Dracula sets sail in trailer for horror movie The Last Voyage of the Demeter

"The movie is really Alien-on-a-ship in 1897," director André Øvredal says of his horror film The Last Voyage of the Demeter, which sails into theaters on Aug. 11. "Dracula is the creature that they have to contend with."

Øvredal's movie, the just-released trailer for which you can see below, is adapted from Bram Stoker's original novel Dracula and, in particular, the section which tracks how the Count traveled from central Europe to England aboard the merchant ship Demeter.

"It's the story of the crew experiencing what, to them, is a crazy event, things they cannot fathom or understand," says Øvredal, who previously terrified audiences with 2016's Brian Cox-starring The Autopsy of Jane Doe and 2019's Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. "In the pantheon of Dracula movies, that is a very unique and interesting take, to twist it around completely, where nobody knows who Dracula is. He is just the enemy. He is just the alien. We get to know these crew members from various parts of the world, who just happened to be gathered on this specific ship. And obviously, horror ensues."

The film stars Game of Thrones alum Liam Cunningham as the captain of the Demeter, David Dastmalchian (Ant-Man, Dune) as the ship's first mate, Aisling Franciosi (God's Creatures) as an unwitting stowaway, and Corey Hawkins (Straight Outta Compton) as a doctor named Clemens.

"He's one of the first Black doctors to come out of Cambridge, to come out of a big university in the U.K., and because of the color of his skin, he didn't get job opportunities," says the director of Hawkins' character. "He's traveling around, trying to get back to England, and that's how he ends up on the Demeter."

Dracula himself is portrayed by Mama and Slender Man actor Javier Botet.

"He is a famous creature performer who did an amazing job," says Øvredal. "It's a different depiction, I hope, of Dracula than we've seen before."

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