The world has become more vociferous about the toxic personality traits often popularly referred to as “red flags,” but what happens when the toxic person in your life is Count Dracula? That is the story of Dracula’s devoted slave, Renfield. He traded his soul for the power of immortality, but his conscience often interfered with his duty. “Renfield” follows the journey of the slave when he mistakenly gets involved with a drug mafia and ends up in big trouble. He wants to discover himself as an individual, but with a toxic boss that’s next to impossible. “Renfield” is a light-hearted watch with a hilarious twist on the Dracula-Renfield dynamic. The overall story was a bit half done, but then again, you can just watch it for entertainment and Nicholas Cage’s sake.
spoilers ahead
Summary of the plot of ‘Renfield’: What is the film about?
One of Robert Montague Renfield’s main responsibilities was to bring blood to his master. He used to attend anonymous group meetings that catered to those who had recently gotten out of a toxic relationship. Renfield’s victims were typically the overbearing partners who argued with the group members. Renfield liked his groupmates. He acknowledged that he, too, was in a toxic relationship that began with greed. Dracula took advantage of his greed and turned him into a servant by offering him a small fragment of his powers. After years of serving his master, Renfield admitted that he was tired of being controlled. Although Renfield wanted to end the arrangement with him, Dracula would emotionally manipulate him into believing that he cared for him.
Every time Dracula was in full power, he would get into a showdown with the hunters who wanted to kill him. But as always, the priests never survived, and Renfield had to clean up the place and return Dracula to his indestructible self. In order to revive Dracula, Renfield planned to bring back the blood of the monsters the group members talked about. His first target was a guy named Mitch. He located Mitch and his friends and was prepared to take them to his master. With the power of the bugs, Renfield took them down, but soon realized that he was in trouble. Mitch and his friends had stolen drugs from a mob family and sent a hit man to kill the men and bring the drugs back. As Mitch and his men were down, the one man monster, Apache Joe, attacked Renfield. With a pen lent to him by a waiter and his extraordinary strength, Renfield decapitated Apache Joe.
Teddy Lobo, the young blood of the crime family, ran for his life when the police stopped his car. Police officer Rebecca Quincy was determined to catch Teddy Lobo and hit him over the head with a flying police stick. As Teddy was being arrested, Renfield removed the bodies of two men from the scene. Count Dracula was not very happy with Renfield’s hunt. He ordered Renfield to bring him the blood of happy couples and unsuspecting tourists. Meanwhile, Rebecca was disappointed to see Teddy Lobo walk out of the police station free of charge. She was also upset by the power and control the family had over the police. Her goal was to gather enough evidence against the Lobo family, meanwhile, all Renfield wanted was a way out of his toxic relationship with Dracula.
Did Teddy Wolf survive?
Rebecca was amazed at how the Wolves always managed to escape. She had a personal score to settle with the crime family. Her father lost his life fighting the Wolves, and she was determined to bring him justice. But little by little she was losing hope. Her sister, Kate, was an FBI agent, and she, too, had dedicated her life to gathering evidence against the Lobos. She worried that Rebecca might destroy her years of effort by making a foolish and hasty decision. After talking with Kate, Rebecca decided to re-examine the crime scene and got a blood-covered pen from the street (the pen Renfield used to kill Apache Joe). Following the lead of the pen, she entered the theme restaurant. And surprisingly, she was ambushed by Teddy and his men. Luckily for her, Reinfield was also at the restaurant. He was planning to obtain innocent blood for his master, but Lobo’s sudden ambush ruined his plan. He decided to help Rebecca, and by swallowing a fly, he was buzzing with her newfound strength. Rebecca and Renfield accosted all of Teddy’s and his men. Renfield was mesmerized by Rebecca’s courage in standing up to Teddy when he threatened to shoot her dead. He too experienced a sudden pride and joy after rescuing the people in the restaurant.
The Wolf family tracked down Renfield’s location and arrived at Dracula’s lair. They intended to kill Renfield, but their plan was unsuccessful. Dracula murdered everyone to death except Teddy. When Teddy talked about his love for all things bad and how he was ready to fulfill Dracula’s plan for world domination, Dracula decided that he was better as a servant than another corpse. He learned from Teddy that Renfield was busy rescuing innocent people instead of bringing them to him. Dracula decided to pay Teddy a sudden visit.
