RENFIELD

*CUT TO THE CHASE*

NOTE: This spoiler was submitted by Jeremy

The film opens at a support group for people in abusive relationships. Among them is Robert Montague Renfield (Nicholas Hoult). He takes us back to the beginning of his story. Centuries ago, he was a lawyer set to make a deal with a count that would greatly benefit Renfield’s family. The count in question was none other than the Prince of Darkness, Dracula (Nicolas Cage). After proving to be a useful assistant, Dracula made Renfield his familiar, allowing him to be immortal and gaining super strength and speed when he consumes bugs.

Hunters come along every now and then to try and kill Dracula, but the Count convinces Renfield that he would be imprisoned for helping him if Dracula were killed. Renfield is seen breaking a salt ring sealing Dracula, allowing him to turn into smoke and cause a priest to blow into chunks. Dracula goes for the other hunter but is exposed to sunlight, causing him to burn and allowing him to engulf the hunter in flames until Renfield puts the fire out. They then have to relocate continuously to throw other hunters off their trail, and Renfield brings them to New Orleans until Dracula can grow back to full power. Renfield has grown weary and exhausted of bringing victims for his master.

One of the women from the support group, Caitlyn (Bess Rous), discusses her junkie boyfriend, Mitch (Dave Davis). Renfield decides that he would feel less bad about delivering criminals to Dracula instead of innocents. He finds Mitch and his goons at a warehouse, where he knocks out two of them, but Mitch is killed by a hitman named Apache Joe (Marcus Lewis). Renfield gets sliced across the stomach by Joe, but then he consumes a bug and uses his strength to punch Joe’s head off his shoulders, sending it flying toward the car of local gangster Teddy Lobo (Ben Schwartz). Teddy flees the scene.

Officer Rebecca Quincy (Awkwafina) and her partner Chris (Adrian Martinez) are doing drunk driving checks when Teddy drives near the scene. Rebecca recognizes him, and since he’s got a ton of cocaine in his car, Teddy begins to drive away. Rebecca shoots out his tires, so he starts running until she hurls her baton at his head to knock him out.

Unfortunately, the Lobos gang hires a good lawyer to get Teddy out before he can spill the beans on his criminal family’s operation. The case is personal to Rebecca because the Lobos murdered her father, who was a decorated captain on the force. Her sister Kate (Camille Chen) works for the FBI and also wants to take the Lobos down, but she reminds Rebecca they need to be professional and not let their anger get the better of them.

Renfield brings Mitch’s friends and Joe’s headless corpse to a horribly weak and decayed-looking Dracula, but he rejects them because they are junkies. He demands that Renfield bring him innocents like nuns or cheerleaders. Dracula slices Renfield where Joe cut him, almost disemboweling him before giving him his blood, which has healing properties.

Teddy returns to his mother, Bella (Shohreh Aghdashloo), leader of the Lobos gang. She tells Teddy that they need to get rid of Rebecca before she can take down their operation.

Renfield goes to a nearby restaurant to reluctantly scout out innocents, just as Rebecca and Chris arrive since a pen they found at a crime scene (that Renfield used to stab Joe) came from the same restaurant. Teddy and his fellow Lobos goons show up to kill Rebecca. They come in guns blazing, and Teddy threatens Rebecca, but she tells him to pull the trigger before she ever decides to do what he says. She then taunts Teddy, saying he’s probably never shot anyone. Renfield eats a fly and tackles Teddy, giving Rebecca a chance to fight. Renfield severs limbs and stabs Lobos with forks, killing all of them except Teddy, who gets away. Rebecca thanks Renfield for his help, and he appears to be smitten with her.

Renfield goes back to his lair, where Dracula has claimed some victims to slightly restore his regular form. He then shows Renfield that he plans to dominate the world once he grows to full power, hoping to create an army of familiars to do his bidding.

Renfield returns to the group session where he talks about his relationship with Dracula, simply referring to him as his boss. The group encourages Renfield to take steps to improve his life separate from Dracula, which includes finding his own apartment and creating his own happiness.

Rebecca brings in all the witnesses from the restaurant to give testimonies, but she knows that there are corrupt cops on the force that are on the Lobos’ payroll, so they have been tampering with evidence. Renfield shows up to give a testimony, along with a bouquet of flowers for Rebecca. She later brings the bloody pen to Kate to process as evidence.

Bella sends Teddy and the other Lobos to go after Renfield. They end up at the lair, where Dracula munches on all of them except for Teddy. When he reveals that he is there for Renfield, Dracula becomes enraged and feels betrayed by his assistant.

Dracula shows up at Renfield’s apartment, entering because he has a welcome mat in front of the door. He chastises Renfield for abandoning him and trying to be independent. Dracula also tells him he’s the real monster for abandoning his wife and daughter to become his assistant. Renfield tries to use tactics from a book given to him at the support group, but Dracula takes it and sees the sticker revealing the location of the church where the group meets. Renfield runs after him.

