All spoilers are unmarked! Please proceed with caution!
- In a way, the film's central premise of playing up the 'abusive relationship' aspect of Dracula and Renfield could be seen as one massive Take That! to The Twilight Saga, which centered around a romance that many people found to be toxic and manipulative.
- Why don't Rebecca and Renfield officially get together despite there being heavily implied mutual attraction? Most support programs for survivors of Domestic Abuse heavily advise against dating again for at least a few months, if not longer. That way, the victim has time to heal and start to rebuild some confidence, strengthen their friendships and other platonic bonds, and avoid falling right back into the same unhealthy patterns. (AA and other similar programs for addicts also tend to advise people to take some time before getting into a new relationship for the same reason.)
- During the massacre of the support group, Dracula, despite having found several good people to feed from, doesn't actually drink that much of their blood, simply ripping a person's throat out before going for the next one. There are two reasons why it makes sense for Dracula to be more occupied with killing the group than with feeding on them.
- First, pausing long enough to drain a person completely would force Dracula to pause for at least a couple seconds, giving the others precious time to run. While Dracula has Super-Speed and flight, he also Must Be Invited to enter anyplace, so any escapees could lock themselves in another room and potentially wait him out. Leaving survivors means Renfield has allies who know what's going on and could potentially help take Dracula down.
- Second, the whole reason they were targeted to begin with was because they were Renfield's friends who were encouraging him to take control of his life and leave Dracula. It wasn't about feeding at all; it was purely cruelty for cruelty's sake, punishing Renfield by forcing him to watch all his friends die.
- When Rebecca and Renfield systematically dismember Dracula while Renfield lampshades the confusing vampire lore, it echoes how Van Helsing and his crew staked Lucy in the original book. Van Helsing didn't know what worked and what didn't, so he staked her through the heart, cut off her head, and filled her mouth with garlic.
- Imagine what Dracula would've done to Renfield's wife and daughter if Renfield had tried to run earlier. That probably did more to keep him in line in the early days than Renfield wants to think about.
- If you consider this as "canon" with the Universal Horror, and this Dracula as a narcissistic manipulator and basically a complete monster, seeing his daughter's hatred to being a vampire, her own hate for Dracula and her sad personality is harder to see...
- The scene where Dracula breaks into Renfield's apartment. Nicholas Cage is giving his signature Large Ham performance, and you can't help but laugh. But if you look at his lines, they are terrifying, because of how realistic they are to something that an abuser would say.
