The Last Voyage of the Demeter review

THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE DEMETER: 

VAMPIRE VOYAGE IS A CREEPY GOOD TIME! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

UNIVERSAL PICTURES AND DREAMWORKS PICTURES

Dracula in The Last Voyage of the Demeter

 

            The second dose of Dracula entertainment after Renfield earlier this year has arrived in The Last Voyage of the Demeter, a supernatural horror film based on The Captain Log chapter from Bram Stoker’s classic novel, Dracula. The film is directed by André Øvredal (Trollhunter, The Autopsy of Jane Doe, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark) and had languished in development hell for more than two decades sometime after the release of the Francis Ford Coppola film, Bram Stoker’s Dracula in 1992. 

            After Universal’s failed attempt at rebooting the character with 2014’s Dracula Untold and gaining some momentum earlier this year with the horror-comedy film, Renfield (An imperfect but relatively fun movie IMO), we now have this Alien-inspired Dracula film set almost entirely on a ship that just happens to be carrying the most famous and dangerous vampire of all time. It looked promising when I first saw the trailers and thought it could make for an interesting and very unique Dracula film, which it was. 

            I can’t say The Last Voyage of the Demeter is a great film or even one of the all-time greatest Dracula films, but for what I got I was entertained throughout and invested enough in the storyline and characters. Especially since this was a very last-minute change after Sony Pictures delayed Gran Turismo for a couple of weeks. 

            The film follows the Demeter, a ship carrying precious cargo from Transylvania to London. However, it turns out one of the crates onboard the Demeter houses the infamous vampire, Dracula (Javier Botet-REC franchise, Mama, Slender Man) and starts attacking the crew after he is awakened. 

            It’s up to a doctor aboard the ship known as Clemens (Corey Hawkins-The Walking Dead, Straight Outta Compton, Kong: Skull Island) an unwitting stowaway named Anna (Aisling Franciosi-The Fall, Legends, The Nightingale), and the ship’s Captain Elliot (Liam Cunningham-A Little Princess, Dog Soldiers, Game of Thrones) to end Dracula’s reign of terror and send him to Hell before it’s too late. 

            The film also stars David Dastmalchian (The Dark Knight, Blade Runner 2049, Oppenheimer) as Wojchek, Woody Norman (The Current War, C’mon C’mon, Cobweb) as Toby, and Stefan Kapičić (Big Miracle, Deadpooltrilogy) as Olgaren. 

            Overall, The Last Voyage of the Demeter may not be the strongest film based on Dracula, but the story is engaging, the scares are effective, and the characters are very likable. What is unique about this film compared to other Dracula movies is that it’s set on a ship (and no, I don’t mean like the cruise ship from Hotel Transylvania 3!) that’s small enough to be claustrophobic which makes Dracula’s kills and terrors a lot more frightening because there’s hardly any way to escape. 

            The film reminded me a lot of the 1979 Ridley Scott movie, Alien which is not at all a complaint, and I only discovered that it was inspired by it after I started doing this review. Whether it’s a ship out in space or at sea, putting your crew in a confined area with a monster adds to the terror and suspense and this film does it very effectively.

            One aspect of the film that I greatly appreciate is its use of practical effects in the first half of the movie as it’s mostly slow buildup to the monster aboard the ship and the makeup and creature effects on Dracula are incredible regardless of what form he is. From the Gollum-like creature he starts off as at the beginning to this anthropomorphic man/bat vampire monster he becomes by the end, I loved it every time he was onscreen even when the effects do take a slight CGI dive in the last third and it is noticeable. 

            Even though Dracula was depicted wonderfully in the film, it really isn’t much of a Dracula movie as it’s more about a crew on a ship that gets attacked by Dracula, so you better have some damn good human characters to be invested in. Unlike Meg 2: The Trench where compelling characters were almost non-existent; this movie has that. 

            I’m not super familiar with Corey Hawkins’ work aside from his phenomenal portrayal of Dr. Dre in Straight Outta Compton, but I thought he was an excellent leading man for this film. Liam Cunningham also gives an incredible performance as the ship’s captain, Aisling Franciosi is another standout as a stowaway who helps the crew in destroying Dracula, and David Dastmalchian gives probably the best performance of his entire career as the ship’s first mate (And yes, I know he was in Oppenheimer a few weeks ago!), the man puts so much energy and commitment into his performance and becomes probably the most memorable actor in the film aside from maybe Hawkins or Cunningham. 

            The production design is also very impressive and expertly captures the size and scope of the film. It isn’t quite as epic as something like Titanic, Pirates of the Caribbean, or Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, but you can tell the director and crew put that budget to good use in every scene to give this Dracula film a larger-than-life scale that should definitely be seen on the big screen. 

            Given that this is a vampire movie, the kills are nice and bloody with a lot of creative and even heartbreaking death scenes. Many of these would normally be fun to watch, but because I was so invested in the characters, I honestly felt bad for any of them that got killed by Dracula and it helps that it is an R-rated vampire movie, so you feel more of an impact when a character gets killed without the deaths being watered-down for a wider audience, good luck with that family-friendly Blade movie, Disney! 

            At times the film does feel uneven and a bit too long (The film clocks in at just under two hours), particularly in the last act where it mostly felt like set-up for potential sequels and franchises and doesn’t quite match up with how the rest of the film was presented. I personally thought the film should have ended as the ship was approaching London, it would have been a perfect note to close the movie on. 

            Despite its flaws, I thought The Last Voyage of the Demeter was a well-crafted, thoroughly suspenseful, and captivating vampire movie worth sinking your teeth into. It is a detour from other Dracula films, but that’s the movie’s biggest strength and what makes it unique.