An excerpt from Reals’ script review for Renfield which will be available 04/17/23:
What Worked
Tone – From the very beginning, you know what kind of a script you’re going to be reading.
The first lines read as such:
Dracula. Lord of the Vampires. For a thousand years he’s ruled a kingdom of darkness and blood from the castles of Europe.
Attacked by his enemies and forced to flee, he exiled himself to the sewers beneath America.
Specifically, a suburb outside of Detroit called Warren, Michigan.
It’s where Eminem went to high school.
Now, this style of writing will not work for every script, maybe it won’t even work for MOST scripts. However, for a tongue in cheek horror comedy, it was perfect.
The First Scene With Dracula – I did like the first scene with Renfield and Dracula. Specifically this line from Dracula:
DRACULA
How is it that I feed off the blood of the living but you…
Dracula reaches his arm in the air as if he’s about to slash Renfield in the face, but instead, tears open the pale flesh of his own arm.
DRACULA (CONT’D)
Are the parasite?
It sets up a good dynamic and introduces us to two characters who obviously have a lot of unresolved issues with one another.
A Fun Take On The Dracula Mythos – We all know Dracula. That’s pretty much a given, even if you’re not a horror fan.
I really praise this script for taking the tired Dracula story and telling it through a new lens: that of his familiar, or, maybe more accurately, his around-the-clock caregiver.
If you can find a fun, new way to tell a story people are familiar with, you’ve nailed the “High-Concept” part of your pitch. Plus, you’ll get bonus points for giving a producer something that is “The same, but different.”
Actually, while I was in the theater to watch the film, another trailer really caught my attention: that of the upcoming film: The Last Voyage of the Demeter. In this one, we have a bunch of sailors trapped on a ship in rough waters as something (it’s Dracula – the trailer tells us) stalks them and picks them them off one-by-one.
This is another cool take on the Dracula mythos – and looks like it will be a cool, spooky ride.
Some Fun Gore – I really like this description (on Page 65) and it illustrates my point that there is lots of gore, but it isn’t jarring since it’s always used in a funny way.
From the script:
INT. STAIRWELL – MOMENTS LATER
The goons charge up the stairs towards Renfield’s apartment. From above, a SEVERED GOON HEAD hurls towards them like a cannonball. It hits the first guy in the face. Then, like a meteor shower in Hell, LIMB after LIMB comes rocketing towards them. It’s a hail storm of torn off body parts. The goons try their best to block themselves from the torrent of gore.
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