Based on a single chapter, the Captain’s Log, from Bram Stoker’s classic 1897 novel “Dracula”, the story is set aboard the Russian schooner Demeter, which was chartered to carry private cargo – 24 unmarked wooden crates – from Carpathia to London. The film will detail the strange events that befell the doomed crew as they attempt to survive the ocean voyage, stalked each night by a terrifying presence on board the ship. When it finally arrived near Whitby Harbour, it was derelict. There was no trace of the crew.
* * *
(grand orchestral fanfare playing)
♪ ♪
♪ ♪
(thunder rumbling softly)
(thunder rumbling)
(wind howling)
♪ ♪
Constable, a boat’s blown in with the storm.
(thunder crashing)
God.
Come on!
(indistinct chatter)
Fletcher?
(breathes heavily)
I went aboard, sir, to see if anyone was alive.
And?
What’s that?
Captain’s log.
ELIOT: This log is a record and a warning.
And if it finds you, God help you, as he has abandoned the Demeter.
We tried to stop him.
If we didn’t succeed, God have mercy on your souls.
I can’t go back, sir.
Come on.
(thunder rumbling)
(sails rustling)
♪ ♪
(hooves clopping)
(wheels creaking)
(horse sputters)
♪ ♪
(kids laughing)
(lively chatter)
(excited shouting)
MAN: Hey!
(laughter)
(coins clinking)
(sniffs)
♪ ♪
MAN: Hey, mister! Sit down! It’s your turn.
MAN 2: Come on, wake up.
MAN 3: Let’s go back home.
(chuckling)
(lively chatter continues)
MAN: Oppa!
(wheels creak)
(speaks Romani)
ELIOT: Sixth of July, made port in Varna, Bulgaria.
Don’t wander far, Toby. We’re not staying long.
TOBY: I won’t, Grandpa. I promise.
ELIOT: Our crew was a few hands short.
WOJCHEK: Captain.
ELIOT: And I have tasked Mr. Wojchek to remedy this before we take on cargo.
(lively chatter, laughter)
(coins clinking)
The Demeter is looking for hands all the way to England.
I fold.
Open your ears, men.
Demeter needs three able-bodied seamen.
Bound for London. We pay in gold.
I’m able.
And strong as an ox.
(laughter)
Who are you, boy?
Clemens.
You dress like an educated man. Where did you go to school?
University of Cambridge.
I have a steady hand with a needle, and, uh… I have supplies if you’re in need of a ship doctor.
I–It’s been a while, but II do know my way around a boat, if not.
Learning about boats ain’t the same as keeping one afloat.
What did the sailor ever learn from a book that did him an ounce of good when he was lost at sea?
Astronomy, for one.
Can lose a chart. You can lose a compass.
But you can’t lose the stars, can you?
Never met an Englishman in such a hurry to return to England.
Be gone as soon as we reach it, no doubt.
We need strong crew, not passengers.
Me?
(men groaning, murmuring)
You.
No, never mind you.
(conversation continues in Romani)
WOJCHEK: What’s he saying?
He says they cannot stay.
The hell they can’t.
We need their hands or we lose the tide.
He says they need to leave before the sun sinks.
What kind of nonsense is that?
(coins clink)
MAN: For your men.
We go now.
Men!
This is more than I paid to bring the damn cargo here.
What did he spit at the end?
“Good leave” or “good riddance”?
“Good luck.”
♪ ♪
Come on, pull!
(men grunting)
Pull!
Come on, pull!
Pull!
Come on, pull!
Pull!
(chatter continues)
(mechanical creaking)
MAN: See, let go. Let go!
♪ ♪
(lively chatter)
(string music playing nearby)
(grunting)
(grunts)
(woman screams)
(people murmuring)
Toby!
Are you all right, boy?
(coughing)
ELIOT: Toby?
Mr. Wojchek, hold that man!
You never said nothing about dragons.
I know this mark.
It is a bad omen.
WOJCHEK: You could have killed the boy.
I don’t give a whore’s ass about dragons!
Keep your gold, the devil’s serpent.
God save you all.
May he save the ship.
May he save the crew.
Are you all right?
You injured?
Mmmm.
Thank you, Mr. Clemens.
Yeah, sure.
We leave port within the hour.
You prove to be lying about knowing your way around a boat, I’ll throw you off the boat myself, astronomer.
Uh, ththank you, sir.
Larsen, get this stinking bunch of cockroaches underway.
LARSEN: You heard Mr. Wojchek.
Olgaren, get those crates stowed.
♪ ♪
TOBY: Come on.
Good boy!
(dog barking)
Cast off! Ready the headsails.
PETROFSKY: Pull in the moorings!
Be quick about it!
(clanking)
Pull!
Pull!
WOJCHEK: Give me a way to steer.
She moves like a fat pig with all this weight.
♪ ♪
♪ ♪
Do you see that beam up there?
That’s where they used to hang pirates and mutineers.
Have you ever seen a real dead man, Mr. Clemens?
I have.
Really?
Let me show you the ship.
Captain’s cabin’s that big door.
There’s lots of maps and drawings in there, but captain doesn’t like me fiddling.
This here is Huckleberry.
Oh.
But we just call him Huck.
(Huck barks)
CLEMENS: Hello, Huck.
That’s the cargo hold.
Everything there is headed for London.
You knock on wood like this if there’s any trouble.
