The First Reactions To ‘The Last Voyage Of The Demeter’ Include High Praise For The Horrific High Seas: ‘Dracula On A Boat, Baby!!’

Barbie and Oppenheimer are currently celebrating box-office victory, but do not forget that horror films have been not-so-quietly jump-scaring away in the background, too. This year began with the success of M3GAN, a splashy murderdoll with dance moves who already has a sequel on the way. More recently, the Insidious franchise bested the murderdoll’s debut weekend (and dethroned Indy in the process).

Now, it’s Dracula’s day in the sun. Rather, in the moonlight, and a very ominous moonlight for sure because The Last Voyage Of The Demeter swoops into theaters this week. Granted, Dracula has had a rough time lately with that Nic Cage movie not living up to expectations. Further, King Charles complicated the legend, which be partially redeemed by knowing that Bram Stoker’s Dracula might have caused marriage between Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder.

To be more serious about the horror movie side of things, though, André Øvredal’s The Last Voyage Of The Demeter looks like fantastic, storm-soaked horror set in close quarters with truly inescapable confines. The film is based upon a solitary chapter of Dracula from Bram Stoker, and the cinematic adaptation revolves around a merchant ship that carries dozens of unmarked crates, one of which happens to be especially dangerous. There are trailers, and then there are trailers:

As the source material goes, no one survived this voyage after winged Dracula ended up littering the boat with corpses every night. Will there be a last man or woman standing by the end of this film? No one is telling yet, but the film is earning high praise with early social media reactions.

That includes props from Stephen King, who admitted that he was initially “doubtful” but found that the movie is “a throat-ripping good time. It reminded me of the best of the Hammer movies from the 60s and 70s.”

The film has earned plenty of praise elsewhere with Fangoria’s Jason Kauz praising Øvredal for “craft[ing] a new vision of Dracula” and making “ALIEN on a boat y’all!”

More gushing poured forth, including from horror director Joe Russo (not the Marvel guy, obv), who tweeted, “Dracula on a boat, baby!!”

King’s recommendation is drumming up interest:

However, someone may have missed the mark with the film’s title:

The Last Voyage Of The Demeter premieres on August 11.