The Last Voyage of the Demeter Floats When It Needs to Sail | Film Review

From the seemingly thousands of vampire iterations in the ether, none rival the OG of the bunch, Bram Stoker’s Count Dracula. The pale, distinctly manicured man from Transylvania has long served as the leader of the undead. Yet what many forget, after countless attempts to sexy up his image for a modern world, is that Dracula is as vicious a beast as there as ever been. The Last Voyage of the Demeter aims to reset the balance.

Buried in the many letters and passages of Bram Stoker’s masterwork lies a Captain’s log detailing the infamous ship’s – the Demeter – tragic, ill-fated final voyage transporting mysterious cargo from Transylvania to England. The entirety of director André Øvredal’s film illuminates the events alluded to in this chapter.

Captain Eliot (Liam Cunningham) leads a small crew on what seems a simple task of point A to point B. Joining him are his grandson, Toby (Woody Norman), first mate, Wojchek (David Dastmalchian), a crew of sailors and hired hands, and a mysterious doctor named Clemens (Corey Hawkins) desperate to return to England. Along the way, Clemens takes the lead after he stumbles upon a dying stowaway named Anna (Aisling Franciosi), and the trip begins to take a turn.

Very quickly, the livestock on the ship are viciously slaughtered. Shortly thereafter, a disappearance occurs. It doesn’t take long before the superstitious crew becomes terrified that there is an unseen evil on board, and finally Anna explains her true purpose on this voyage, as well as what lives amongst the cargo. A beast with an insatiable appetite for blood, one will not rest until his hunger is fulfilled. Even if it costs the life of every man, woman, and child on this ship.

The performances on board are highlighted by Liam Cunningham’s Captain Eliot and Corey Hawkins’ Clemens, two men at odds over science versus superstition. Captain Eliot’s tendency to side with his overwrought sailors allows Cunningham to layer Eliot with an emerging pathos as each night’s tragedy brings him ever closer to madness. Hawkins’s role is more of the standard hero variety, as he searches for a natural order to the supernatural chaos escalating day-by-day, yet his Clemens easily remains a character the audience can stand behind.

The rest of the cast is rather underserved, with the possible exception of Anna. Each crew member are essentially caricatures given little opportunity to establish themselves as well-rounded characters before the killing commences. The setup is essentially akin to Alien and The Thing, a trapped gaggle of crew are forced to confront an unbeatable force clinging to outdated weapons ill-equipped for the fight.

The only difference between The Last Voyage of the Demeter and those earlier films is the amount of common sense this crew fails to maintain. As the film rolls on, the crew continuously ignore important plot points – they literally witness a person ignite during a sunrise and still only hunt this monster at night – that they effectively become as intelligent as teenagers in a slasher flick, running into the killer’s lair rather than calling 911. You never want your audience to feel smarter than those they’re siding with, and the script does this crew no favors as we all can forecast each member’s moment of certain death, and we all can come up with a better solution than what we witness here.

Director André Øvredal swiftly evokes a gothic atmosphere, utilizing moonlight, darkness, and seeping fog as the voyage veers into certain doom. Accompanied by yet another haunting score from Bear McCreary, the elements at play twist each moment at night into a feeling of dread. Sweeping cinematography truly capture the full picture the director was aiming for. Visually, this film carries its weight.

Likewise, the creature design is ghastly (though it seems the “man” portion of Dracula is long forgotten for this iteration), and rather grim when trapped in Øvredal’s ambience. However, when the close-ups occur, the CGI creeps into that uncanny valley that Stan Winston would never allow.

Overall, The Last Voyage of the Demeter is an otherwise engaging nod to horror with visceral mutilations and solid performances alike. An intriguing idea, well-crafted and atmospheric, though its script unfortunately pits our fanged nightmare against a crew stacked with dimwitted short-sightedness. It is that one important piece that keeps this floating vessel from ever truly sailing.