield manages to open up to the support group, minus the "vampire" bit, his life takes a definite upturn. He becomes closer with Rebecca and makes friends with his fellow support group attendees, gets his own apartment, is well-liked by his neighbors, changes up his wardrobe, decorates his home in bright and cheerful colors and affirmations, starts educating himself on the abuse he's suffered and how to heal from it, and overall begins to thrive in his new life. Then Dracula finds him.
• I Have Many Names: Invoked when Dracula crashes Renfield's support group.
  Dracula: Some call me the Dark One, others the Lord of Death. To most, I am known simply as-
  Support group member: Renfield's boss!
  Dracula: (Death Glare) I… am… Dracula.
• Humans Are Insects: Dracula describes humanity is being a planet populated exclusively by "Renfields" (weak, submissive cattle) and sees them as nothing more than people to kill and enslave at his leisure.
• Ignored Epiphany: Teddy appears to go through one of these when he instinctively refers to Dracula as "Master" during his battle with Renfield, proving that he's just the vampire's slave like his enemy was. He refuses to believe it, and his persistence in fighting Renfield only gets him killed.
• Impaled Palm: Renfield prevents Dracula from biting into Rebecca by covering his mouth with both hands. Dracula just grows his fangs longer until they punch right through.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: While fighting mobsters and corrupt cops, Renfield impales two with the arms he tore off a third.
• Implied Love Interest: Renfield is obviously very taken with Rebecca, and she's implied to like him back, but they never kiss or explicitly discuss their feelings, and the epilogue doesn't confirm or deny that they're now together.
• Knight of Cerebus: While he's not without his humorous moments, the tone of the movie tends to become more serious when Count Dracula gets involved.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: When Bellafrancesa Lobo is arrested at the end, she goes quietly, having lost all of her goons and any backing from Dracula. She simply gives a dignified "Touche" when Rebecca quips her own words back at her.
• Last-Name Basis: Although Renfield gives his full name multiple times to multiple characters (Robert Montague Renfield), no one in the movie ever uses anything but his last name.
• Leitmotif: While it's very subtle, a rendition of an excerpt from Act II of Swan Lake (the main theme of the 1931 film) can be heard when Dracula enters a room. This is made more blunt in a Missing Trailer Scene which shows a Swan Lake record propped against a wall in their current hideout.
• Literal Metaphor: At the end of their confrontation, an empowered Renfield kicks a newly-turned Teddy so hard in the solar plexus that it violently empties out his bowels before dying. In other words, he literally kicked the shit out of him.
• Looks Like Cesare: Nicolas Cage's Dracula, as seen in the trailer, is the classic pale-with-sunken-eyes archetype.
• Ludicrous Gibs: And how. Every action sequence plays up the destructive nature of Renfield's powers for all they're worth, leading to copious amounts of blood and viscera.
• Manipulative Bastard: Dracula's worst ability isn't any of his supernatural powers, but his natural ability to get into a person's head and prey on their greatest vulnerabilities, which is what led to his toxic relationship with Renfield.
• Mentor Occupational Hazard: Mark, the leader of the support group, is killed by Dracula, though he and the rest of the support group are brought back by Dracula's blood later.
• Milking the Giant Cow: Rebecca’s hands will not stay lower than her shoulders in any given scene. Not even when one of her shoulders is injured.
• Missing Steps Plan: Dracula's new plan to take over the world is to find more people like Renfield to use… and that's it. He seems to think that it'll just put itself together once that's done. Getting together with the Lobo crime family is a step, at least.
• Moody Trailer Cover Song: The Red Band trailer manages to do this with the already moody "Creep".
• Must Be Invited: Dracula arrives at the support group Renfield has been attending right as he's trying to get them all to leave. Renfield has a Big "NO!" as the group leader invites Dracula inside.
  • Played With in an earlier scene, where Dracula confronts Renfield at the latter's apartment. He's able to get in before Renfield because of the "Welcome! Come on in!" mat in front of the door.
• Mythology Gag:
  • One to the original Dracula novel. Rebecca's father is named Morris Quincy, a reference to Quincey Morris, an American cowboy and one of Lucy Westenra's suitors from Dracula who helped defeat the Count. (Ironically a character Adapted Out by most film adaptations of the novel.)
