Dateline: October 31, 1966. Waterbury CT. Trick or treating. After ringing the bell or knocking on the door as hard as a very small seven-year-old boy can, I launched into my line, in my angelic, soprano voice: “Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Count Dracula.” The impression was uniformly regarded as very good – despite Bela Lugosi’s baritone voice being 5 types lower than mine at the time – partly because the mantra is the most famous line in Ted Browning’s 1931 Gothic horror classic. Only, it wasn’t. Dracula never says it. What Bela as the evil Count does say is, “I am… Dracula.” to Renfield (Dwight Frye), a lawyer engaged to broker a deal for Dracula to lease Carfax Abbey, a castle near London, and bring the Count to it, then, “I bid you welcome.” after Renfield replies inanely.
Chris McKay’s Renfield, his fourth film and his best (with honorable mention going to 2017’s The Lego Batman Movie) premiered on March 30, 2023, at the Fifth Annual Overlook Film Festival, New Orleans. The festival celebrates the horror genre – Renfield is a horror comedy – and is named after the hotel made famous in Steven King’s 1977 novel “The Shining” and Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 adaptation. The first Overlook Festival was held at Timberline Lodge, Mount Hood, Oregon, the site of the exterior shots for Kubrick’s masterpiece. The three subsequent festivals, 2020 – 2022 were COVID-skipped, were held in New Orleans.
Coincidentally, in Renfield, we find Dracula (Nicolas Cage) in modern day New Orleans recovering from a near-death experience, being nursed back to health by Renfield (Nicholas Hoult), his “familiar”, his slave, endowed with a modicum of the immortal vampire’s powers. After over 90 years, Renfield is weary of being unloved and used by his master, so he joins a support group for abused co-dependents. There he meets Caitlyn (Bess Rous), whose abusive boyfriend Mitch (Dave Davis) is in bad standing with NOLA’s most powerful crime bosses, Bellafrancesca Lobo and her son Teddy (Shohreh Aghdashloo & Ben Schwartz), who are under constant pursuit by Officer Rebecca Quincy (female lead, Awkwafina).
Cage’s personification of Dracula is absolutely hilarious. Hoult’s Renfield is also funny as a 21st century man, in touch with his feminine side, and much less submissive to the Prince of Darkness than Frye. If you’re a film history buff, this movie is pure joy. It takes scenes from the Browning movie and brings them forward almost identically (see the photograph below for just one such example). The script Includes lines from the Gothic 1931 version, inserted verbatum into this laugh-out-loud comedy. Although its mediocre reviews suggest that the film may not be for the mainstream viewer, it holds a special place in this seven-year-old Halloween Dracula/sixty-three-year-old film appreciation instructor/Nic Cage fan’s heart. After watching it, we immediately decided to go back and screen Ted Browning’s Dracula.
Any movie that makes one nostalgic about the early days of film, the black-and-white films of yesteryear celebrated in Universal Orlando’s Horror Make-Up Show, especially one presented comically, like the Horror Make-Up Show itself, is a movie for me. For the price of admission, you get to see this movie, then get nudged to watch Browning’s piece, and maybe even the simultaneously made Spanish version, Drácula, directed by George Melford and starring Carlos Villar as Conde Drácula. The Spanish version is almost a half-hour longer than Browning’s (and, in my opinion, it’s better). It was filmed at the same time, using the same sets as Browning’s version. The Spanish cast & crew would come in at night, filming on the already-setup soundstages used by Browning. Heinz Roemheld composed the scores for both and was credited for neither. Renfield is still in theaters as of this writing, so take a trip to the cinema to see it. You’ll find yourself in NOLA with Cage & Hoult in Renfield, one of the headliners of this year’s Overlook Film Festival. Maybe it will make you want to revisit Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining”, in my mind, the greatest film ever made, and not because it’s a Gothic horror piece. It is not! But that’s a story for another issue.Or maybe it will make you want to see Bela Lugosi as Dracula again; or the superior Spanish version for the first time. Or maybe you’ll just have some fun and LYFAO!
* Paul is the host for The Hub on Canal’s monthly Art in the Form of Film series. The Hub on Canal is a non-profit art gallery/collective in New Smyrna Beach, Florida.
Renfield Official Trailer:
