4. Tom Waits As Renfeld In 'Dracula'
The 1992 Dracula is a film that on some levels can be seen as a bit departing from the idea of a horror tale that films such as Nosferatu and the Hammer Horror films starring Christopher Lee seemed to get down pat. Gary Oldman's Dracula, while not a nice person, is almost sympathetic at times as one who has had their lover creully snatched away from them (admittedly the idea of forsaking God and becoming a Vampire may have been a bit far, but it was a spur of the moment thing). For the scary moments of the film- or at least the most disturbing- one needs to go to the bits in the asylum where Tom Waits resides as Renfeld- Dracula's servant. There is something absolutely creepy about the way that Waits manages to convey a slavering devotion to his 'master' throughout the film as he thrashes around his cell in his manacles ranting and raving at Richard E. Grant's Dr Seward. Indeed, it's Waits as much as Oldman that really manages to convey the horror that is Dracula as he screams for his master's return in the early parts of the film. One wonders what it was that Dracula did to him back in Transylvania for Renfeld to end up as he did...