LOS ANGELES — Just when we all thought that vampires were passé, a period piece detailing the legend of Dracula, arguably the most famous vampire of them all, is set to hit Netflix and features a peculiar prop in its debut episode.
From the creators of "Sherlock," Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, the three-part "Dracula" series, which premiered in the U.K. on January 1, elaborates on the classic Bram Stoker novel "with new tales that flesh out the vampire's gory crimes — and bring his vulnerability into the light," according to Netflix.
"Flesh out" is right. It was revealed in a recent Newsweek article that in order to create a particular prosthetic effect in the first episode, the team had to resort to using an astonishing number of Fleshlights to achieve the desired outcome.
Specifically, a whopping 80 Fleshlights were melted down to create an "embryonic sack" from which Claes Bang, the actor playing Dracula, bursts forth, stark naked, to confront Sister Agatha Van Helsing (Dolly Wells).
The scene in question comes towards the end of the first episode, "The Rules of the Beast," and depicts Claes transforming from a dog back into his human form in a rather gory display of blood and ripping flesh.
See where the stretchy Fleshlight sac comes into play?
"It is the only latex which is flexible enough," confessed Gatiss.
Fleshlight is made of patented SuperSkin material, a proprietary body-safe blend that aside from its use in creating the popular male pleasure product, is apparently ideal for crafting human-size tear-through dog suits.
Interestingly, in a press conference following the premiere, show producers were keen to note that the masturbatory devices used in the making of the flesh-suit had, in fact, never been used.
For prospective viewers in the U.S., "Dracula" is set to drop on Netflix on January 4.