Renfield rushes to the church to warn the group and get them out, but once Dracula arrives, group leader Mark (Brandon Scott Jones) mistakenly invites the Count inside. He reveals himself to the group before proceeding to slaughter everyone and feed off them. He taunts Renfield before leaving, and Rebecca and Chris arrive moments later, arresting Renfield for believing he killed everyone.

As Rebecca takes Renfield away in cuffs, a bunch of cop cars pulls up along with Bella and the Lobos, confirming Rebecca’s suspicions that the cops are working with the criminals, including Chris and Captain Browning (James Moses Black). Browning tries to convince Rebecca to join them, but she shoots a transformer to distract everyone and take a chance to escape with Renfield. Rebecca gets shot in the shoulder but makes it out.

Renfield brings Rebecca to his apartment to hide. He remains cuffed so she can trust him, and he confesses that he worked for Dracula for centuries. Rebecca then gets a call from Kate, who confirms that the DNA on the pen is connected to murders all across the world for decades.

Renfield and Rebecca proceed to leave the apartment, but a SWAT team of corrupt cops begins to storm the complex to catch them. Renfield eats ants and proceeds to annihilate the cops, tearing them to shreds, ripping them limb from limb, stomping heads, ripping a man’s face off, and even impaling two men with severed arms. Rebecca is horrified but thankful for being saved.

Dracula returns to Teddy and agrees to join forces with the Lobos to help the Count amass an army for his plans for world conquest. Teddy brings Dracula to meet his mother, where he decapitates Browning and reveals himself to Bella, who is impressed.

Renfield and Rebecca are outside in public as Renfield tells her about his past and how he regrets leaving his wife and daughter behind when he wanted to mostly benefit himself. Dracula then telepathically communicates with Renfield to taunt him while Rebecca tries to call Kate, only to have Bella answer. She tells Rebecca that they have Kate, so she and Renfield arm themselves and get ready to take on Dracula and the Lobos.

The two arrive at the Lobos building and find that Teddy and the other Lobos have been turned into familiars with superpowers. Rebecca rushes to find Kate while Renfield battles the Lobos, killing all of them until only Teddy is left. Teddy boasts about his powers but Renfield tells him it’s a curse. Teddy almost beats him good until Renfield grabs a bug and eats it. He kicks Teddy so hard that he spews blood and violently shits himself to death.

Rebecca discovers that Kate is already dead, being brutally beaten by the Lobos. Dracula attempts to persuade her to join him so he can use his blood to revive Kate. Renfield arrives to witness, and while Rebecca appears willing to join, she really just tries to open the blinds to expose Dracula to sunlight. He turns into bats and flies away until the duo catches up to him. He knocks Renfield out and tries to kill Rebecca, but she shoots Dracula in the foot, causing him to bleed on Renfield and give him the boost he needs. Renfield rips out Dracula’s fangs and smashes his face in. Rebecca then traps the Count in a ring of cocaine after saying the incantation. Renfield and Rebecca then proceed to beat him to a pulp before ripping him to shreds and disposing of his remains in cement and throwing them into a sewer.

The two use Dracula’s blood to revive Kate, and she and Rebecca arrest Bella. The sisters then feel they made their father proud now that they put his killer away.

Renfield later uses Dracula’s blood to revive the support group, who are thankful but also traumatized by being dead. Renfield and Rebecca are now close friends and he prepares for a new life as a free man.

Robert Montague Renfield has been the loyal assistant to Count Dracula for centuries, bringing him victims to feed off of. He has grown tired of evil deeds and hopes for a new life. Renfield befriends Officer Rebecca Quincy, who is trying to bring down the Lobos gang that murdered her father, a decorated officer and captain.

Once Renfield starts trying to become independent of the Count, Dracula becomes angry at the perceived betrayal, and he kills members of a support group that Renfield is part of. When Rebecca thinks Renfield committed the murders, she tries to arrest him, but learns that almost all her fellow officers are corrupt and working with the Lobos.

Dracula teams up with Lobos boss Bella and her son Teddy for world domination and to kill Renfield. They kidnap Rebecca’s FBI agent sister Kate, forcing her and Renfield to team up and go after the villains. Dracula turns Teddy and the other Lobos into familiars like Renfield, giving them similar powers to him, but he manages to kill all of them. Kate has already been killed, and Dracula offers Rebecca a chance to join him to save her, but she and Renfield work together to trap the Count and rip him apart.

The two use Dracula’s blood to revive Kate (and Renfield’s support group), and Bella is arrested, signaling the end of the Lobos criminal empire. Renfield and Rebecca become friends now that he is a free man.