‘The Last Voyage of the Demeter’ Film Review
Bragi F. Schut and Zak Olkewicz’s script isn’t loaded with colloquialisms and doesn’t flounder in the territory of folklore. They feed us just enough info about Dracula to pique our interest but keep his origins murky.
The Last Voyage of the Demeter hearkens back to Universal Pictures' monster movies of yesteryear. The Wolfman, Frankenstein, The Mummy, and Dracula are all dripping with atmosphere. The stories are easy to follow. The volley between good vs. evil is crystal clear and this interplay is the impetus for the momentum of the films. The Last Voyage of the Demeter successfully incorporates these elements, giving us a new spin on an old tale.
In André Øvredal's Demeter, fog is a cloak for the different manifestations of evil that now plague the crew of the sturdy ship. Shadows play with light like evil taunts good. Øvredal directed Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark and The Autopsy of Jane Doe. Both films had atmospheres that inexorably turned up the tension in certain scenes. He makes the contained environment a death voyage by slowly revealing the monster, who looks like Nosferatu instead of Bela Lugosi's vampire with human form.
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Based on Chapter 7, The Captain's Log, of Bram Stoker's 1897 horror novel piece de resistance Dracula, The Last Voyage of the Demeter takes place on the Demeter, a ship that's under Captain Eliot's (Liam Cunningham) helm for one last voyage before he retires. Once some of the newly hired crew see the dragon insignia on one of the crates, their superstitions take hold, and they abandon their roles. This opens a spot for Clemens, a Black British doctor who's ready to return to London. Corey Hawkins is a chameleon who fits in any time period. As the main character in an ensemble, Clemens acknowledges the challenges of being Black in his field but never lets these challenges deter or define him. He lets his work represent him.
Once the voyage begins, livestock is killed, and people start disappearing. Eventually, they know there’s no other explanation than that they have something evil and unnatural on board. Once one of the men is turned into an undead creature himself, the remaining crew, including Anna (Aisling Franciosi), decides they have to destroy the creature. Anna, who was given to Dracula by someone in her village, doesn’t know how to destroy the vampire but is aware of what a formidable enemy they’re up against.
Javier Botet is Dracula. He’s unrecognizable under the demon makeup. The design of the creature is a nod to F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu and Kurt Barlow in Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot. The stronger he gets, the more he morphs into his true form.
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One of the failings of the film is that some common-sense solutions are overlooked by our main characters. Why look for Dracula's crate at night when you know the vampire creatures burn in the sunlight? This is the nature of the horror film, though. It wouldn’t be a horror film if a character did something that makes sense.
Bragi F. Schut and Zak Olkewicz’s script isn’t loaded with colloquialisms and doesn’t flounder in the territory of folklore. They feed us just enough info about Dracula to pique our interest but keep his origins murky.
Bear McCreary’s score is pulsating and heightens the feeling of dread and terror. The storms are made kinetic by the vibrant, ghoulish notes. It’s just as fearless and glorious as Godzilla: King of the Monsters. Besides a slew of film and television soundtracks, McCreary has also done some video game scores.
The Universal Pictures release is exclusively in Theaters on August 11, 2023.
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Sonya Alexander started off her career training to be a talent agent. She eventually realized she was meant to be on the creative end and has been writing ever since. As a freelance writer she’s written screenplays, covered film, television, music and video games and done academic writing. She’s also been a script reader for over twenty years. She's a member of the African American Film Critics Association and currently resides in Los Angeles.