  • The circumstances of Renfield meeting Dracula and falling under his control are presented as an extended reference to how Dracula (1931) depicted these same events. Several key shots from the 1931 film are even recreated with Nicholas Hoult and Nicolas Cage in place of Dwight Frye and Bela Lugosi. Likewise, they play music from Swan Lake, which is a shout-out to the fact the music was used for the opening credits in the 1931 movie.
  • Nicolas Cage's mannerisms as Dracula are all explicitly based on Christopher Lee's Dracula (though if you know what to look for, you can spot quite a bit of Lugosi and especially Langella in his performance, as well).
  • When monologuing to Teddy, Dracula's offers of power are mixed with the popular image of Vlad the Impaler, with Dracula repeatedly offering to impale their enemies.
  • The Lobo family, particularly when their gunmen attack wearing wolf masks, are echoes of the wolves that surrounded Castle Dracula in the original book and film.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Renfield dearly regrets saving Dracula's life from vampire hunters all those years ago, since it led to many more innocent deaths. He also has this reaction to the support group's deaths by Dracula's hands, since Dracula only found and targeted them because they were Renfield's friends. Fortunately, he's able to resurrect them later.
• Named by the Adaptation: The title character is known only as "R. M. Renfield" in the original book. His first two names are given for this adaptation as Robert Montague.
• Narcissist: The film very blatantly diagnoses Dracula as one, from his delusions of grandeur to making Renfield do everything for him (either because he is incapable or simply can't be bothered) and hoisting the moral burden onto him when he starts to rebel. Just the fact that he has his familiars call him "Master" is proof enough, really.
• Nepotism: It is blatantly obvious that the only reason Teddy is highly ranked in the Lobos is that he's the boss's son, though he is fairly well-liked within the gang, with members even offering to kill Rebecca for him because of his clear reluctance.
• Never My Fault: When he finds out that Renfield has been doing good deeds with the powers he gave him, Dracula re-frames himself as the injured party in their toxic relationship, pointing out that they had only met because Renfield wanted to exploit him and it was Renfield's own moral weakness that led to him being his servant. When Renfield resists further, he marks the support group for death and then declares that his future campaign of death is Renfield's fault for his insolence.
  Renfield: I deserve happiness.
  Dracula: Let me explain something to you, okay? You deserve only suffering!
• Not Afraid of You Anymore: During the final battle, Renfield recites his support group's affirmation while delivering a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown to Dracula and declaring that the vampire only has power because of him, which he's taking back.
• Odd Name, Normal Nickname: Ted Lobo's full name is "Tedward."
• Off with His Head!:
  • Renfield accidentally punches Apache Joe's head off while fighting him.
  • Teddy shows off his new powers to his mother by beheading the New Orleans police chief.
• Oh, Crap!: Teddy's goes from casually accepting to quietly panicking when he hears his mother specifically wants to meet him downstairs in the Torture Cellar, realizing she's clearly pissed at him.
• Older Than They Look: Renfield has not aged since he became Dracula's servant in the early 1930s. He accidentally mentions fighting in "the Great War" when he meets Rebecca.
• One Dialogue, Two Conversations: Renfield shows up to kidnap Mitchell, Caitlyn's abusive ex-boyfriend, and feed him to Dracula, but Mitchell and his friends assume he's a mob hitman sent to kill them for stealing the Lobos' cocaine.
• Our Vampires Are Different:
  • Dracula in this movie is more of a classic movie vampire, complete with the power to shapeshift into smoke or a swarm of bats, but also has an entire mouthful of razor-sharp teeth like more modern portrayals.
  • It's implied that the difference between whether Dracula turns someone into another vampire or just a familiar is based on how much of his power he chooses to imbue them with. How exactly he does this in the first place is never really explained. For one thing, one of the traditional methods of turning someone, drinking a vampire's blood, instead just heals their injuries with no apparent side effects.
  • Lampshaded in the epilogue: there's so much conflicting lore about how to permanently kill a vampire, that Renfield and Rebecca decide to just try everything (and even then, Renfield admits he's still not sure this will be permanent).
• Pay Evil unto Evil: Renfield tries to ease his conscience about finding victims for Dracula by targeting the Support Group's abusive partners. This doesn't get him very far, since Dracula favors "pure" victims and it gets the attention of the Lobo Crime-Family.
• Picky People Eater: Dracula, of course, favors blood but specifically prefers the blood of morally pure people. This conflicts with Renfield's desire to only feed him evil people.
