The Last Voyage Of The Demeter review: New spin on Dracula has some bite
Sure it's just Alien on a sailing ship, but this latest take on the Prince of Darkness is worth the trip despite some choppy seas
Film Reviews The Last Voyage of the Demeter
There’s something inherently, gleefully ballsy about a film like The Last Voyage Of The Demeter right from the jump, before you’ve seen the title card hit the screen. Anyone who’s read Bram Stoker’s Dracula, or seen certain Dracula movies, knows we’re talking about a doomed voyage, and at certain points in André Øvredal’s historical horror film, characters even say outright what the title implies. This boat is doomed from the start.
But the satisfaction in good horror films does not always stem from a sense of unpredictability. There’s fun to be had with formulas, particularly when they’re steeped in as much impressive production design and creature effects as Demeter. The fun isn’t in figuring out the ending, but in figuring out how tragedy comes to this particular vessel and its crew. If you pull the narrative off, anyway. Thankfully, thanks to solid direction, a committed cast, and a central monster that keeps drawing your eye, there’s a lot about The Last Voyage Of The Demeter that works. It’s not the best Dracula film you’ll ever see, but it is a chilling new spin on the character, and a voyage horror fans will mostly be glad they took.
The Demeter is a sailing ship ferrying cargo from Eastern Europe to England, and some of that cargo just happens to be a few crates of Transylvanian dirt, one of which contains Dracula (Javier Botet) himself. The crew doesn’t know this, of course, so when things start getting spooky on board, and humans and animals start turning up dead, the ship’s captain (Liam Cunningham) and his determined first mate (David Dastmalchian) don’t immediately leap to the supernatural to explain things. The stranger things get, though, the more that changes, particularly when the ship’s doctor (Corey Hawkins) starts to notice a pattern in the violence, and a mysterious stowaway (Aisling Franciosi) sets out to convince the sailors that they’re dealing with more than just a rabies outbreak.
The cast, led by Cunningham and Hawkins, are all wonderfully game for this particular mission, giving the film the right amount of melodrama and gritty realism to make the whole thing feel like it’s got the pageantry of a Hammer Horror release and the dark frankness of Øvredal’s previous horror films like Trollhunter and The Autopsy Of Jane Doe. Autopsy in particular, with its single-location descent into terror, feels like a very good training ground for this kind of movie, and Øvredal proves he’s still got the chops to carry an audience through one location with poise and palpable dread. The Demeter itself always feels tactile, present, a character unto itself, and the cast are all so immersed in what they’re doing that it’s easy to smell the sea, feel the waves, and notice the fear beginning to creep in.
That fear is, of course, helped along by a very good vampire. Botet, under lots of heavy and very creepy makeup, is having a ball as Dracula, slinking around the ship like Ridley Scott’s Xenomorph, toying with his victims in one scene and going full-on animalistic in the next. He’s an immediately distinctive version of the monster who still retains a certain aesthetic that hearkens back to the days of F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu and even Tobe Hooper’s Salem’s Lot. No matter how much you see of him, you keep wanting a closer look, and that alone is enough to keep Demeter churning along at a pleasant, and pleasantly tense clip.
Where the film starts to fall short is in putting all these ingredients together into a single narrative, complete with individual character arcs and a believable payoff. Sometimes the plot holds together while at other times the characters, including Dracula, simply make choices because the film decided they should, or because it would be creepy for something to happen despite an apparent flimsiness to the rules the film has established. It’s never enough of a problem to break the movie, but there’s an unevenness to the way the characters are explored that’s hard to ignore, particularly as the film makes the turn for home.
Despite this unevenness, there’s a lot to love in The Last Voyage Of The Demeter for horror fans and casual moviegoers alike. Even when it’s listing back and forth like a ship adrift, there’s always something to grab onto and steady the vessel, whether it’s the creature effects or the production design or the wonderful soundscape that blends the creaking and groaning of the ship with Bear McCreary’s atmospheric score. The whole thing plays, predictably, like Alien on a boat with Dracula as the alien, and while it’s not quite as satisfying as that masterpiece, The Last Voyage Of The Demeter is still worth the trip. It’s been a century, but Dracula is still a potent movie monster, and this film proves we haven’t run out of ways to use him yet.
