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RENFIELD

"A Bloody Mess"

Content: -4 Intentional blasphemy, evil, gross immorality, and/or worldview problems. (To be avoided)
Entertainment Quality:
NoneLightModerateHeavy
Language
Violence
Sex
Nudity

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What You Need To Know:

RENFIELD is a horror comedy starring Nicholas Cage as Count Dracula and Nicholas Hoult as Renfield, Dracula’s assistant for more than 100 years. After a debilitating encounter with sunlight, Dracula is hiding in present day New Orleans in an abandoned hospital. Meanwhile, Renfield is feeding his boss victims to nurse him back to health. During the daytime, Renfield attends a self-help group. The group leader encourages Renfield to stand up to his boss. After seeing a female police officer stand up to her corrupt boss and a local drug lord, Renfield decides to stand up to Dracula.

RENFIELD tries to be a witty, funny horror comedy, with an extravagant performance by Nicholas Cage as the sanguinary, narcissistic count. The filmmakers try to give their movie some heart by focusing on the title character’s desire to be a hero and help the female police detective. However, the movie’s wit, comedy and heart are ruined by lots of really gruesome, bloody violence and nearly constant obscenities, especially lots of “f” words. RENFIELD is one of the most bloody, violent mainstream horror movies ever made.

Content:

(C, B, HH, OO, Ho, LLL, VVV, S, A, DD, MM):

Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:
Light Christian, redemptive, moral worldview and premise where Count Dracula’s long-time assistant, the title character, wants to get out from under the thumb of his evil boss and become a hero, but the assistant’s desire is associated with humanist self-help aphorisms, the movie contains some occult content, and the movie is marred by extreme gory violence and strong foul language throughout its running time, plus Dracula testily complains in one intentionally comical scene that his thirst for blood is not sexual, neither heterosexual or homosexual, but, in that case, it could be that his thirst for blood is pansexual

Foul Language:
At least 104 obscenities (mostly “f” and “s” words), two GD profanities, five light profanities

Violence:
Lots of extreme, graphic, bloody, gory, and gruesome violence as Dracula and his long-time assistant, the title character, gut, slice and attack people (the title character, though, is always attacking bad guys or defending himself because of the movie’s premise), people’s bodies explode into bloody streams of flesh from this onslaught, the title character is assisted by a female cop who uses guns and physical objects to kill and maim the bad guys, multiple decapitations occur, a man’s arms are ripped off, and the title character flings them into the bodies of other bad guys, man’s guts are falling out after his stomach is sliced with a knife, and drops of Dracula’s blood can heal wounds or bring dead people back to life

Sex:
There are some implied sexual connotations to Count Dracula’s sucking the blood of people, including an intentional comical scene where Dracula testily complains that his thirst for blood is not sexual, neither heterosexual or homosexual

Nudity:
No nudity

Alcohol Use:
Alcohol use in the background at a restaurant and Dracula pours his guest some wine but says, “I never drink. . . wine”

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:
No smoking, but there is some cocaine from a drug gang is involved, and a bag of cocaine rips open and splashes into a policeman’s face; and,

Miscellaneous Immorality:
The police in the story, except for the heroine, have all been bought off by the powerful drug gang, and there’s some moral relativism in the title character’s actions.

More Detail:

RENFIELD is a gory action horror comedy about Count Dracula’s long-time assistant, Robert Renfield, who finally decides to stand up against his boss, become a hero and save the friends he loves, including a female cop he’s just met. RENFIELD tries to be a witty, funny action horror comedy with a heartfelt premise, but the movie’s wit, comedy and heart are ruined by lots of gruesome, bloody violence and many obscenities, especially lots of “f” words.

The movie begins with Renfield describing how he got involved with Count Dracula. Scenes from the old 1931 DRACULA movie starring Bela Lugosi are recreated, with Nicholas Cage playing Dracula and Nicholas Hoult playing Renfield. The sequence ends with Dracula trapped in a magic circle while facing off with a Catholic priest. Renfield breaks the magic circle so that Dracula can kill the priest, but a man helping the priest flips open a curtain, exposing Dracula to sunlight. Renfield blocks the sunlight, but not before Dracula is terribly burned but just alive.

Cut to present day in New Orleans. Renfield is nursing Dracula back to health by sending him victims while Dracula hides out in an abandoned hospital. During the day, Renfield attends a self-help group in a church for people who are co-dependent. Renfield is moved by the people’s sad stories about their co-dependent relationships with bad people. He decides he should track down the bad people and feed them to Dracula. The first victim is a man named Mitch who’s been treating his girlfriend very poorly.

When Renfield tracks down Mitch, Mitch is with two friends and a bunch of cocaine they’ve just stolen from the most powerful drug dealer in the city, Teddy Lobo. Dracula has enabled Renfield to be imbued with supernatural power whenever he eats bugs and spiders. However, just as Renfield is about to kill Mitch and his friends to take their bodies to Dracula, Teddy shows up with some thugs. So, as the two groups fight one another, Renfield starts attacking and trying to kill everyone.

Teddy manages to escape in his car with some of the cocaine, but he runs into a DUI checkpoint controlled by his nemesis, a female police detective, Rebecca Quincy. Rebecca’s been trying to put Teddy in prison ever since Teddy murdered her father, another police officer. She finds the cocaine in Teddy’s car and arrests him. However, Teddy’s gang, which is run by his mother, has many cops on its payroll. So, Rebecca’s corrupt boss lets Teddy go.

Back at the self-help group, Renfield starts telling the group about his boss, but without telling them the nature of Dracula’s “business.” The group leader tells Renfield that his boss is clearly a narcissist. So, he encourages Renfield to “take back his own power” and stand up to his boss.

Teddy’s mother orders her son to track down Renfield and kill him. Rebecca is following Teddy, so she sees Teddy and his thugs start to come for Renfield in a restaurant. Rebecca stands up to Teddy, Renfield eats some bugs, and a bloodbath ensures. After seeing Rebecca fearlessly stand up to Teddy and his gang, Renfield decides to help her and stand up to Dracula.

RENFIELD tries to be a witty, funny action horror comedy, with an extravagant performance by Nicholas Cage as the sanguinary, narcissistic count. Also, the filmmakers try to give the story some heart by focusing on the title character’s desire to be a hero and help the female police detective. However, the movie’s wit, comedy and heart are ruined by lots of really gruesome, bloody violence and nearly constant obscenities, especially lots of “f” words. RENFIELD is one of the most violent, bloody mainstream horror movies ever made.



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