Or to signal a change of watch or if the sky’s looking fierce.
You can hear it all the way from the bunks to the captain’s on a clear night.
I swear.
Mm.
I’ve heard it.
(laughs) Yes, I believe you have.
This is where we eat.
This used to be a lumber ship, built the old way.
But now everyone wants steam ships.
Captain says there’s no joy in metal ships.
Well, that’s the thing about progress, innit?
It cares not for joy, your captain’s or otherwise.
The Demeter’s a fine boat. No doubt.
Meet my crew, Mr. Clemens.
(animals bleating, squealing)
The faster we eat them,
the less crap I have to clean up.
CLEMENS: Mm.
(Huck barking, growling)
TOBY: Ahah, Huck. You know the rules.
And up here is the galley.
Joseph.
Huh?
This here is Clemens.
He’s a doctor. A real one.
JOSEPH: We eat at six bells no sooner, no later.
You stay out of the galley.
And I won’t serve any man who takes the Lord’s name in vain.
He means that last one.
I mean all of them.
Do you know who Saint Nicholas is?
Patron saint of sailors.
Well, you’re not a heathen.
Thank the Lord for small favors.
(laughs)
Toby, show him to his quarters.
And get this mutt out of my kitchen.
TOBY: Huck!
(panting)
ELIOT: On sixth July, we finished taking in cargo
Turkish cotton, ten barrels of petroleum and private crates marked for London with nine hands.
Crew of five, one ship doctor, two mates, cook and myself, captain.
Fair wind.
(upbeat music playing)
Crew in high spirits.
(Toby laughing)
♪ ♪
PETROFSKY: ♪ Oh, they call me Hangin’ Johnny… ♪
All is well, Captain.
Making about 12 knots on the nor’easter.
Wheel’s kicking a bit, but she’ll settle down.
12 knots?
We’ll reach London well before August the sixth.
Aye, sir.
For the crew’s sake, we better.
Already finding ways to spend the bonus pay.
♪ The holy family ♪
♪ So hang, boys, hang ♪
♪ They say I hung my mother… ♪
I’ve decided this is to be my final voyage, Mr. Wojchek.
I’m going to buy a little cottage in Ireland.
Toby will enjoy the countryside.
And I promised my daughter I wouldn’t let the sea air bleach the future out of him.
I intend to keep that promise.
I will arrange for you to be my successor as captain of the Demeter as soon as we reach London.
Sir, I…
You’re a good seaman, Mr. Wojchek.
The ship couldn’t ask for a better hand to guide her crew.
(singing continues in distance)
♪ Away, boys, away ♪
♪ They call me Hangin’ Johnny ♪
♪ So hang, boys, hang. ♪
(laughter, whooping in distance)
♪ ♪
(rat squeaking)
(ship creaking softly)
(squeaking)
(soft hissing)
(rats squeaking frantically)
(low growling)
(wood creaks)
(growling)
800 pounds eight ways, and minus the captain and first mate’s share, comes to round about…
75 each.
75?
Gonna get myself a proper shave and one of them waistcoats with the tails on.
Ooh, the English ladies love them tails.
Almost… almost as much as they love me.
If you put them over your face, mm, maybe.
(laughter)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
You’re the funny ones, aren’t you?
What are you lot gonna do with yours?
JOSEPH: “The generous soul will be made rich, and he who waters will also be watered himself.”
Although the Lord might not mind if I just simply watered myself.
(laughter)
Oi! 75!
Do you know what I will do this much?
(laughs) The same thing that you always do, Petrofsky.
Find the nearest brothel and spend the next month absolutely up to your gills in…
Mr. Abrams, if you please.
Apologies, Captain.
Forgot about the lad.
TOBY: I’m almost nine.
I know what a brothel is, anyway.
Do you, now?
Yeah.
It’s a place we pay women to take off their knickers.
(laughter)
Ah, I love kids!
(playful chatter)
PETROFSKY: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
TOBY: Well, isn’t it?
ELIOT: Oh, close enough, lad.
Close enough.
Well, Mr. Clemens, what about you?
Sir?
Our charter has agreed to pay a sizable bonus for timely arrival of his cargo in London.
You’re part of the crew, which means you earn a crewman’s share.
How do you plan spending it?
A new petticoat, perhaps?
Well, everything I desire in this life, unfortunately, coin will be of no aid.
(scoffs) And what would that be, now?
To understand this world.
The more of it I see, the less any of it makes sense.
The world cares little for sense, Mr. Clemens.
Perhaps it is not meant to be understood but rather experienced and accepted.
Perhaps.
But I need to get to the heart of it.
And understand why the world has so much goodness inside it and yet…
(chuckles) Isn’t that what all men desire, mm?
Deep down.
ABRAMS: Well, hell, he’s right.
I’ll have his share, then.
(laughter)
(animals squealing)
(whining, barking)
What the devil is that?
ELIOT: Toby. See to the livestock.
(ship creaking)
(animals squealing wildly)
Toby?
(frantic thumping)
What’s gotten into them?
It’s probably just the weather.
Hey, they can sense a storm coming.
(animals squealing frantically)
(bleating)
(squealing)
(frantic clucking)
Toby, give me a hand with this.
That should put them to rest.
(animals quiet down)
(ship creaking, rattling)
(objects clattering)
What was that, Mr. Clemens?