The Last Voyage Of The Demeter opens in theaters August 11
81 Comments
This is a really cool part of the book and I’m looking forward to this.
It remains a surprisingly frightening part of the book more than a century later.
When I read the book first time when I was in high school, this was the one part that actually scared me.
A century ago?
Well, LAST century.
For me it was when he crawls down the wall head first.Something about that really struck me.
It remains a surprisingly frightening part of the book more than a century later.
It remains a surprisingly frightening part of the book more than a century later.
It remains a surprisingly frightening part of the book more than a century later.
It remains a surprisingly frightening part of the book more than a century later.
It remains a surprisingly frightening part of the book more than a century later.
It remains a surprisingly frightening part of the book more than a century later.
And then I say something
(Yes I’m referencing Stella and quoting Michael Ian Black rn).
It remains a surprisingly frightening part of the book more than a century later.
Lisa needs braces.
Part of me hates that you broke the pattern, but the other part appreciates a good Simpsons reference.
Should’ve gone with my second choice: “The kwik-e-mart is real—d’oh!”
His name was Robert Paulson.
It remains a surprisingly frightening part of the century more than a book later.Shit.
It books the remains surprisingly frightening more than a century later.
It remains a surprisingly frightening part of the book more than a century later.
Frightening. Century. Later,
Its hands down my favorite chapter. With the captain tying his hands to the wheel and crashing into London harbor. Also. It remains a surprisingly frightening part of the book more than a century later
It remains a surprisingly frightening part of the book more than a century later.
It remains a surprisingly frightening part of the book more than a century later.
anyone pointed out it remains a surprisingly frightening part of the book more than a century later?
I was surprised at, more than a century later, how frightened I was by a part of this book and CancerAIDS.
I’ll take it. All I need this to be is high-grade shlock.
Sounds like good news after the disappointment of “Renfield” (and Ovredahl’s last couple movies). I do wonder why that cast list includes just one character with an eastern European name. I was expecting the film to just make all of them Anglos out of convenience, but an exception makes the rest stand out.
I hope Cage somehow gets a chance to play Dracula in a better movie. He somehow managed to be scary and campy at the same time, it’s amazing.
Nielsen vibes
“Scary and campy at the same time” is 90% of Cage’s filmography.
Then and now, what flag a merchant ship is registered under often has little bearing as to the nationalities of the crew. Yes, the Demeter is a Russian ship, but it actually isn’t that unrealistic to have a lot of British sailors on it.
Especially if it routinely travels to England. From what I’ve read western Europeans were the main crews globally.
In the book the sailors were mostly Russian with a Romanian first mate. The logbook had to be translated from Russian to English so presumably the captain was also Russian.
British sailors often crewed on foreign ships to escape impressment by the British navy.
Fair point. What always fascinated me was that the crew had to be physically separated from passengers and especially if they were onboard, soldiers, to avoid widespread violence or murder. Which is probably why Dracula could kill some people on a ship without everyone on board losing their shit right away.
I don’t fully get the comparison… that film was a comedy. This is like Midnight Mass. Why are we comparing these two things? That wasn’t a serious vampire flick… lets judge it on it’s own merits. Cage and Hoult played their parts (as written) correctly.
Still holding out hope for a Return of the Obra Dinn movie…
Would be interested, just not sure how it could be done well.
Frankly anything Lucas Pope made should get an adaptation, although there was already a Papers Please short.
I see Obra Dinn reference, I upvote and immediately put the soundtrack on. I’m a simple person.
Run, don’t skitter, to see Demeter!
Is that you, Gene Shalit?
this is such a fun idea for a movie.
David Dastmalchian — This is the best, most villainous name I’ve ever heard.
A good addition to https://cabin-pressure.fandom.com/wiki/People_Who_Aren%27t_Evil,_But_Who_Have_Evil-Sounding_Names
André Øvredal is scarier.So brutal. So metal. So foreign.
Lol all Øvredal means is “upper valley”, just to spoil the fun. 😁
You had me with “Trollhunter.”
Dracula terrorizing character actors on a wet set. Sign me up!
