Universal’s Dracula comedy Renfield (read our review HERE), starring Nicolas Cage as Dracula and Nicholas Hoult as his titular lackey, was a box office disaster, pulling in just $25 million worldwide… which is a shame, because the movie is a lot of fun. Maybe it will reach more of an audience when it receives a digital, Blu-ray, and DVD release on June 6th – and Universal is doing their best to make sure viewers will check it out, giving it a “Dracula Sucks Edition” release that will be packed with extras!
Based on a treatment written by The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman, Renfield was directed by Chris McKay (The Tomorrow War) from a screenplay by Ryan Ridley (Rick and Morty). In Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula, R.M. Renfield was an inmate at a lunatic asylum who was thought to be suffering from delusions but actually is a servant of Dracula.
In this film, Renfield has been serving the bloodsucker for centuries, and now he has grown sick and tired of his centuries as Dracula’s lackey. The henchman finds a new lease on life life and maybe even redemption when he falls for feisty, perennially angry traffic cop Rebecca Quincy.
The “Dracula Sucks Edition” release of Renfield on digital, Blu-ray, and DVD will have the following extras:
Feature Commentary with Producer Samantha Nisenboim, Screenwriter Ryan Ridley, and Crew
Hilarious Deleted and Extended Scenes
Alternate Takes
Dracula UnCaged – Go inside the mind of a vampire as Dracula himself, Nicolas Cage, reveals the secrets behind turning a classic character into a memorable monster.
Monsters & Men: Behind the Scenes of RENFIELD – An in-depth look at Renfield’s cast, sets, costumes and more as the actors and filmmakers reveal how they modernized a famous terror tale with trailblazing comedy and over-the-top action.
Stages of Rejuvenation – See how special makeup effects bring the undead to life throughout the four stages of Dracula’s incredible transformation.
Flesh & Blood – Exploding heads. Peeling faces. Severed limbs. They’re all part of the macabre movie magic that fuels Renfield with inventive action and hilarious horror.
Fighting Dirty – Stunt coordinator Christopher Brewster leads a look at the training, choreography, and careful execution that goes into the film’s spectacular stunts and fight scenes.
The Making of a Deleted Scene: Renfield’s Dance! – Nicholas Hoult and choreographer Kathryn Burns pull back the curtain on constructing an elaborate musical number for a fantasy dance sequence.
Optional English SDH, French Canadian and Latin American Spanish subtitles for the main feature
Cage and Hoult are joined in the cast by Awkwafina as traffic cop Rebecca Quincy, Adrian Martinez as her traffic cop partner Chris, Shohreh Aghdashloo as a feared crime lord named Bella, Ben Schwartz as Bella’s son Teddy Lobo, Bess Rous as “people in toxic relationships” support group member Caitlyn, and James Moses Black as Captain Browning. ’80s horror icons Caroline Williams and William Ragsdale also appear in the film.
While Universal is developing several monster projects, they were excited to get Renfield into production first. According to Deadline, the story’s “mix of humor and action was something the studio was looking for because so many of the other properties have more of a horror element to them.”
Kirkman, who has described the film as “a violent comedy”, produced Renfield with David Alpert, Bryan Furst, and Sean Furst of Skybound Entertainment, alongside McKay’s producing partner Samantha Nisenboim.
Renfield was rated R for bloody violence, some gore, language throughout, and some drug use.
Will you be getting the “Dracula Sucks Edition” release of Renfield on digital, Blu-ray, or DVD? Let us know by leaving a comment below – and if you have already seen the movie, let us know what you thought of it.