Fetch the captain, lad.
Tell him something fell in the cargo hold.
(grunts)
(doors creaking)
(ship creaking softly)
(soft clanging in distance)
♪ ♪
(grunts softly)
(grunts)
(soft clanking in distance)
(screams)
(shallow gasping)
(breathing heavily)
Stay with me.
(woman whimpering softly)
Stay with me.
(grunts) Come on.
What in the seven hells?
She was below deck.
(woman whimpers)
A stowaway.
A stowaway who is going to die if we don’t administer proper medical care.
You want to help her?
Who knows what kind of diseased rat infections she has…
Captain.
What do you need?
Her body’s infected.
I need to attempt a transfusion.
What are you babbling?
A blood transfusion.
She needs blood to fight the infection.
WOJCHEK: You’re joking.
You are of aid to me or you are in my way and need to leave.
In either case, please make yourself apparent and fulfill your purpose.
♪ ♪
(whimpers weakly)
(weak, muffled grunting)
(shuddering breaths)
(wood creaking)
(grunting)
♪ ♪
(exhale echoes)
CLEMENS: She’ll make it the night, but I need to continue with the transfusions until she has no more infected blood.
We’ve done all we can.
WOJCHEK: Then maybe she’ll wake up in time to see us toss her to the waves.
We let Poseidon deal with stowaways always have.
I didn’t save this girl’s life only to watch you end it.
At least let us off at the next port.
“Us,” is it?
I see where your loyalty lies, Mr. Clemens.
We stop, then we forfeit the bonus wage.
And I ain’t forfeiting the bonus wage for you or your diseased whore.
ELIOT: Mr. Wojchek, lower your voice.
Control your language.
I would prefer not to have my final voyage at the helm of the Demeter marred by the death of a young woman.
Stowaway or not.
We will repurpose the carpenter shed as the young woman’s quarters.
Thank you, sir.
And you will be solely dividing your own rations with your patient, Mr. Clemens.
♪ ♪
CLEMENS: Toby.
You’ll look after her for me, will you?
Mmhmm.
Anyone tries to see her, you come get me or the captain straightaway, you understand?
Yeah.
All right, then. Go on. That’s a good lad.
OLGAREN: You’re making all sorts of friends, aren’t you, Mr. Clemens?
Woman on the ship. Bad omen. Hmm?
Bad luck.
Men won’t be happy.
The men don’t need to be happy, do they, Mr. Olgaren?
They just need to get this boat to London, huh?
(Olgaren chuckles)
I’m trying to help you, son. Keep spouting words like that.
Maybe she’ll make it to London, but… but I reckon you’ll be swimming.
(chuckles)
Knock if you need me.
Saves the pipes.
Mm.
Understand?
Aye!
Islands and rocks everywhere here.
So we’re in the Aegean, yes?
It’s the Mediterranean at dawn.
It’s good time, innit?
Greece should be to our starboard.
(hissing, growling)
♪ ♪
♪ ♪
Mr. Olgaren?
Mr. Olgaren?
♪ ♪
(knocks echoing)
(distant knock)
Olgaren?
♪ ♪
(screams) Jesus Christ!
Did you see it?
Did no one pass by?
See what? There’s no one on deck but us.
There is something out there.
Someone.
♪ ♪
(panting)
(soft hissing)
♪ ♪
(barking)
(whimpering)
(sharp whoosh)
(growl echoes)
(sighs)
(grunts) What the…
(gasps) Oh, God, Huck.
♪ ♪
(flies buzzing)
All the livestock?
Any man with knowledge of this heinous act needs to step forward now or find themselves in irons later.
(spits, smacks lips)
The girl…
Was in no shape to do anything of the sort, and Mr. Wojchek can attest to that, even if he’d rather not.
Aye.
He’s right on this.
PETROFSKY: She didn’t need to. We all know.
Bad luck, woman on board.
Makes skies turn, animals go mad.
The dog was ripped into.
Perhaps he went rabid and was gored by one of the larger livestock as it attacked it.
You think Huck did this?
Ripped apart the animals?
No. He’s a good dog.
WOJCHEK: You heard the man.
Rabies. Bad luck is all.
Push on through as we always do.
If this is an outbreak, then we’ll need to make port.
Captain…
No. No.
No, we won’t make our bonus, then.
What are you talking about? Then we lose the bonus wage.
We can’t make port. No.
ELIOT: Mr. Clemens, a malady of this sort, could a human catch it?
No.
Rabies, it– it can’t pass to a human without it being bit.
Dispose of the meat.
Immediately.
JOSEPH: I guess we say the Lord’s Prayer over cabbage and potatoes for the rest of our voyage.
(clattering)
Have you all been struck dumb?
It’s not rabies that opened up the livestock cages.
And there is only two people on this boat I have not sailed with fore now: the cy in the toolshed and this darky savage pretending to be doctor.
Mm?
(sighs)
Say it again.
(speaks Russian)
OLGAREN: No man did this.
Evil is on board.
Powerful evil.
(shuddering breaths)
(heart beating slowly)
♪ ♪
(heartbeat continues faster)
DRACULA (growling): Anna.
(water splashes)
That bloody reeks.
(grunts)
(Toby crying softly)
CLEMENS: Toby?
(sobbing)
Toby?
Hey.
(crying softly)
Huck was a good dog, son.
I’m sorry.
