In the teaser trailer for the upcoming horror-comedy Renfield, the titular character, played by Nicolas Hoult, gains apparent superpowers after eating a spider. The trailer depicts Renfield using these powers to fight off a group of thugs wearing werewolf masks. After the fight, Renfield becomes acquainted with the film’s female protagonist Rebecca Quincy, played by Awkwafina.
Directed by Chris McKay (The Tomorrow War), Renfield is the latest reimagining of the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker, with the titular vampire played by Nicolas Cage. The film is the newest attempt at relaunching the Universal Monsters, which previously included the failed “Dark Universe” launch with 2017’s The Mummy and the standalone The Invisible Man film from 2020. Instead of focusing solely on Dracula, Renfield is about the vampire’s human familiar, a vessel to lure Dracula’s victims.
Why Insects Give Renfield Powers
In the original novel Dracula, Renfield is an inmate in an asylum who is compelled to eat insects to obtain their life force for himself. This consumption of creatures, which escalates to bigger insects and birds, is, in many ways, a form of vampirism. The promise of immortality from consuming the creatures’ life force results in Renfield becoming Dracula’s servant, as the vampire promises Renfield an unlimited supply.
The new Renfield film is playing off this depiction of the character in the novel. However, instead of merely gaining the life force of insects, Renfield seems to acquire full-on superhuman abilities, able to fight off a gang in an incredibly gory fashion. However, it can be difficult to judge the full scope of Renfield’s powers based solely on what is seen in the trailer, such as whether he gets different powers from different insects.
Is Nicholas Hoult’s Renfield A Hero In The 2023 Movie?
One aspect of Renfield that’s apparent from the trailer is that the character is, at best, a reluctant servant for Dracula. The trailer is framed by Renfield going to a support group to deal with the issues he has working for Dracula, calling it a toxic relationship. This is in line with Renfield’s characterization from the novel, where he eventually grows a conscience and ends up trying to save Mina Harker from Dracula’s grasp, resulting in Renfield eventually being killed by his master.
Renfield’s previous film depictions, such as by Dwight Frye in 1931’s Dracula and Tom Waits in 1992’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula, seemed to emphasize the character’s craziness. Based on the trailer, Nicolas Hoult plays Renfield more as an antihero and the straight man to Nicolas Cage’s over-the-top performance as Dracula. It will be interesting to see how this different take on Renfield works when the film is released in April.
