#maybe bc the guy whos playing Dracula in the Last Voyage of the Demeter is 6 foot 7

[dazaistabletop]

Why was I expecting him to be taller

[raraeavesmoriendi]

dast-pilled tinfoil hat speculation about last voyage of the demeter below:

(written when my adhd meds have worn off a fair amount so like reader beware)

alright, I’m cobbling together few different adaptations/timelines of dracula here so bear with me

obviously we’re not doing this movie strictly by the book (pun v much intended). we’re taking the log entries from the novel and running with it (which is. just how Adaptation Theory works, I know. but hang on.)

the introduction of new characters/fleshing out of people who were just barely named in the novel got me thinking about how in the lugosi/villarías simultaneous films in 1931, which were in turn based off the 1924 hamilton deane stage play (revised by balderson in ‘27 but w/e), renfield is present on the demeter. he is part of the journey as drac is picking off the crew one by one, instead of just waiting and growing more agitated at whitby, and it’s highly implied in the 30s films that it’s this trip that sent him fully over the edge into the manic state we see him in for the rest of the film.

this big reveal at the end of the journey, his discovery as the lone survivor of the ship by a horrified crowd, is a moment that was heavily referenced (beautifully, I would argue) in the recent nicholas hoult film, in which I think he knocked his dwight frye impression out of the fucking park.

(top: frye in 1931, bottom: hoult in 2023. again I say: goddamn!!!)

(not pictured: pablo álvarez rubio, who played renfield in the spanish language drácula filmed on the same sets during the same period but only at night IIRC bc Studio Racism to put it v bluntly, and who I honestly think was almost more horrifying in his manic laugh moment than frye.)

but so the thing I’m getting at, here, is there is room for a little… creative wiggle room, in just who turns out to be onboard this boat in this upcoming movie.

so I watched the trailer today while I was sitting around waiting for the new insidious (which imho was good if you like the franchise but that’s another post), and as someone who was already stoked for this movie and then got More Stoked when dast was cast, I found something kind of… interesting.

he’s really not featured in it a lot.

I mean I didn’t have a stopwatch out or anything, but in the most recent trailer, we maybe get a couple quick closeups of his face looking Alarmed/Concerned. but comparatively, we do get more footage of other crew members getting menaced/hunted/stalked/mauled.

so I was like “okay, maybe this is like the boogeyman, where he did a lot of press for it and then [spoiler].” so I went and checked imdb just to see what was up:

…he’s fourth billed.

so clemens is obvi the protagonist, anna seems to have a lot of lore to talk about in the trailer so she might be around as a key member, and then obviously the captain bc he’s our main point of view in the novel through his logs, IIRC. and there isn’t anyone else in the cast blatantly named “renfield.”

this does raise the question of “why is renfield using an alias and disguising himself as a deckhand to travel with drac” but then again, if I came onboard a ship and was openly associated with mysterious giant boxes of earth as cargo, and then something began fucking picking people off one by one when it got peckish, people would probably figure out there’s something fairly fishy about me and my giant fucking Dirty Boxes p quick. and in the ‘30s versions, the chapter was really presented as more a montage with some voiceover IIRC, only revealing renfield in the hold at the very end.

so what is dast doing in that particular spot if he’s just playing Some Guy? and why is he billed higher than dracula himself, javier botet? (whom I must add I adore from many things, and is one of my favorite Creature Guys next to the man himself, doug!)

(he’s like - eighth or ninth I think? and I get that he’s not billed v high bc we want to keep his onscreen presence fairly minimal to be properly scary, but in a film that’s ostensibly about dracula, it does make me wonder about the significance of the other characters listed before him.)

now look, I could be totally wrong on this - dast is also fourth billed in the boogeyman on imdb, and if you’ve seen it - well, You Know. but still! I don’t think this is totally impossible here!

bc he’s also been plugging an interview he did with botet in this month’s upcoming issue of Fangoria, which has LVoD as its cover

(I haven’t got my copy yet so I can’t confirm what all’s in there)

and one with horrorhound to boot:

so like! Idk! I could just really really want this to be the case, and the movie marketing team knows dast has a reasonably sized fanbase they can use to plug the movie to (me being a perfect case in point).

but I’m just saying… it’s not impossible we might get a second or third act plot twist that ends with dast having his own hysterical laughter closeup at the bottom of the deck stairs, yknow??

(god, that would be so rad. as a fellow horror nerd I would legit be so excited for him to get to have his own version of one of Thee Big Moments in film history.)

anyway, if anyone’s read anything somewhere that shoots this down, please feel free to lmk so I can adjust my expectations accordingly. I think I’m going to go back through the original chapter and see if there’s a Wojchek I happened to totally forgor (and not the historic bear I already associate with the name).

do with this what you will, maybe I’m totally delulu but I did at least want to bring up the possibility bc if I’m right that would just be the coolest shit in the world, imho.

also watch the old 30s movies if you can find them — they usually have cheap dvds of them at walmart during spooky season, in my experience, or try your local library. the lugosi version is iconic, but the villarías never got the recognition it deserved imho.