Dwight Frye as Renfield in the classic 1931 film adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula
This is the section of the page devoted to my favorite character from Dracula . . . Renfield. While everyone else is cringing at the approach of the title character, or (as is the case with some of the newer versions) drooling over Meena and Lucy, I view Renfield as possibly the best character in the entire story. Count Dracula may be the big bad scary vampire, but Renfield is simply a more interesting character. While Dracula is out sucking blood and shapeshifting, Renfield sits in his cell, munching on flies and spiders. Whether he is a true madman or slowly becoming vampire, he carries the distinctive and unsettling air of a man who eats insects and raves about "the master".
It is for this reason that Renfield is my favorite character. Instead of full-blown vampirism, he has the disturbing quality of real-life madmen.
Of all the Dracula movies out there, I'd have to say that my favorite portrayal of Renfield is in 1992's Bram Stoker's Dracula starring (sadly enough) Keanu Reeves. In this version, Renfield is played by none other than musician/singer Tom Waits, and I must say that while he's more noted for his skill as a musician, he made a damn fine Renfield. In fact, his performance of Renfield was pretty much the only thing saving this movie from complete suckiness. Unfortunately, I have yet to find a single online image of Tom Waits as Renfield.
“His method of tidying was peculiar, he simply swallowed all the flies and spiders in the boxes before I could stop him. It was quite evident that he feared, or was jealous of, some interference. When he had got through his disgusting task, he said cheerfully, "Let the lady come in," and sat down on the edge of his bed with his head down, but with his eyelids raised so that he could see her as she entered.”
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“‘Why, I myself am an instance of a man who had a strange belief. Indeed, it was no wonder that my friends were alarmed, and insisted on my being put under control. I used to fancy that life was a positive and perpetual entity, and that by consuming a multitude of live things, no matter how low in the scale of creation, one might indefinitely prolong life. At times I held the belief so strongly that I actually tried to take human life. The doctor here will bear me out that on one occasion I tried to kill him for the purpose of strengthening my vital powers by the assimilation with my own body of his life through the medium of his blood, relying of course, upon the Scriptural phrase, `For the blood is the life.' Though, indeed, the vendor of a certain nostrum has vulgarized the truism to the very point of contempt. Isn't that true, doctor?’”
--Excerpts from Dracula by Bram Stoker, Chapter 18
I don't know why, but there's something about a raving lunatic who eats bugs to ease his vampiric urges that seems creepier and more interesting than the smooth-talking corpse that enslaved him.
Alas, the character of Renfield is a minor one. But perhaps it should be that way. If we knew more about Renfield, perhaps he wouldn't be as charming.
This bug's for you, Renfield.
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