It wasn’t just Huckleberry.
I promised the captain I– It was my job to look after them.
The animals, I mean.
I– I promised the captain.
Hmm.
Toby… sometimes things go wrong, no matter what we promise.
All right?
There are things in this world that we can’t control, but we do our best. Hmm?
Yeah.
Thanks, Mr. Clemens.
Go on.
♪ ♪
(Dracula growling)
(thunder crashing)
(wind howling)
(ship creaking)
(Clemens grunts)
(grunts)
The skies are angry.
CLEMENS: The skies feel nothing, my friend.
It’s precipitation and air pressure, as knowable as the workings of this ship.
I saw something last night.
There is something unnatural on board with us.
I’m afraid I don’t believe in superstitions, Mr. Olgaren.
I believe in science and in nature.
And in Saint Nicholas, since Joseph wouldn’t give me food otherwise.
Keep your science.
I saw your face in the dark last night.
Your eyes.
You saw it, same as I.
♪ ♪
ELIOT: 16th of July.
Rough weather last three days and all hands busy with sails.
Our ship’s doctor continues to administer regular transfusions to our stowaway, yet her condition remains unchanged.
Food is running sparse, men downcast, and now past Cape Matapan, we’ve more than two weeks to travel.
(speaking Romani quietly)
TOBY: Her name is Anna.
CLEMENS: She told you that?
Has she been awake?
Mr. Olgaren taught me some Romani.
She speaks some English sometimes, too.
She didn’t say this one so much, but… I don’t think she’s having very nice dreams.
She repeats a word over and over.
(Toby speaks Romani)
“Feed.”
(sighs)
♪ ♪
(wheel creaking)
JOSEPH: Can’t sleep?
You noticed it, too, then.
The rats.
Still quiet.
I was checking the larder. They’re all gone.
Gone? What do you mean gone?
I mean what I say. Gone.
Always a dozen or so in the woodwork, screeching, scrabbling.
Well, if… if Huck went rabid, perhaps, before the livestock, he drove them off…
You could burn this ship to the keel, Mr. Clemens, and the rats would just nest in the ashes.
(knocks echoing)
Something drove them off.
A boat without rats, such a thing is against nature.
(loud thump in distance)
Abrams?
Playing some kind of fool’s joke.
Idiots playing games, huh?
Abrams?
(ship creaking)
(mutters in Russian)
(quiet groaning, retching)
(quiet groaning continues)
(quiet wheezing)
(groaning)
(groaning continues)
Where the hell did you come from?
(snarling)
(gasping)
(choking)
(gasping weakly)
(grunts)
(panting)
(growling)
(roaring)
(grunting)
(neck snaps)
(gulping)
(whimpering weakly)
(growling)
♪ ♪
(soft thump)
Petrofsky?
♪ ♪
(bell clanging)
(chewing)
(flesh ripping)
ELIOT: The knife was found here?
And the wheel was tied off?
Petrofsky must have been drunk.
Slipped on the deck and (scoffs) fell overboard.
Right after he bled all over the deck?
And what were you doing up in the middle of the night?
You had his knife in your hand when we found you.
Of course. II killed him.
And somehow managed to keep myself free of all the blood you see staining the boards, then I rang the signal bell to report myself.
It’s quite brilliant, innit, Mr. Wojchek?
Openandshut case.
(panting softly)
Captain, the dog’s body, I examined it.
It wasn’t killed in the larder like the other animals.
It had bite marks on its neck. All the animals did.
ELIOT: What exactly are you suggesting, Mr. Clemens?
CLEMENS: I don’t know, sir,
but their arteries were ripped open, and then they…
(whispers): He’s here.
He is here.
We have to get off this boat. Now!
All of us! We have to get off this boat!
Mr. Clemens, restrain your patient.
(Anna shouting)
Now! He will kill us all!
Please! Anna, please!
Anna, please! Please!
Kill us all!
Get off the boat. (sobbing)
(shushing)
(Toby panting)
(Anna crying)
Captain will say a few words from the good book, and we’ll get on with things.
There’s not enough liquor on board to get Petrofsky drunk enough to fall off…
Mr. Abrams.
Are we not gonna listen to the lass and what she just…
I’ll spend no more time discussing anything but the state of this boat and the weather.
Understood, Mr. Abrams? Get to work.
(sobbing)
ELIOT: 18th of July.
Men reported in the morning that one of the crew, Petrofsky, was missing.
I had the men do a thorough search of the ship.
This after Olgaren confided that he had seen something strange nights before.
♪ ♪
CLEMENS: These blood transfusions should keep your infection under control.
So, what were you trying to tell us out there?
He is here on the ship.
He has been all along.
He?
(Clemens scoffs)
Okay.
I can’t help you if you don’t speak to me and tell me what happened, why we found you below deck.
It is spoken in my village of an evil that lives in the mountains above.
A castle older than any of us.
Evil?
An evil that appears as a man when it wants to hide its true nature.
And at night, he feeds on the blood of the innocent.
I have lived in the shadow of that castle my whole life.
I knew that the elders, they… they made bargains for the safety of our people.
You were given to this man?
It is not a man.
Then an animal?
No, it is not some mindless animal either.
Do not make that mistake.
We call him Dracula.
And youyou believe that he brought you on board?
Why?
♪ ♪
ANNA: He brought me here to feed.
