The Last Voyage of the Demeter arrived in theaters on August 11 and taught us that giving Dracula a boat is a fantastic way to create a viral meme. The movie is a supernatural horror film that follows the ill-fated journey of the merchant ship known as the Demeter from Transylvania to London, as the passengers are stalked by Dracula (Javier Botet) abroad. It is a loose adaptation of Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel, Dracula, but only tells the story of the book’s seventh chapter, which briefly tells the terrifying tale of the boat that brought Dracula to London and what became of it and its passengers.
Even though it’s just one chapter, it does play out a bit like a short horror story, making it the perfect excerptˆ to receive its own film adaptation. However, The Last Voyage of the Demeter opened to little fanfare, raking in a modest $2.6 million on its opening day. Reviews of the film have been fairly mixed, with some critics praising the unique idea behind the film and its suspense, but others criticizing the anti-climatic premise and lack of compelling horror elements.
Despite its mixed reception, The Last Voyage of the Demeter is making waves on social media. It turns out the film’s premise is extremely meme-worthy, and the internet has been gleefully emphasizing this.
It’s Dracula! On a boat!
The Last Voyage of the Demeter has inspired a wide range of Dracula on a Boat memes on social media. The memes largely pokes fun at the film’s premise and title. What users have found particularly funny is the fact that the premise of the film can be summed up merely as “Dracula on a boat.” Meanwhile, the film found a rather roundabout way of revealing this very simple premise. Those not very familiar with Stoker’s Dracula aren’t even likely to realize from the film’s title that it is, indeed, a Dracula film. It sounds a little more like the title of a historical drama, making us wonder, you know, why didn’t they just title it “Dracula on a Boat”?
Not only does it summarize the movie perfectly, but it’s also just really fun to say and think about “Dracula on a Boat.” On the surface, it’s funny and a bit out there, but when you start to think about it, it’s pretty alluring. There are so many endless possibilities for a Dracula on a boat. It also induces a slight sense of horror, as viewers of these memes will now ask themselves whenever they’re on a boat, “What are the chances of a Dracula being on this boat?”
Even Lynda Carter got in on The Last Voyage of the Demeter‘s Dracula meme with a hilarious post.
It seems the internet can’t get enough of the idea of Dracula on a Boat. Perhaps it will inspire the names of Dracula films going forward. Who needs titles like The Last Voyage of the Demeter, Dracula 2000, or The Invitation when we could just have the meme-worthy perfection of Dracula on a Boat, Dracula on a Plane, or Dracula in an Estate?
(featured image: Universal Pictures)
