Let's Examine Renfield's Deeply Weird Credits Scenes
This article contains spoilers for "Renfield."
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has made post-credits (and mid-credits, and mid-mid-credits) scenes commonplace these days, with nearly every genre of cinema feeling free to utilize the space during the end credit roll to toss in additional material. That space used to be the near-exclusive domain of the comedy movie. Beginning somewhere around the 1980s, some comedies inserted scenes both during and after the credits (as in 1986's "Ferris Bueller's Day Off"), some included blooper reels (as in 1980's "Smokey and the Bandit II"), while others hid jokes inside the credits themselves (as in 1984's "Top Secret!").
While the mid- and post-credits format is still relatively young enough that it can be experimented with, that doesn't quite explain what exactly is going on with the end credits for "Renfield." A comedy-horror-action movie, "Renfield" is exactly the type of film to put little jokes and bits into the end credits, and sure enough, the film's main-on-end title sequence is full of little callback gags and Easter eggs.
Yet it's the montage of footage that plays under the end credit roll proper that contains the most curious elements, including what appears to be deleted shots to footage that may indicate an entire musical number was excised from the movie.
The missing moments of Renfield
If you've seen both "Renfield" and its trailer, you're likely already aware of some changes to the film that were made during post-production. Some dialogue and shots can be seen in the trailer that are not present in the final release of the film, including Rebecca (Awkwafina) exclaiming that Renfield is "like the guy who gets the villain's Postmates!" Little changes like these between a movie's marketing materials and its final cut are highly common, especially with regard to comedies, which often try out variations on one-liners and such.
"Renfield" is a tight 93 minutes long, so it's no surprise that there exists some footage on the cutting room floor. The film opens with a sequence depicting Nicholas Hoult's Renfield and Nicolas Cage's Dracula either inserted into or re-enacting scenes from Tod Browning's 1931 "Dracula," and that's just the first of many references to past Dracula films that director Chris McKay put in the movie.
The end credit footage seems to reveal that more homages featuring Cage were filmed, including one shot that mimics the heavy candlelit look of John Badham's 1979 "Dracula," with Cage dressed in a costume reminiscent of Frank Langella's from that film. There also appear to be a few shots of Cage's Dracula in a top hat and coat that seems to recall Gary Oldman's Count from 1992's "Bram Stoker's Dracula." Cage wears the outfit in the film proper, but it's onscreen for only a very brief amount of time. Perhaps McKay deleted these other, longer shots and moments for fear of the movie becoming too much of a reference-fest.
Renfield: the musical?
It's a bit difficult and awkward to tell which footage in the end credits was in the movie or not, as the montage intersperses reprises of recognizable moments from the movie itself. It's not hard to assume that the entire reel is just a montage of stuff we've already seen.
Except for a couple of peculiar shots near the end, which depict Renfield sauntering down a street being followed by a crowd of people who appear to be dancing, all while Renfield looks to be singing. A few moments later, there's a shot of Renfield with the night sky behind him lighting up with fireworks while he appears to be holding a climactic note.
If it looks like a musical number, and it dances like a musical number ... is there a musical number that was shot and then deleted from "Renfield?" It wouldn't be the first time an elaborate musical sequence was discarded from a comedy: 2013's "Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues" contained such a scene. That number was eventually uncovered as part of the movie's home media release, included within an entire alternate cut of the film.
Could this mean that an extended or alternate cut of "Renfield" might emerge in the future? Universal Pictures have been known to release extended versions of their movies recently, as seen with "Jurassic World: Dominion" and "F9," so it's highly possible. If we're lucky, the footage may turn up as a deleted scene, but it seems like McKay and company thought that a movie featuring both Nicolas Cage as Dracula and a musical number might be a little over the top.
One thing's for sure, though: comedies still have the most intriguing end credit gags, and you should especially pay attention to the end credits of "Renfield," as there might be even more secrets hidden within.