Dear God.
He is here, Mr. Clemens.
The thing that wears the skin of a man.
In the night, it drinks our blood, and he is on this ship.
Which means that we will never leave it.
(thunder crashing)
The woman, she seems harmless, but… ever since she came on board, I wonder if… if we would have been better just to let the ocean have her.
But then I think about my daughter.
She’s around her age and… smart andand pretty.
(thunder crashing)
(ship creaking)
(soft whoosh)
(exhale echoes)
(quiet hissing)
♪ ♪
♪ ♪
(thunder rumbling)
(knocks echoing)
Olgaren?
Olgaren?
(knocks echoing)
What’s wrong? I heard your knock.
My knock?
(knocking)
♪ ♪
(thunder rumbling)
(wood creaking)
(snarling)
(Larsen grunts)
(screaming)
(grunting)
(hissing)
Please, no!
(shouts)
(roars)
Please, no.
(grunting)
(ship creaking loudly)
(objects clattering)
(yells)
(thunder crashing)
(yells)
(grunts, yells)
WOJCHEK: Pull, you bastards!
Pull!
(grunts)
(yells)
(grunting)
Abrams!
Where the devil is Larsen?!
Larsen! Larsen!
Larsen! Larsen!
Olgaren!
Larsen!
Larsen!
Larsen!
Larsen!
ABRAMS: Larsen!
♪ ♪
♪ ♪
(screaming)
That’s it. (grunts)
(men grunting)
Olgaren, where’s Larsen?
Olgaren. Hey.
CLEMENS: There he is.
(grunting)
(shouts) Hold him!
Guys!
(screaming)
ELIOT: 24th of July.
There seems some doom over the ship, already a hand short entering the Bay of Biscay with wild weather ahead.
And last night, a second man lost and another man injured.
A strange injury.
Men all in a panic of fear.
We are 18 days at sea.
The closest port is England.
We must put our trust in God and go forward.
(soft clatter)
(sighs)
CLEMENS: He’s cold as ice.
He makes noises and he moves, but his eyes won’t open.
Like he’s unable to wake from some dream.
But what happened to his neck?
And what was he doing in the rigging?
Anything could have happened.
Perhaps some rigging wrapped around his throat.
No. No, no, no.
This looks like a bite.
It looks like the same bites we saw in the animals, the same bites that ravaged the girl in the carpenter’s shed.
WOJCHEK: You think some devil did this?
Like she says?
I… do not.
Good.
But something did.
And that is real and on board, whether we choose to believe in it or not.
From now on, I want two men for every watch, armed.
No exceptions.
Search the ship, Mr. Wojchek.
Not just the hold.
Everywhere.
♪ ♪
(Clemens grunting)
♪ ♪
All right, Toby.
You have quite the task.
A captain… (sighs) is only as good as his spyglass.
Can I trust you to shine it up for me?
If it’s too much to…
No.
I mean, no, sir.
I can do it, I swear.
Good lad.
(door opens)
I’ll be back soon.
Toby, lock the door.
(grunts)
(Abrams breathing heavily)
ABRAMS: I don’t like this.
Sun’s going down, and he’ll be coming.
♪ ♪
(Olgaren grunting)
♪ ♪
(thumping)
(rapid thumping)
(rapid thumping continues)
(screams)
(breathes sharply)
(low growling in distance)
(breath shudders)
(door creaks)
Hello?
(door creaking)
(grunts)
(door clanking)
(ragged breathing)
(slow footsteps)
Mr. Olgaren, you’re up.
(wheezing softly)
Mister…?
♪ ♪
(gasps)
(shouts)
(screams)
(gasping)
(Toby yells)
(grunting)
(fabric rips)
(panting)
(grunting)
(grunting)
(grunting)
(panting)
(ragged breathing outside)
Mr. Olgaren?
Mr. Olgaren, will you please go away?
(ragged breathing)
(bang on door)
(screams)
(bang on door)
(growls)
(shouts)
(banging continues)
(whimpers): Please.
That’s every mast.
Any other strokes of genius, Mr. Clemens?
(quiet knocking)
Do you hear that?
What?
(quiet knocking continues faster)
(knocking grows louder)
Oh, my God.
(frantic knocking)
TOBY: Help!
(ragged breathing)
Help!
♪ ♪
CLEMENS: Toby! Toby!
(panting)
Olgaren?
Olgaren?
(growls)
(yells)
CLEMENS: Help! (grunting)
(yelling)
Toby.
Toby?
DRACULA (whispers): Toby.
ELIOT: Open the door!
(breath hissing)
(pounding on door)
Toby, open the door.
(breath hissing)
♪ ♪
ELIOT: Toby?
(pounding on door)
Open the door!
(breath hissing)
(gasps)
Open the door.
(Olgaren yelling)
Toby?
Open the Toby! Toby!
Toby!
(yelling)
CLEMENS: Toby!
ELIOT: Toby!
CLEMENS: I can’t reach the lock.
(grunts) Toby!
♪ ♪
(growls)
Toby!
Toby!
Toby!
(Dracula growling)
(screaming)
Toby! Toby!
(gasping, whimpering)
♪ ♪
ELIOT: Toby! Toby!
(pounding continues)
Move!
Toby!
ELIOT: Toby!
Toby!
Toby!
(Anna gasps)
ELIOT: Toby?
Toby. Toby.
