It was a good year for horror. In fact, it was a really good year for horror – for both big-budget franchise sequels and independent one-off features alike. But while you were out watching Evil Dead Rise on a first date or hiding behind your popcorn during Skinamarink, there was one spooky movie that may have slipped through the cracks. Renfield, or the "Nicolas Cage Dracula movie" as Google search trends would have it, came and went without making a peep – even though it deserved so much more.
Let's get one thing straight: this isn't your average horror comedy. While Dracula is camp and Nicolas Cage as an actor is inherently campy, the film turns away from the shocking and absurd and presents a serious story rooted in something we rarely see in mainstream media: surviving narcissistic abuse. Dracula and Renfield's partnership, which dates back all the way to 1931, serves as a clever metaphor for toxic, abusive relationships that sometimes take years and years to leave.
