Summary
- The Last Voyage of Demeter received a low score of 36% on Rotten Tomatoes, continuing the negative trend for modern interpretations of Dracula.
- This is the third low rating Dracula film in the past year, starting with The Invitation at 29% and Renfield at 58%.
- Two upcoming reimaginings of Dracula could reverse this negative trend.
The Final Voyage of the Demeter continues the Rotten Tomatoes series of works dedicated to modern interpretations of Bram Stoker’s cult novel Dracula. The new film, which premiered in theaters on August 11, is the sequel to the Captain’s Diary chapter, which follows Dracula’s deadly infiltration on a ship bound for London from Transylvania. The film stars Cory Hawkins, Aisling Franciosi, Liam Cunningham and David Dastmalchian, and Javier Botet as Dracula.
Rotten Tomatoes officially gave Demeter’s Last Voyage 2023 a very low score of 36%. This is the third low rating for a Dracula film in twelve months. This sad streak for the iconic vampire began with “The Invitation” in August 2022 (29%), in which Nathalie Emmanuel plays a young woman who discovers her family is hiding a vampire secret, and with “Renfield” April (58%), the original stories featuring Nicolas Cage as Dracula and Nicholas Hoult as his assistant Renfield.
Is there any hope for Dracula in the 2020s?
In addition to a poor rating on Rotten Tomatoes, Renfield performed very poorly at the box office. Despite the presence of several well-known actors (Awkwafina also starred alongside Cage and Holt) and a $65 million budget, it only made $26.7 million in theaters. While The Invitation turned a profit, earning $38 million on a $10 million budget, it fell behind other horror blockbusters of the year, including Devil’s Prey, Scream, Smile, End of Halloween, The Black Phone and Barbarian.
Whether The Last Voyage of Demeter will be able to beat these low box office performance remains to be seen. Unfortunately, its $37 million budget could prove to be a hindrance if this low Rotten Tomatoes rating deters some of its potential audience. However, despite the downward spiral of these recent Stoker reimaginings, there may still be hope for Dracula in the coming years.
Demeter’s Last Voyage could be the last major negative-review Dracula reinterpretation for a while, as two acclaimed directors work on future projects involving the character. Academy Award winner Chloe Zhao is currently working on a Dracula mystery film that combines sci-fi and western elements, while The Witch director Robert Eggers is directing a remake of Nosferatu (the original Nosferatu was an unauthorized adaptation of Dracula) starring Bill Skarsgard. One of those titles could be one that could change the outlook for Dracula in the 2020s when it comes out.
Source: Rotten Tomatoes