The Last Voyage of the Demeter (Dead Meat Podcast Ep. 202)

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I think something that this movie really wanted to highlight, which I also think people have a hard time wrapping their heads around sometimes due to other iconic portrayals, was the actual nature of Dracula's character. He isn't a man who can transform into a monster. He's a monster pretending to be a man. So, in an environment where he doesn't need to pretend anymore cause the only goal is to kill, we're gonna get a wildly different side of him shown. Just the monster.

Lucy slowly opening the door in the background is the best horror movie of 2024 so far.

I really enjoyed the take on Dracula in this as a feral, hungry beast. I love Anna's description of him as a demon that disguises as a man. Great episode! Really hope Godzilla Minus One is covered next

The crew spent their days doing their regular work. As men started going missing, the remaining men had to do extra duties and got very little sleep. It was generally the steersman or watchman who went missing at night, while everyone else was asleep. The whole crew searched the ship once but didn't open the boxes so they only learned what was happening as it was happening to them. The first mate was pissed at everyone being superstitious, at first. He eventually figured it out and pretty much went mad. When it was only him and the captain left, the first mate opened the caskets until he found Dracula. He was so mad by that point that he didn't even try to kill him. He just ran to the deck, shouted a warning to the captain, and jumped overboard. At that point, only the captain was left and he was convinced the first mate had gone nuts and killed everyone. He had to stay at the wheel from then on and he saw Dracula at night. At that point, he updated his log, put it in a bottle and sealed it, then tied himself to the wheel with a rosary around his hands, in the hope that it would protect him from Dracula. He accepted that, as captain, it was his duty to go down with his ship. He kept the bottle with the log in it on himself in the hopes that if the ship sank, someone would eventually find it and understand why they all died. The final log entry doesn't indicate if the captain was hoping to go out to sea or to eventually hit land. His only hope was that the rosary would protect him and save his soul. If you read this whole thing and have never read the book, I suggest signing up for Dracula Daily on substack This guy sends out each entry in the book (it's letters, telegrams, journal entries, newspaper clippings) by email, each day that appears in the book so you read it in the "real time" of the book. The emails start on May 3 and end on November 10. If nothing happens in the book on a particular day, you don't get an email.

For anyone curious, early vampire myths say they can't cross running water. The gravedirt (it's not just from his home, it's specifically from where he was buried) is partially to get around THAT issue, hence him not leaving the ship until it reached shore. The movie didn't stick with that, but that's the reason for how the book went. In answer to the underwater vampire thing

The fact that in the book he escaped as a dog reminds me of the start of The Thing. In the book, Dracula is not as strong in sunlight but it doesn't kill him since he walks around in the day. In the book part of the deal is that Dracula can cloud minds, which works in the screen life feel of the book. Dracula mocking people reminded me of The Predator. The idea with the vampire mermaid has been explored but the reason you don't see vampires in the sea is because running water is one of their weaknesses in certain vampire lore. Stagnant water is ok but any type of water with a current whether that be salt water or fresh water will cause disintegration of their flesh, not the burning sensation of holy water but the same end result. It is why Dracula didn't just fly from Romania to England. That Frankenstein sequel would be a cool idea since that would be the climax part of the original book. Interesting podcast as usual y'all.

So in the book, if I remember correctly (and I might be confusing events with various adaptions, please feel free to correct me), Count Dracula has just bought property in England through Jonathan Harker, and personally chartered the Demeter to take 50 boxes of earth (dirt from the country where he was born, because that’s how he restores his powers) to England. I think he stows away inside of the boxes, so the crew don’t know he’s there, and he’s the one that kills the crew (because he needs blood during the voyage, which lasted weeks to months). As for why the Captain is tied to the steering wheel, I always interpreted it that Dracula did that, because otherwise he’d be stuck in the ocean. After escaping the boat in the form of a dog (because Dracula can shape shift in the book), he sends people to collect the boxes because it is his property and there’s no evidence he’s involved. EDIT: Chelsea mentions the extra crew member, that’s probably Dracula.

To confirm as someone who took a history of western medicine class, we did use to just give blood transfusions before blood typing. It was just thought it was a chance you die from a transfusion but the chances where low enough that it was worth the chances or else you would have definitely died. I was impressed at how accurate they got to how old blood transfusions were done. RIP Huckleberry he deserved the best boy who tried to fight dracula

I love that Chelsea said Dracula likes to play with his food and in the new Abigail trailer the ballerina vampire says she likes to play with her food first.

Regarding the water thing I believe that one of the parts of (the incredibly messy) vampire mythology is the idea of them not being able to cross bodies of water, partly because of the likely real life inspiration of rabies and on a metaphorical level either because bodies of water are holy because it comes from the heavens or because of the vampires not being able to cross boundaries unless permitted and bodies of water are natural barriers.

Chelsea’s hair is AMAZING in this episode ❤

My professor's brother worked on this movie. The amount of preproduction to post-production work was absolutely insane. We learned about the process of making this movie from someone who actually worked on it, and even though it's not my favorite movie, you can still appreciate all the work put into it.

To recommend a way of reading Dracula that's 'easier' I really suggest Re:Dracula. It's a Podcast where they tell the story of Dracula in chronological order and was inspired off of the email phenomenon Dracula Daily, which did the same thing! The voice acting and sound design is incredible. It's worth a shot if you haven't read the book and actually answers the underwater Dracula question!

The two of you overflowing with praise for both Obra Dinn and Outer Wilds makes me so happy. "Those are two of the best game experiences ever." HARD agree.

50:35 I have a simple answer for James, remember how you said that Dracula mocked his victim (taunted their voices) before killing them?!.... Knowing that is his character, it's not a stretch at all to think he would send back the boat to simply 'mock' any attempts of escape his victims have. Essentially psychological warfare, anytime, all the time.

As UK fans we were royally shafted with this one with its lack of UK theatrical release and no streaming!

The movie is actually shortlisted for best makeup at the oscars (and they are very much into prostetics and heavy makeup) so I think they just added a weird amount of cgi to the vampire

8:58 I love how you can see Molly just staring Lucy down in the doorway haha. Adds some background drama to the ep

I really enjoyed the weird vampire lore in it, my favorite part is how Dracula can transport via moonlight, hence how he gets into the locked room to bite the kid, he gets in via the moonbeam in the room