• Please Spare Him, My Liege!: Renfield begs Dracula not to hurt the support group, saying they're good people. Unfortunately, that just makes Dracula want to kill them even more, as the blood of good people tastes better to him. Plus, the fact that they're dear to Renfield and provide him with a support system and a life outside of Dracula is the precise reason Dracula wants them gone. Isolating the victim from anyone who wants to help them and preventing them from making connections with others is Domestic Abuser 101.
• Police Are Useless: Both the New Orleans police and the FBI are shown to be utterly useless in handling both the Lobos crime family and the reappearance of Dracula. Justified in both cases as Dracula is quite the Outside-Context Problem and the entire police department is on the Lobos' payroll.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: The assassin Renfield fights in the beginning of the movie while trying to get Mitchell is named "Apache Joe", according to Teddy while calling an associate. The friend makes a point on how racist it is for a presumably White hitman to name himself after a Native American tribe, but as Teddy points out, the man is a behemoth with a tendency slice out the tongues of his victims with a hunting knife, so any attempts to say so are done at one's own risk.
• Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure: While everyone seems to know who Dracula is, nobody ever makes the connection to the name Renfield despite him never using an alias. That said, Renfield is seldom the focus of past versions of the Dracula tale (the most focus he ever got was in a parody)!
• "Pop!" Goes the Human: How Dracula kills the priest by making him explode into pieces.
• Power Nullifier: The primary function of the protective circle shown in the prologue. Our heroes finally deal with Dracula by making a new one out of cocaine.
• Pre-Asskicking One-Liner:
  • Renfield utters this one just before putting the hurt on the abusive ex-boyfriend of a woman in the support group.
    Renfield: I'm a friend of Caitlyn's.
  • He also gets another when a neighbor tells him he's a "bad man," just before he goes after the Lobo crime family and a swarm of corrupt cops.
    Renfield: (putting on his Game Face) Sometimes, that comes in handy.
  • Teddy actually manages to get a badass one in:
    Teddy: Don't I know you? You look so (snorts a centipede, causing his eyes to turn yellow like Renfield's when he eats a bug)… familiar.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Dracula gets one just before he murders Renfield's support group.
  Dracula: Now… let's eat!
• Psycho for Hire: We see the silhouette of a woman with a distinctive bob haircut torturing a man in the Lobos' basement. We later see her watching the raid on Renfield's apartment and applauding when Renfield tears off a mobster's arms.
• Punctuated Pounding: Done in the final battle by Renfield, using his support group mantra.
  "I am ENOUGH! And I have ENOUGH! And I am CAPABLE OF CHANGE! Because I love myself. I'm taking FULL CHARGE! Of MY LIFE! TODAY!"
• Rasputinian Death: Dracula himself, who ends the movie with Renfield and Rebecca thoroughly decimating him with both sharp and blunt weapons, cutting him into pieces, melting the pieces down with acid and holy water, sealing the remains in small concrete cubes, and dumping the cubes down a sewer drain. Toyed with, in that Renfield isn't sure if even that will kill Dracula permanently, but rests easy with the knowledge that, even if it doesn't, it'll be a long, long time before he can come back from it.
• The Renfield: The titular character is the Trope Namer after all. See Deconstructed Character Archetype above.
• Rescue Romance: At their first meeting Renfield is instantly smitten with Rebecca when he sees her stand up to a gun-toting criminal. She becomes interested in him after he saves her life during the ensuing shootout.
• Rule of Three: The support group's affirmations are stated three times in the movie. The first time, the entire group is saying them, except for Renfield who doesn't see the point. The second time, Renfield insincerely stammers the affirmations in a weak attempt to stand up to Dracula. The final time, Renfield declares them sincerely as he punches Dracula's face in.
• Running Gag:
  • Carol, a member of Renfield's support group, constantly gets her stories interrupted by Renfield, to her frustration.
  • A cop named Kyle is always being told "Fuck you, Kyle!"
  • Several characters hate ska music, with one cop cursing that it's not dead yet and Caitlyn realizing how messed up she is when she tries to defend it, because her abusive boyfriend loves it.
• Rustproof Blood: At the end of the movie, Renfield fills a pitcher with Dracula's blood to resurrect as many people as he can. It's still red and liquid after spending about a whole day at room temperature, although this could be hand-waved as due to its supernatural qualities.