Very happy to see Aisling Franciosi getting what sounds like a fun role. She was the best thing about “The Fall.”
I’ve not heard of her but her name is fascinating. But it makes sense from Wikipedia – she has an Irish mother and an Italian father.
I once dated a woman who was born in China but her ex-husband had a very Italian surname. She retained his surname. I’m not going to say her name here but know that it was hilarious sounding. It just sounds so confused you have this chinese name then you have like “Di” etc. for the surname. Silly.
damn that is fucking fascinating
I’ve not heard of her but her name is fascinating.It’s a cool name, sure, but being Irish-Italian and having a name that reflects that is absolutely not fascinating.
Is that the girl character I liked or the one I hated… you’re gonna make me google that aren’t you. Just say blonde or brunette maaaan.
EDIT: I totally thought you meant the movie Fall from last year with those two girls on that super high skinny tower loooool. I’m not deleting this comment haha.
I thought they meant the 2006 movie, with Lee Pace.
Is this as good or as interesting a take as the recent 3-part miniseries? I really liked Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat’s take up until it completely lost track of itself in the third episode.
That’s some solid creature design for sure. Salem’s Lot immediately came to mind.
I’m trying to remember both general vampire and Dracula specific lore. The creature looks cool but wasn’t dracula (at night anyhow) able to generally pass as human? This creature certainly wouldn’t. Would his victims turn into these creatures? Some of the newer vampire examples (like the Strain sort of) have vampires as being almost the same as zombies now.
You’re asking the wrong person with respect to the origins of the character / monster but best I can recall he’s a shape-shifter that can move from passing as human, to something like this, to bat (or some sort of winged creature). I expect there are some commenters who know this stuff inside and out.
In most lore, turning a human is a process. The victim has to feed on the vampires blood, not just get bit.It’s been forever, but I think that’s how Stoker’s vamps worked.And yeah, why wouldn’t he just appear in human form. Seems like that’d be way easier. Maybe the movie explains it.
I love Liam Cunningham, he was one of the few to escape the last season of Game of Thrones unscathed. Always happy when he shows up, very charismatic.
Assume you’ve seen “Dog Soldiers,” but if not, strong recommend.
After my groaning on the post about worst vamp films I gotta say…. I DID NOT KNOW ABOUT THIS FILM! THIS LOOKS DOPE
what a great turnaround for me from the worst vamp film post.
It remains a surprisingly frightening part of the book more than a century later.
“…this latest take on the Prince of Darkness is worth the trip…”
The Prince of Darkness is Lucifer, not Dracula.
The title has been given to a whole bunch of fictional character over the years. Please don’t tell me that you’re trying to use that name or title in actual religious context, because neither has even slightest theological backing in the real world Christianity.
It is, but to be totally fair to the AV Club on this one there is a Christopher Lee Dracula film called Dracula, Prince of Darkness, so I’m assuming the writer is thinking of that.
If I switch off the lights I can cosplay as Prince in darkness.
“Clemens”… yeah right. A fundamental German name… yeah right.
I’m excited for this but they shouldn’t have shown Dracula off in the trailers and such. Ah well.
someone pointed out on twitter that if this movie had come out in the 2000s the marketing would be all ‘what is the secret of the demeter?’ with jump cuts and a weird old timey website and ARG game and then when it comes out on DVD the menu would spoil that it’s dracula.
Ha! That’s too true.
This has been a great movie year for humanoid bats who aren’t Langstroms.
insert ‘I understood that reference’ gif
I hadn’t even heard about this existing until I saw a trailer for it randomly…I don’t know where…like two weeks ago. And then I read a story about how it was flopping and underperforming last weekend. All I could think of was, “How could they have the nerve to say it was underperforming when there was barely any marketing behind it?” Shame, because I think this looks like a perfect late-summer creature feature that also appeals to anyone who read the book. And the latter could easily drag along other people who hadn’t read the book to explain why it wasn’t just another dumb random Dracula extension movie (a la Dracula 2000 or the like). Could have done a MUCH better job promoting this one.Also, Corey Hawkins is cool.
Aw, I thought I was so clever and unique seeing the Alien on a boat parallel :/