Oh, my God.
(breathing heavily)
(yells)
♪ ♪
ELIOT: You will be fine, my boy.
Everything will be fine.
Mr. Clemens will take care of us.
ELIOT: August 1st.
We must be past the Strait of Dover.
Still five days to London.
God seems to have deserted us, and we are drifting to some terrible doom.
Lord help us.
He’s mad.
As if possessed.
JOSEPH: Possessed by that beast?
Oh, no, no.
Not in the way you mean, at least.
It’s like a poison or… an infection.
WOJCHEK: Infection?
Not like any I’ve ever seen.
(groans)
I can feel it.
Olgaren?
Can you hear me?
I can hear everything.
The sea.
The wind.
The blood pumping in your veins.
It burns.
Burn? Maybe he needs some water.
(groans) It burns.
(pained grunting)
CLEMENS: Olgaren?
OLGAREN: Burns.
(groans)
It burns! It burns!
(quiet sizzling)
It burns! (yells)
It burns!
(pained grunt)
(screaming)
(whimpers)
(screaming continues)
(screaming stops)
♪ ♪
♪ ♪
(sniffles)
Oh, for God’s sake.
Will someone say something?
What the hell happened to him?
I warned you.
I warned all you, didn’t I?
It is a punishment brought down for our sins.
Petrofsky, a criminal.
Olgaren, gypsy heathen.
A whoremonger, a lecher.
And from Gomorrah herself…
Oh, will you shut the hell up, you bleedin’ idiot!
Abrams, take the morning watch.
And, Joseph, you are to relieve him when he’s…
That child will be the next to rise up from death.
Satan’s black blood pumping corruption through his veins.
God’s anger has come upon this vessel like Jonah…
Just shut it up!
See to the supplies.
Whatever was in Olgaren… it’s fair to assume it is in the boy.
He has all the same symptoms.
But your blood transfusions saved the girl.
Not Toby.
(sniffs)
He’s smaller. He’s weaker.
The wound was worse, and the blood loss is greater.
Just… I don’t know. I think, uh… I think we might have to start discussing…
WOJCHEK: Go on.
Look him in the eye when you do it.
That’s not what I meant. That is not what I meant.
It has to be hiding here. If we can find it, I think we might be able to figure out a way to save him…
Are you sure the boy is the one that’s on your mind?
Get to your bunk.
We’re running out of men for the watch at this rate.
♪ ♪
(gasps)
Anna.
You’re going to open the crates, aren’t you?
Yes.
Go back to the shed and bolt the door.
We are all trapped on the same ship, Mr. Clemens.
Are you forgetting it needs to feed because you saved me?
I’m coming with you.
This thing has killed most the crew.
Then imagine what it will do if we let it get to London.
Let’s go.
If we do find your devil, will bullets kill it?
He has controlled my village for generations.
Do you think I have any notion how to kill him?
(Clemens grunts, inhales sharply)
(scoffs)
I never liked guns.
I want you to have…
Let’s see. Sixth of July.
Private cargo consigned for Carfax Abbey in London.
Doesn’t say the owner.
♪ ♪
(inhales sharply)
(sharp thump)
He told Jonah, and he was spared.
He was spared.
“I cried out to the Lord because of my affliction, and he answered me. Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice.”
(boat creaking)
(grunting)
“For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas.”
(Clemens grunts)
CLEMENS: Why London?
ANNA: Because in my country, there is no one left to feed on.
♪ ♪
(low growling)
Let’s start with this one.
(grunts)
(grunts)
(grunts)
(grunts)
(panting)
(grunts)
(panting)
Dirt.
It’s nothing but dirt.
(sighs)
(grunts)
(Clemens grunting)
(crowbar clanking)
(chuckles) Nothing.
♪ ♪
ANNA: This one looks different.
♪ ♪
(Clemens grunts)
(both grunting)
ANNA: Look.
(grunts)
(ship creaking)
♪ ♪
(grunts)
♪ ♪
We have found where the devil sleeps.
(panting)
(grunting)
(wind whistles softly)
(heavy flapping)
(Joseph gasping softly)
(low growling)
(heavy flapping)
(gasps)
(panting)
(breath hissing)
DRACULA (whispering): “I cried, and you heard my voice.”
(crying softly)
Oh, Lord…
DRACULA: Oh, Lord.
Oh, God. (crying softly)
DRACULA: Oh, God.
♪ ♪
(growling)
Oh, God!
(bell clanging in distance)
ABRAMS: Hey! The starboard lifeboat’s gone!
WOJCHEK: Abrams, do you see it?
No. There’s nothing here.
Nothing.
(Wojchek gasps)
(softly): No.
(door thumps)
Sir, not supposing you heard?
(sighs)
You would have made a good captain, Mr. Wojchek.
(sighs) If we had just seen London.
(footsteps approaching)
Mr. Wojchek.
How’s Toby? Shall I bring him some…
What the hell is happening on this ship?!
♪ ♪
CLEMENS: Captain Eliot.
We’ve, uh…
we’ve wrapped Toby’s body in canvas, sir.
We’re a doomed crew, Mr. Clemens.
On a doomed ship.
We no longer plot our course.
The devil below does.
And we all know where he plans to deliver us.
To hell, Mr. Clemens.
Each of us, one by one.
(Wojchek sniffles)
Captain?
