Renfield Director Regrets Not Adding Hilarious Alternative Opening Scene With Dracula

Renfield director Chris McKay had to leave one hilarious scene out of the movie, and he’s come to regret it. Renfield is a comedy movie centering around the servant of Dracula (Nicolas Cage), Renfield (Nicholas Hoult). After years under Dracula’s dictatorial command, Renfield has begun to search for a means to escape, and it has led him down the road to freedom.

Not everything about Renfield’s life with Dracula is awful, of course. There is a great deal of humor that comes with Cage’s Dracula, especially when it comes to Dracula’s comedic gore and sense of style. There was still one scene, though, that Renfield‘s director regrets leaving out, as McKay revealed in an interview with Collider. Check out his quote below:

There’s this moment where – it’s meant to be in the very beginning of the movie – the vampire hunters are attacking Dracula’s castle, and Dracula, instead of going via telepathy, he comes in the door to Renfield’s bedroom to wake Renfield up. And while Dracula is having a normal conversation about, ‘I need you to do this, Renfield, and that…’ there’s a vampire hunter just continuously stabbing Dracula in the back during the entire normal conversation, which I thought was such a funny–

Why The Scene Would Have Fit Renfield So Well

Renfield is all about comedy. It is a love story and a coming-of-age tale of the battered servant, but comedy is its central trait. Always striding the line between horror and humor, it manages to present horrifying scenes that are enough to draw a laugh. Stabbing Dracula multiple times, while he takes the opportunity to chastise Renfield, would be perfectly in line with that.To present an opening scene that sees Dracula pay such little mind to his enemies also gives a good reason for Renfield to be afraid of him. It sets Dracula up as a truly terrifying creature, while also shrouding him in humor. If he can survive multiple stab wounds, there isn’t much that Renfield can do to him. The contrast makes him profoundly interesting. Eventually, that powerful performance could even lead to a solo Dracula movie.It’s hard to see why the scene was cut in the first place, given how hilarious it would have been. It could have been a visual effects issue, a length issue, or something else that McKay didn’t name. Either way, the potential Renfield opening would have been an excellent addition to the movie. It’s no wonder McKay regrets leaving it out.Source: Collider