• Sackhead Slasher: The contract killer Renfield encounters, Apache Joe, sports a patchwork sack mask and deals primarily in bladed weapons.
• Sequel Hook: While Renfield and Rebecca were quite thorough in their mutilation of Dracula, Renfield states that he has seen the vampire come back from some pretty gruesome fates and there is a chance that he can come back from being chopped up and sealed into multiple tiny cubes of cement… just not for a long time.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: Male version. Renfield's support group insists he looks awful due to not taking care of himself but he's treated as remarkably handsome once he cleans up.
• Shout-Out:
  • Renfield kills Teddy by giving him a kick to the torso that explodes his insides, causing him to vomit blood and shit himself at the same time. When the kick is delivered, it switches to an X-ray shot of the organs exploding in slow-motion, highly similar to the X-Ray Moves/Krushing Blows in modern Mortal Kombat games.
  • When criticising ska music, the ska bands Caitlyn specifically names are Fishbone, Mustard Plug, and Voodoo Glow Skulls.
• Shown Their Work:
  • Everything about Reinfield and Dracula's relationship is perfectly reflective of how co-dependent relationships actually function. Dracula tells Renfield they're together because of Renfield, not Dracula, dismisses Renfield's attempts to establish boundaries and assert himself, claims invulnerability then pivots and insists Renfield is the abuser and Dracula the victim, belittles Renfield and ultimately threatens violence, all real-life tactics of abusers to retain control of their victims. It's also pointed out in the film that co-dependent relationships aren't limited to romantic ones, even if that is what's most commonly thought of. A friend, co-worker, or boss could be a toxic narcissist and abuse a co-dependent in exactly the same way. Renfield even goes through literally the textbook steps of attempting to break free from such a relationship, reading from his guidebook to try and keep Dracula at bay before Dracula snatches it away.
  • The ambiguity in Renfield and Rebecca's relationship at the end of the film. She's at the support group with him, but there's no indication they're dating or otherwise romantically involved, despite the heavy Ship Tease throughout the film. Most recovery programs, especially for abusive relationships, will recommend not getting into a new relationship for some time, so the abuse victim can work on themselves, heal, and find a fulfilling relationship instead of falling immediately into another abusive one. Note that the group is specifically "Dependant Relationship Addict Anonymous Group."
• Signature Laugh: Renfield does this briefly during his encounter with Mitch and his goons.
• Smug Snake: Teddy Lobo certainly talks a big game, but the moment he's actually in trouble, he completely panics. When arrested, he immediately starts offering information on everything his family has done before anyone has even questioned him. But the moment his lawyer gets him released, he's back to being an arrogant prick.
• Somewhere, an Entomologist Is Crying: Part of Renfield's settling into his new life involves bonding with his neighbor by adding a live ant to the boy's ant farm. A real ant colony would never welcome an outsider of any kind and would probably swarm and kill it due to different pheromone signatures. They literally wouldn't pass the sniff test.
• Splatter Horror: Between Renfield's bug-powered super-strength, Dracula's dietary habits, and the fact that everyone seems to be filled with marinara sauce, the action scenes can be hilariously… wet.
• Stealth Sequel: The opening montage heavily implies that the film is actually a direct sequel to the 1931 film, with exact recreations of multiple scenes from that movie being shown with the new actors. In other words, Nic Cage's Dracula is likely the exact same character once played by Bela Lugosi.
• Storming the Castle: Renfield and Rebecca attack the Lobo family's hideout and fight their way through an army of mobsters to kill Dracula and save Rebecca's sister.
• Supernatural Gold Eyes: Renfield's eyes turn gold when he activates the powers given to him by Dracula. When Teddy and the rest of the Lobo mobsters get those same powers later on, their eyes also change.
• Sure, Let's Go with That: When he finally opens up to the support group, Renfield admits to following a fellow member but stutters to explain why then quickly latches onto the member's offered explanation rather than admit he was going to sacrifice him (or his abuser) to Dracula.
  Renfield: I was following Rob... because I thought he'd make a good...
  Rob: Friend?
  Renfield: Yes, thank you, Rob.
  Rob: Thank you, Renfield.
• Take Over the World: Following the massacre at Mulates, Dracula reveals to Renfield that he has decided to conquer the planet… with a plan that mostly involves drinking blood and finding more sycophants like Renfield. The plan becomes a little more concrete when Dracula aligns himself with the Lobos due to Teddy's promise that they can give him an army.