♪ ♪
Dear Lord…
…take this sweet boy.
May he never again be hungry, never be cold… never be scared.
This world is cruel and uncaring.
May Toby find his next home to be a kinder one.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Wait.
I saw him move. He’s alive.
CLEMENS: Captain Eliot, the boy has no breath in his body.
He has no heartbeat. He’s gone.
Uh… Captain, you should sit.
I tell you, he’s alive. He moved.
CLEMENS: Captain Eliot, please.
(Toby and Eliot screaming)
(shouting)
(screaming continues)
(shouts)
No!
♪ ♪
♪ ♪
(Eliot sighs)
CLEMENS (quietly): Mr. Wojchek, can I… can I speak with you?
We have a plan. If we can…
You seen what I seen and you still want to plan.
This ain’t Cambridge, astronomer.
You can’t think your way out of this one.
I was one of the first Black doctors to graduate from Cambridge with medical degree.
Have I told you that?
Well, that’s very nice for you…
I applied to all the best hospitals in the country.
Immediately, I was told there were no positions available.
I fought tooth and nail for my education, and yet no one would let me practice it.
Finally, I was offered a position by post.
Royal physician to King Carol the First of Romania.
My name, it reached them somehow.
But the color of my skin, it would later seem, had not.
Captain Eliot once asked me over dinner what I most desired.
I told him I wanted the world to make sense.
I need this world to make sense, Mr. Wojchek.
This beast and mark my words, it is a beast deep down, I need it to make sense, too.
I need to know why it is the way it is and why it does what it does.
And then I will remind the beast that it, like the world, has absolutely no hold over me.
And then?
And then I want to kill the cursed thing.
If we barricade this cabin, we are a day from London with this wind.
Can’t set more sail, crew what it is.
CLEMENS: What, you want us to wait around, eyes in the dark, served up and ready for dinner?
WOJCHEK: It ran from our guns in the night.
It won’t risk an outright attack.
ANNA: Running?
It’s…
It was not running.
(gun clicking)
It was rationing.
Rationing?
(gun racks)
One a night.
Once we had hit open waters and could no longer make port.
It hid below deck, sustaining off Anna until then.
But now it has us right where it wants us, doesn’t it?
Like he said, London’s only a day away.
It no longer needs us.
So we have to kill it before it reaches the coast.
ABRAMS: Kill it?
We can’t even find it.
No, we can’t.
It is why we’re to set a trap.
We must sink the ship.
With him on it.
Scuttle the Demeter?
Have you gone mad?!
CLEMENS: She’s right.
We set up an ambush and leave it on the sinking ship.
Then we can escape on one of the lifeboats.
If the course is right, we should be able to make shore.
This is my home.
And I won’t tear her apart for this fucking thing!
I grew up on a boat, Mr. Wojchek.
Just like this one.
My father was a deckhand his whole life.
He always told me that the… the ship, the living part, is the men on board.
The crews.
The stories.
Everything else is just timber and nails.
No!
This is my home.
She’s mine.
It’s going to be me.
CLEMENS: We barricade the hold, so that he only has one way out on deck.
As night falls, Anna will be at the helm.
When it comes for her, we’ll have a clear shot from the crow’s nest.
We sink the ship and send the wounded beast to a watery grave.
(hissing breath echoing)
(ship creaking)
(door creaks)
ELIOT: 21 July.
Fourth August.
It dare not touch You got to get Toby home.
1830…
Captain.
No, uh, people need to know.
Uh, logs. There needs to be a record.
The Demet is lost, sir.
We’re abandoning ship.
Abandoning ship?
Aye, sir.
Mr. Wojchek’s below deck making preparations as we speak.
We’ll leave the beast a sinking ship as a farewell gift. (gasps)
He comes to me.
He whispers to me behind my own eyes.
He can bring Toby back.
He took him away. He can bring him back.
Captain, come to your senses.
You know that’s not possible.
Toby… (breathing heavily)
Toby.
I just need to bring the Demeter to shore.
I’m sorry, Mr. Clemens.
No!
ANNA: Captain.
(breath shudders)
You have seen him as I have.
You know deep down that is not all.
(breath shuddering)
When I dream, sometimes…
I remember who I was.
Before him.
But most often, I think of the box he kept me in.
How every time he came for me and tore into my flesh, drank his fill, dirt would seep into the fresh wound, filling me up.
You cannot sink the Demeter.
Picture Toby’s face.
His smile, his laugh.
And think of that dirt filling him up, too, because that’s what the devil does.
He takes what is good and what you love, and he… he uses it, and he twists it, and he rots it from within.
Do not let him do that to the memory of your boy.
(breath shuddering)
♪ ♪
♪ ♪
I will… I will sail the ship out to sea.
And when she finally goes… the monster will never be able to reach the home I knew.
That Toby knew.
Captain, there’s no need for you to stay on board the Demeter.
Where would I go, Mr. Clemens?
♪ ♪
(ship creaking)
ABRAMS: Do you think this’ll work?
It has to.
ABRAMS: There she is.
(thunder rumbling)
The shores of England.
And looks like there’s a storm blowing in.
Keep your eyes on the deck.
(breath hisses softly)
♪ ♪
♪ ♪
I can’t see a bloody thing.
Quiet.
You don’t need to be here.
You could stay below deck with Captain Eliot.
Stay safe.
We are connected, the devil and I.
