Vampires appear to be making a pop-culture comeback, driven in part by the comedy What We Do in the Shadows, and promising a fresh take on the age-old horror bloodsuckers. That includes one of the stranger entries in 2023's slate of films. Renfield, a comedic take on Count Dracula's bug-eating servant, hit theaters April 14, 2023, with Nicholas Hoult in the title role.
The Renfield trailer promised a sharp and absurd horror comedy, as Dracula's famous manservant seeks to escape his bloodsucking boss in modern-day New Orleans. The film's central thesis hearkens back to a fundamental dilemma regarding a vampire's human minions. Such a partnership is based on an inherently unsustainable dynamic. What We Do in the Shadows has made it one of the centerpieces of its comedy, to brilliant effect. Renfield follows through on its example.
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Servants Like Renfield Pose a Problem for Their Masters
The original Renfield in Bram Stoker's novel Dracula forms the template for similar figures in other vampire fiction. Humans will agree or be induced to help a vampire as part of a Faustian bargain for eternal life. Presumably after a period of time, the vampire turns the "familiar" into a member of the undead, but that equation comes with inherent problems. In the first place, the vampire loses a trusted underling and needs to find another one. Furthermore, a new vampire means an instant rival who will compete for influence and hunting grounds. Hence, the promised immortality never arrives, leading the ostensible servant to grow resentful until they either move against their master or become too rebellious to be of further use.
It's a strong metaphor for a toxic relationship, as one side controls the other with assured rewards that never come to pass. In Stoker's novel, Count Dracula kills Renfield when he has second thoughts, rendering all of his promises null and void, but also depriving him of a useful catspaw just as his enemies make their move on him. Renfield takes that equation to its logical extreme, as the title character finally has enough, but can't figure out how to break with his boss and live to tell the tale.
What We Do in the Shadows Finds Comedy Gold in the Notion
A baffled Nandor staring at flabbergasted Guillermo in What We Do In the Shadows.
The original movie version of What We Do in the Shadows first tapped into the comedic notion of the dilemma. It featured a Renfield-esque woman named Jackie who is forced to clean up the blood and attend to the vampires’ other needs in the face of repeated assurances that "one day" they'll make her a vampire, too. She gets her wish not by adhering to her part of the bargain, but by asking a newly turned vampire named Nick to do the deed. She ends the movie with her husband as her new familiar, no longer forced to do the coven's dirty work for them.
The concept, however, really came into its own with Guillermo, the constantly put-upon human servant in the What We Do in the Shadows TV series. He serves Nandor the Relentless: a particularly needy and vain bloodsucker whom he appears to genuinely love. Their relationship is beyond poisonous, with both Nandor and the other household vampires relentlessly dumping on Guillermo, who often has to save them from their own ineptitude. Actor Harvey Guillen has become one of the show's breakout stars for his hysterically heartbreaking trudge through the vampires' dirty laundry: personifying the dilemma of human familiars with every long-suffering sigh.
The show's fourth season ends with a twist similar to the movie, where Guillermo finds another freshly made vampire and bribes him to transform him into a member of the undead. It remains to be seen where the plot thread leads, but clearly, the dynamic holds up. Sooner or later, every familiar goes rogue. It's baked into the dynamic of their connection with their ostensible masters. What We Do in the Shadows keenly understands how to mine big laughs from it, and Renfield strives to repeat the trick.
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