‘Renfield’ ending explained: How did Renfield and Rebecca kill Count Dracula?
Count Dracula was convinced that he was the victim of the whole situation. All Renfield was able to achieve was because of the power he received as a slave, and his sudden shift in moral judgment was taking a toll on Dracula. Dracula decided that he had had enough of Renfield. He believed that he had the power to build his own empire of morally corrupt slaves who would be willing to fight for his cause. To teach Renfield a lesson, he killed all the members of the anonymous group. When Rebecca arrived at the meeting to find out the connection between the murder victims and the group, she found Renfield surrounded by dead bodies. Renfield was arrested, but Rebecca soon realized that the entire police force was working for the Wolves. She decided to run away with Renfield in the passenger seat.
After sustaining a minor injury, Rebecca woke up in Renfield’s apartment. She received a call from her sister that the pen recovered from the scene had the fingerprints of a criminal who had committed crimes all over the world. Rebecca decided to give it to her sister, but before she could, Lobos’s men found them. Rebecca and Renfield fought together and held their own. Rebecca realized that Renfield wasn’t the bad guy. She lacked the courage to defend her beliefs. And long ago, he was consumed by greed, and all his life he had been paying the price for it. Rebecca got a call from the Lobos saying they had her sister. Rebecca was ready to do whatever it took to protect Kate.
After consuming a herd of bugs, Renfield was ready to take on Teddy and his men. While Teddy bragged about being Dracula’s favorite, Rebecca faced off against her mother, Bellafrancesca Lobo. She introduced Rebecca to Count Dracula. Instead of killing Rebecca, Dracula planned to use her to his advantage. He wanted her to imagine a world in which she would have the power to do justice. He offered to rescue Kate with her healing blood if she would agree to be faithful to him. Rebecca was desperate to save her sister, but before she could accept her offer, Renfield interrupted. He managed to overpower Teddy, and thanks to his constant belittling, Reinfield found some extra strength and courage to destroy him. Renfield stopped Rebecca from making the same mistake he made decades ago, but Rebecca wasn’t ready to listen. Just as she agreed to join Dracula, she pushed a button to raise the curtains.
Although it took longer than he would have preferred, the sunlight hurt Dracula. He shapeshifted and escaped. He confronted Rebecca and was about to kill her, but before he could, she shot him in the foot. Renfield was lying just below the flying Dracula, and the healing blood from him helped Renfield to recover. Renfield removed Dracula’s fangs, but that wasn’t enough to destroy him. Renfield felt powerful admitting that he was dependent, and there were millions of codependents like him who made the mistake of indulging in a destructive relationship. But at the end of the day, they could take back the power they had given to the monsters. He punched Dracula in the face, refusing to be the person he used to be. But Dracula wasn’t that easy to defend, and luckily, Rebecca used another method to attack him. She formed a protective circle using the cocaine she found in the room and chanted Latin verses from Wiccan Tumblr. Surprisingly, the method worked and Dracula was trapped in the circle.
“Renfield” ends with Rebecca and Renfield attacking and dismembering Dracula with every tool they could. They used acid to dissolve his body and they also used cement to make sure it was impossible for him to come back. Although they weren’t sure if his method would work, they were confident that it would take a while to rebuild his body. Using Dracula’s blood, Rebecca and Renfield resurrected Kate and the nameless members of the group. Rebecca decided not to arrest Renfield; she believed that he deserved to be in the world and that she could help others like him to recover. She was back at the anonymous meeting. He had successfully battled his demons and became an inspiration to other codependents like him to find his courage and fight for his beliefs. “Renfield” is a modern reimagining where the slave realizes his worth. After learning about toxic relationships and codependency, he realized it was time for him to fight back. After meeting Rebecca, he found the courage to fight Dracula. Although Renfield had submitted to his master, his human consciousness made it difficult for him to agree to Dracula’s future endeavors. In the end, he realized that he was not weak; he simply needed to take the power that he had given to his master. He fought for the right reasons and was rewarded with a moving finale.
