For what is effectively a small footnote in the Dracula tale, The Last Voyage of the Demeter is an engrossing watch filled with effective scares; André Øvredal has somehow turned this doomed footnote into its own fantastic tale.
The Demeter is making its usual crossing back to London, but an ominous feeling has been rising amongst the crew since 50 mysterious wooden crates came onboard from Carpathia. Soon, the crew figures out that they are not alone, and when night falls, they are being struck down one by one by a monstrous secret passenger.
André Øvredal was already a filmmaker who makes interesting choices with his films; from his breakout feature Trollhunter to the excellent The Autopsy of Jane Doe, he knows his way around the horror genre, and with The Last Voyage of the Demeter, he solidifies that as someone who we should eagerly each upcoming project. You could be forgiven for having quite low expectations with a film detailing but a glimpse of the story of Dracula, but happily, you become pleasantly surprised with just how impressive this film is.
We know the ending (at least for one character), yet we are glued to what happens to this crew, whether Clemens, Captain Eliot or even little Toby. To be able to pull us in like that takes a lot of skill, and by focusing on the haunting atmosphere that being on a vessel where there is no chance of escape evokes, we are effectively in a situation akin to Alien and The Thing. So it is integral that the look of the film is at the highest level, and he achieves that with how eerie this film looks once we hit the evening.
That said, without the performances of our main four, Clemens (Corey Hawkins), who brings that level-headedness that is required to lead a film like this, Captain Eliot (Liam Cunningham), who is always reliable to deliver a heartbreaking and frankly devastating performance, Wojchek (David Dastmalchian) who is one of the most dependable actors out there and thank goodness he is getting more well-known chances to show his talent, and the mysterious Anna (Aisling Franciosi) an actor who should be in everything and brings an added level of emotion to the story that would have been missing otherwise.
Couple this with the script from Brago F. Schut and Zak Olkewicz, which had such a difficult task in making a story like this work, and we are given a film that takes logical steps the whole way through without offending any Stoker or Dracula fanatics. Even down to how our monster looks when we finally start to see him on screen, you can tell there is a deep respect for the source material and just enough creativity to stretch this into its own animal.
However, it struggles with the runtime, where it feels like a bit of drawing things out has been going on to get it to that near two-hour runtime. Additionally, we do not overly require the last minute or so of the film. Still, it is safe to assume that there was a want to give Clements his own ending or if a sequel with this iteration of Dracula was to exist, it had its immediate bouncing-off point, which is fine but not overly necessary.
Focusing on the idea of isolation is The Last Voyage of the Demeter’s main strength. By never waiving from it, the film keeps us fully engaged in the crew’s efforts to get rid of and, at worst, try to survive our fanged menace. In the end, we have a bleak horror that does almost everything right, and for a story like this, that is all you can ask for.
★★★ 1/2
Dazzler Media presents The Last Voyage of the Demeter on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD from 3 February.
Bonus Features
-Audio Commentary with director André Øvredal and producer Bradley J. Fischer
-Evil Is Aboard: The Making of The Last Voyage of the Demeter
-Deleted Scenes
-Alternate Opening
-From The Pits of Hell: Dracula Reimagined
-Dracula And The Digital Age – Featurette
Pre-order on Amazon – Pre-order on HMV
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