• Take That!: Caitlyn, from Renfield’s support group, has an abusive junkie boyfriend named Mitch, and one of her major grievances with him is his love for Ska music, which other characters equally dislike.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill:
  • The Lobo gangsters and the police on their payroll are sent to kill Rebecca and Renfield. They're not just killed off for their efforts, they're dismembered. One guy gets his face ripped off! They all end up in a bloody pile!
  • Faced with the task of killing Dracula once he's captured, Renfield and Rebecca opt to mutilate his body in every possible way, encase whatever's left in cubes of cement and dump those into the sewer. Justified because, as Renfield points out, there's no single accepted way to kill a vampire and Dracula has returned from apparent death many times before.
• These Are Things Man Was Not Meant to Know: Implied in the final scene. Renfield and Rebecca use Dracula's blood to resurrect the former's support group, and Mark remarks how they've "seen things that can't be unseen, know things that can't be unknown."
• Toccata and Fugue in D minor: Played during the trailer.
• The Tooth Hurts: Renfield rips out Dracula's fangs during their final confrontation.
• Token Good Cop: The abrasiveness and/or ineptitude of all the other cops at her precinct drives Rebecca Quincey crazy even before she begins to realize most, if not all, of them are in the pocket of the Lobos.
• Torture Cellar: The Lobo family has a large room in their basement with walls covered in various power tools and medieval weapons to torture people with. While Bellafrancesca is chewing out her son, someone can be seen being vivisected in the background.
• Touché: Bellafrancesa Lobo merely offers an amused touche to Rebecca when the latter arrests her and throws her insistence that "Success is the best revenge" back in her face.
• Trailers Always Spoil: The trailers for the film give away Dracula's murder of the support group members, which happens more than halfway through the film.
• Tropaholics Anonymous: Throughout the film, Renfield attends a support group for people in abusive relationships, initially with the idea of targeting their abusers as food for Dracula, but then to actually seek help when he realizes he needs to get out from under his master’s thumb.
• Unholy Matrimony: Dracula and Bellafrancesa clearly hit it off upon first meeting, with Dracula even kissing her hand. It doesn't last, due to Dracula being sealed in concrete and Bellafrancesa being arrested.
• Unknown Rival: In the climax, Teddy tries to set himself up as Renfield's Foil and rival, only for Renfield to remark that they've only met twice before.
• Vampire Bites Suck: Dracula doesn't so much bite people as rip out large chunks of their throats.
• Vampire Hunter: These are routinely dispatched by the Catholic Church to kill Dracula, with the Automatic Crossbow to match. A group of these and their bishop get wiped out in the beginning, but still injure Dracula so severely that he spends the next century recovering. It's implied that the Church sent more after Dracula anyway, as Dracula intends to destroy the Vatican as part of his world conquest, and Renfield mentions that at this point, they've been chased out of every country on Earth.
• Villain Respect: Played With. Teddy offers that Rebecca is stronger than her father when she refuses to beg for her life, but he later rants about how he's going to slowly torture her to death for that same refusal.
• Weak, but Skilled: Downplayed but Rebecca being a regular human puts her at a physical disadvantage against Dracula's powered-up minions. Her police training and marksmanship still allow her to fight them on fairly equal terms.
• Would Hit a Girl: All of the Lobo gang members and bought-off police they send after Rebecca and Renfield. They pay for it dearly.
• You Are Not Alone: The point of the support group Renfield attends for people in codependent abusive relationships is to give people a safe place to air their grievances, relate to other people who have been through something similar, and learn how to extract themselves from their bad situations. When Renfield tells them a slightly edited version of what he's been through, the group is extremely sympathetic and encouraging, literally cheering him on as he tries to take his life back. Two women in the group are also seen hanging out outside of the group, having developed a friendship from their shared experiences. In the end, Renfield is still attending the group, and hopes his story can help other people get out of their own toxic relationships.
• You Killed My Father: Rebecca lost her father to the Lobos.

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"My name is Robert Montague Renfield, and I'm a codependent. But I no longer feel like a victim, because I've finally faced my demons. You might also say I chopped my demons up into tiny little pieces, encased them in concrete, and flushed them down the drain. And if I can find the power to do that, then maybe everyone can. Metaphorically speaking."