R.M. Renfield is the secondary antagonist of Werner Herzog's 1979 film Nosferatu the Vampyre, a remake of the original 1922 film Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror, and its novelization (written by Paul Monette). He is based upon the original character, Knock, as well as the character from the original novel.
He was portrayed by the late Roland Topor.
Personality[]
Renfield has a reputation of being crazy among his workers. He likes to laugh endlessly, much to Jonathan's discomfort. After outing himself as insane, he laughs maniacally even when imprisoned within the asylum, and constantly alludes to Dracula coming to Wismar. When finally meets Dracula, he acts like a sycophant to him, much to Dracula's dismay. It's likely that Dracula tells him to go Riga just to get rid of him as quickly as possible.
Biography[]
R.M. Renfield is an agent of an estate dealing with buying and selling houses in the city of Wismar, which Jonathan Harker works at. Before the event of the movie, he visited the aristocrat Count Dracula from the Carpathian Mountains, who is in truth a vampire, and was subsequently brainwashed by the latter and became Dracula's new minion. Renfield then orders Jonathan to travel to the Carpathian Mountains to finish the process with Dracula. In reality, Renfield wants his master to come and bring forth plagues to Wismar.
Some time later, Renfield outs himself as insane and is subsequently admitted into an asylum, where he eats spiders to consume their blood, as well as laughing madly and telling them vaguely about Dracula's incoming arrival. After Dracula successfully travels to Wismar and brings forth plagues to the city, resulting in countless deaths, Renfield glees. When the guard isn't paying attention, he attacks him and escapes, before going rampant and attacking others for no reason.
Renfield later meets Dracula and attempts to please him, but the latter rejects him. When Renfield asks his master for something to do, Dracula tells him to go North to Riga, as the army of rats and the Black Death are with him. Renfields takes this command immediately. It's unknown what happens to him afterwards.
Trivia[]
- Unlike the original novel character and Knock, this Renfield manages to escape death. Supposedly, the original plan of Vampire in Venice might go into detail about this plot point due to following the now-vampire Jonathan, but the changes in production ultimately forced this idea to be dropped.
External Links[]
- R.M. Renfield on the Nosferatu Wiki
