Reportedly, co-writer Bragi Schut Jr. sought to write an Alien-style horror film on a space station, but after seeing the model for The Demeter in Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula (1992), he decided: “That was my way into an alien-type story. But instead of setting it in the future in space, I would set it in the past, on a boat.” So, as a genre picture with a unique take on Dracula, it’s a compliment (not an insult) to say it makes sense that The Last Voyage of The Demeter has been in development hell for two decades. You can see why solid horror filmmakers like David Slade and Neill Marshall wanted to take a bite out of it. After all these years, director André Øvredal (Scary Stories to Tell In The Dark, The Autopsy of Jane Doe) finally got the chance, leading a solid ensemble (Corey Hawkins, Aisling Franciosi, David Dastmalchian) in this effective horror movie.
Adapted from the chapter, “The Captain’s Log” in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, The Last Voyage of The Demeter breathes new life into the vampire genre. Tossing aside his deceptive charisma and completely devoid of anything resembling sex appeal, this Dracula is mostly a mute brute. When he awakens, there’s an animalistic simplicity to his actions. Like a newborn farm animal looking to its mother for nourishment, he crawls on the ground with only his arms, moaning as he longs to satisfy his thirst. Even his violent means differ from what you might expect, because he doesn’t just bite necks in a gorier fashion, he’ll also bash skulls like an Orc.
There is one scene that stands out with this characterization. As Dracula chases the poor Olgaren (Stefan Kapicic) as he climbs the ship’s mast and pleads for this thing to spare him, moaning “please, no.” Dracula then looks up at the man, whispers back, mimicking, “Please, no.” Then, for the cherry on top, Dracula smiles, and continues the chase. It’s a moment of sentience in the primal, pleasure in the grotesque. Anna (Franciosi), a stowaway who was forced to be among Dracula’s cargo, warns the crew of Dracula’s danger, but objects when they call him a beast because she doesn’t want them to underestimate him. We already know that this Dracula is not a man, but that smile separates him from the beasts.
Just as essential to this new take on Dracula is the film’s environment and cast of characters. The titular Demeter is gorgeous, gothic and grimy, and how the characters relate to its geography over time relates to the narrative. When the new guy Clemens (Corey Hawkins) takes a tour, the filmmaking gives little regard for how, say, the room with the livestock geographically relates to the kitchen. This captures Clemens’ own perspective, as he learns the function of each room, but doesn’t yet know how the greater whole connects.
As the film progresses, so does our own understanding of the geography, but Øvredal and cinematographers Roman Osin and Tom Stern still disorient the audience. For instance: for a while, the audience is given little understanding of the relation between the stern and the bow of the boat. As the film progresses, we realize that, between the stern and the bow are the Captain’s quarters. However, though the human understanding of the geography is clarified, the presence of Dracula makes it so that what now resides within the geography disorients us. This concept is enlivened when the racist tool Petrofsky (Nikolai Nikolaeff), while on the stern, hears an ominous noise towards the bow. As he walks to the bow, we get a wide shot of him looking towards it, down the walkway on the side of the Captain’s quarters, but the quarters themselves tightly cut off our visibility. We and the characters may know the geography of the boat, of the walkway besides the Captain’s quarters, but Petrofsky doesn’t know the being waits for him beyond there. The previously comforting ship now has something that goes bump in the night.
All this said, the film is not perfect. The Last Voyage of the Demeter will satisfy with its spooky carnage, but you might leave it wishing there was just a little more of it. A little more Dracula, a little more carnage, a little more horror. At the same time, its two hour runtime feels a little padded. Perhaps if they shaved off 15 minutes and added just another few minutes of Dracula, it would be a perfectly paced thriller. It also might have just been my theater, but the sound design seemed off at times. The dialogue can sound obviously dubbed—especially at the beginning. The Captain’s (Liam Cunningham) non-diegetic narration sounds indistinguishable from the diegetic dialogue, with a few instances where it might even seem like an actor’s mouth is not moving when words are spoken
Luckily, even if this is an issue throughout the film, you probably won’t notice it as the story gets rolling. At that point, the drama, tension, and unique brand of grotesque spookiness can win you over. The audio issues will become an unnoticeable thing of the past, and while you may not have a perfect genre picture, you still have a damn fine one, that’s highly recommended for any horror fans looking for a unique take on the classic character.
