Stephen King, Guillermo del Toro Praise Last Voyage of the Demeter: "Gorgeous" & "Throat-Ripping Good Time"

Stephen King knows a thing or two about vampires. Hell, the second novel the man ever published, 'Salem's Lot, is all about a town succumbing to a horde of undead bloodsuckers. So when one of the great masters of literary horror tells you a movie centered around the most famous neck-biting ghoul of all time is worth seeing, then you better sit up and take notice.

Posting on Twitter Wednesday, the bestselling author had nothing but praise for The Last Voyage of the Demeter (opening tomorrow), calling the film "a throat-ripping good time" and favorably comparing it "the best of the Hammer movies from the '60s and '70s."

RELATED: Watch How They Made The Last Voyage of the Demeter's Terrifying Dracula With Practical Effects

Academy Award-winning director Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy, The Shape of Water) also hopped on the batty bandwagon, adding descriptors like "gorgeous, lavish and savage!!" to the growing buzz from horror heavy hitters. Like King, del Toro is no stranger to neck-biting fiends, having placed his own spin on vampire genre with FX's The Strain.

Stephen King & Guillermo del Toro praise The Last Voyage of the Demeter

What is The Last Voyage of the Demeter about?

Demeter is based on the "Captain's Log" chapter from Bram Stoker's Dracula, which only hints at a terrible fate befalling the crew of the titular merchant vessel as it sailed from the Port of Varna in Bulgaria to the shores of England. The movie fleshes out the epistolary source material by showing us exactly how Dracula tore through the sailors, using them to feed throughout the month-long journey.

"You have the blueprints for the story in the captain’s log in the novel, but you don’t know what actually happened between those log entries," director André Øvredal (The Autopsy of Jane Doe, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark) explained to Universal Pictures for the studio's electronic press materials. "So that is a huge, vast, wonderful opportunity to create a story about the human beings who are just mentioned as names in the novel and tell how they are in peril."

Written by Bragi Schut Jr. (Escape Room) and Zak Olkewicz (Bullet Train), the film co-stars Javier "Javi" Botet, Corey Hawkins, Aisling Franciosi, Liam Cunningham, and David Dastmalchian, Jon Jon Briones, Stefan Kapicic, and Nikolai Nikolaeff.

The Last Voyage of the Demeter officially raises anchor tomorrow — Friday, Aug. 11. Click here for tickets!

Does Stephen King have a new book coming out?

Yes. Stephen King's next novel, Holly (featuring the return of Finders Keepers detective Holly Gibney), goes on sale Tuesday, Sep. 5 from Scribner. Since making her debut in the Mr. Mercedes trilogy, Ms. Gibney has struck out on her own in The Outsider and If It Bleeds — both of which saw the fan favorite sleuth on the trail of shapeshifting, vampire-like monsters that feed on pain.

"I could never let Holly Gibney go," King said in a statement when Holly was first announced earlier this year. "She was supposed to be a walk-on character in Mr. Mercedes and she just kind of stole the book and stole my heart. Holly is all her."

What is Guillermo del Toro's next movie?

Following their recent Oscar victory for Pinocchio, Guillermo del Toro and animation studio ShadowMachine are working on a new stop-motion project for Netflix entitled The Buried Giant, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed this past February.

Co-written by del Toro and Dennis Kelly (Matilda the Musical), the film will adapt the fantasy novel of the same name by Nobel Prize-winner Kazuo Ishiguro (Never Let Me Go, Klara and the Sun). Per the synopsis on Amazon, the book takes place against the backdrop of an alternate "post-Arthurian Britain," where an unexplainable mist has led to "mass amnesia throughout the land."

“The Buried Giant continues my animation partnership with Netflix and our pursuit of stop-motion as a medium to tell complex stories and build limitless worlds,” said del Toro in a statement published by THR. “It is a great honor and greater responsibility for me to direct this screenplay which Dennis Kelly and I are adapting from Kazuo Ishiguro’s profound and imaginative novel.”

“Guillermo del Toro is a visionary filmmaker and master of his craft," added Scott Stuber, Netflix's head of film. "We couldn’t be more proud of the prestigious recognition for his Pinocchio, and we’re pleased to continue our creative partnership as he develops his next project with Netflix."

Want to satisfy your craving for undead fare in the meantime? Renfield and Vampire Academy are now streaming on Peacock. Looking ahead, SYFY's Reginald the Vampire  is set to return later this year for a second season.