You are smart enough to have noticed.
I can sense him.
Feel him somehow.
He feels it, too.
He will come for me.
And while he’s focused on me, you know what to do.
♪ ♪
(low growling)
(breath hissing)
ABRAMS: Where the bloody hell is it?
CLEMENS: What is it?
He knows, Mr. Clemens.
(panting)
(heavy flapping)
CLEMENS: Dear God. It has wings.
It’s coming!
Please, Wojchek! Wojchek, help me!
(straining)
(grunting)
For God’s sake, cut it!
(yells)
(Dracula screeches)
(panting)
Wojchek!
(grunts)
(heavy flapping)
(wind whistling)
(inhales sharply)
(thunder rumbling)
Wojchek!
Wojchek!
(panting)
(grunting)
(heavy flapping)
(breath hissing)
(exhales sharply)
(flapping and hissing stop)
(heavy flapping)
(roars)
(screams)
Wojchek!
(inhales sharply)
(groans)
We’re coming!
WOJCHEK: No! Get the lifeboat ready!
(panting)
♪ ♪
(grunting)
(breath hisses)
(grunting)
(heavy flapping)
(growls)
(grunts)
(grunts)
(shouts)
(grunts)
(snarls)
(thunder crashing)
CLEMENS: Go!
(grunting)
We have to hurry! We’re close to the shore!
ANNA: We need Wojchek! And the captain!
CLEMENS: I’ll find ’em!
Cut the ropes if you have to, but get it free!
♪ ♪
(breathing heavily)
Forgive me.
(grunts)
(grunting)
(ax striking)
(growling)
(grunts) Wojchek!
(grunting)
(ax striking)
(panting)
(breath hissing)
(grunts, gasps)
(gulping)
Wojchek!
(grunting)
(gulping)
(panting)
Where are you?
(gasps)
Wojchek.
(grunting)
(panting)
Anna.
Captain.
(grunts)
(thunder crashing)
(grunting)
CLEMENS: Captain!
He’s coming. He’s coming!
(creaking)
(grunts)
Anna!
Captain!
(growling)
Oh, my Lord.
(snarls)
I renounce you, devil!
(snarling)
I renounce you…
(screams)
(panting)
♪ ♪
Captain.
(Clemens grunts)
Mr. Clemens.
Let them know, will you?
Let them know I was true… to my trust.
I will, Captain. I promise.
♪ ♪
(breathing heavily)
You want them to believe that you’re a god!
You and I both know that you’re not!
You bleed like any of us!
You sleep in dirt!
You feed!
Above all else, you feed!
You want us to… to fear you!
Underneath, you’re afraid!
You’re afraid of what lies on the other side as any other living thing!
(growling)
(grunts)
♪ ♪
(breath hissing)
(screeches)
(screeches)
(screams)
(groans)
(growls)
(grunts)
(inhales deeply, screeches)
(gunshot)
(roars)
You are in my head.
In my blood.
You have damned me to hell!
(roars)
(gunshot)
(roars)
(screams)
(Anna gasping)
(muffled screaming)
You bastard!
(roars)
(coughing)
Anna!
(pained howling)
Anna, get to the boat.
(grunts)
(screeches)
(choking)
(hissing)
I do not… f– fear you.
(growling)
You will.
(growls)
(gasps)
Die, you devil!
(screeching)
(gasping)
(Clemens grunts)
(panting)
♪ ♪
(thunder crashing)
(wind howling)
Jesus.
BOY: What’s wrong?
Run and fetch the constable.
Tell him there’s a ship trying to get through the breakers.
♪ ♪
(hissing)
(screeching)
(panting)
The coast… so close.
(whispers): It’s close.
(breath shuddering)
Mr. Clemens.
No.
No. No.
No.
I have known for days now.
I’m sorry.
Another transfusion…
Would only delay the inevitable.
We both know that.
But I can… I can…
If I just…
No.
I don’t want to become…
My whole life… my people, the devil, they chose for me.
I choose this.
No one else.
You saved me.
And you me.
(crying softly)
♪ ♪
♪ ♪
(panting softly)
BOY: It’s all about the ghost ship at Whitby.
No survivors.
How about you, sir?
Would you like The Dailygraph?
Get your paper here, only a cost of a tuppence.
(lively chatter)
It’s all about the ghost ship at Whitby.
No survivors.
(lively chatter continues)
CLEMENS: I’ve arrived in London.
The creature hunts for blood somewhere in the city, but I know where it lays to rest during the day.
BARMAID: Carfax Abbey?
You the new owner?
CLEMENS: No, miss. Just looking for him.
Oh, well, it’s a couple hours to reach the abbey in a carriage from here.
It gets dark on the moors.
If I was you, I’d wait till morning.
You know, miss, I was thinking the same thing.
♪ ♪
CLEMENS: I have finally seen the true darkness that dwells beneath the surface of this world, the evil that neither science nor reason can explain.
Yet I have also seen its beauty and those willing to give all to protect it.
(lively chatter continues)
(knocks in distance)
(sharp knocks)
♪ ♪
(sharp knock)
♪ ♪
(breath hissing softly)
(growling softly)
(gasps)
(panting)
CLEMENS: And so I will pursue this foul beast.
And I swear by those who have given their lives that I will extinguish this blight and send it back to hell.
♪ ♪
♪ ♪
(music ends)
