The Last Voyage of the Demeter Is Deviously Entertaining B-Movie Schlock: Review
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
The post The Last Voyage of the Demeter Is Deviously Entertaining B-Movie Schlock: Review appeared first on Consequence.
The Pitch: Bram Stoker’s Dracula has, understandably, been adapted to the silver screen many a time — since cinema’s inception, really. But the long-gestating Last Voyage of the Demeter offers something a bit more stripped-down: Rather than adapting the whole of Stoker’s novel, director Andre Øvredal (The Autopsy of Jane Doe, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark) tackles a single chapter of the book: ol’ Drac’s long-distance boat ride from Transylvania to London.
To translate this chapter to the screen, Øvredal gives it the shape of a nautical survival horror story, tracking the doomed merchant ship of its title on its four-week journey across the Aegean. We’re introduced gradually to Dracula’s potential new meals: The grizzled, paternal captain (Game of Thrones’ Liam Cunningham), the sketchy first mate (David Dastmalchian), the captain’s grandson and cabin boy Toby (C’Mon C’Mon’s Woody Norman), and a host of other growly beardy mid-cruise snacks. Joining the ship on its last stop before London is Clemens (Corey Hawkins), a learned doctor and astronomer who finds himself looking for passage back to his homeland.
But after a storm breaks one of the Demeter’s ominously-marked crates loose, it reveals a mysterious Romani woman named Anna (Aisling Franciosi) gifted to Drac for low-level feeding during his voyage. The crew having removed her from the count’s reach, he now has to sneak out at night to find other necks to nibble on. Cue paranoia, terror, and a whole lot of bloodletting on the high seas.
Oceans Are Now Buffets: In its early stretches, Demeter makes it easy to root against it. The opening framing device — in which London constables come across the battered Demeter and its dead crew, followed by a text crawl that literally tells you this is based on a chapter from Dracula — showcases the lack of faith in genre audiences that a lot of studios have these days. (See also: 65’s breathless explanation of its premise in its own title card.) But the script (written twenty years ago by Bragi Schut Jr., with Zak Olkewicz coming in at some point in the film’s two-decade development hell) does just enough to flesh out its meat-puppet characters and lend a sense of tragedy to their awful fate.
From the get, you know these characters are destined for death: “We’re a doomed crew, on a doomed ship,” Cunningham’s Captain Elliot signposts to us late in the film. But each member of the cast finds reasons to make us at least a little regretful of their almost-certain doom: Cunningham’s warm, paternal presence as captain, Dastmalchian’s journey from distrusting Hawkins’ Black doctor to becoming his greatest ally, poor, innocent Toby’s abject fear through the entire journey. Effective survival horror makes its characters feel at least a bit less like disposable flesh bags, and Demeter does a fine job of that.
I Need This World to Make Sense: The problems, alas, arise with Dracula himself, both in design and in presentation. Because of the story’s provenance, it seems Schut and Olkewicz chose to not even pretend the film is about anything other than Dracula; we see him early and often, albeit hidden in the shadows or curled in the corner of one bulkhead or another. Spanish actor Javier Botet fills the pale prosthesis well, a gaunt menace with the face of Count Orlok and thin, bat-like appendages. It’s a thoroughly-respectable mix of CG and practical effects, aided of course by the nighttime atmosphere of Drac’s feedings and the copious fog the Demeter sails through.
The Last Voyage of the Demeter (Universal Pictures)
Tom Stern’s cinematography is gorgeous, especially in the amber rays of daytime; the film certainly doesn’t look cheap. And Bear McCreary’s score impresses (he was tasked to replace Thomas Newman, who had to drop out) — folk fiddles give way to modernist groans and creaks as Drac’s presence becomes known, aided by vocalist Raya Yarbrough’s siren-like wails.
But smartly, Øvredal takes a few opportunities to explore Dracula as the morality tale he is: an exploration of the evils not just of greed and avarice, but despair. In the opening days, Drac kills all the livestock, immediately turning the crew on edge from a pure food supply standpoint. Crosses don’t work on this guy; Øvredal takes pains to hone in on the ineffectual crucifix around the neck of more than one character, and even pins one, Christ-like, to the mast one stormy night. Clemens, a man of science, struggles to wrap his head around such a creature. “Deep down, I need to know this world,” he admits to Dastmalchian late in the film — not just to wrap his head around vampires, but a world that refuses him the status he deserves despite the color of his skin.
Don’t confuse this film with an intellectual exercise, though: among the surprisingly layered performances are a bevy of suspenseful scares, though they often take repetitive shapes. Night falls, a crewmember wanders the deck alone, turns around slowly, boo, he’s dead. Still, as the trip progresses, Øvredal plays nicely with the mechanics of vampiredom: Crewmembers get bitten, but sometimes don’t die, and find themselves in the early stages of biteyness themselves, thus creating all new obstacles for the crew.
The Verdict: Admittedly, big stretches of Demeter are a bit overwritten and unnecessary; there’s no real need for a film like this to exist, especially considering we know how it’ll all turn out. But as long as it’s here, it might as well be celebrated for what it is: lean, effective nautical horror of a type we don’t often get anymore. Seaside scares are a rare thing these days, especially when Øvredal packs this much atmosphere and characterization into such a wafer-thin premise.
Like so many Hammer horror movies before it, it’s a rollercoaster ride classed up ever so slightly by the caliber of actor they’ve assembled — Hawkins, Franciosi, Dastmalchian, and Woody Norman are the highlights, but everyone gets a chance to shine. It may not completely reinvent the vampire story — after more than a century of them, it’s hard to really innovate on such a well-worn premise. But it’s worth appreciating muscular, back-to-basics horror that sticks to its concept and follows through with as much style as this one does.
Where’s It Playing? The Last Voyage of the Demeter sets sail for doom in theaters August 11th.
Trailer:
The Last Voyage of the Demeter Is Deviously Entertaining B-Movie Schlock: Review
Clint Worthington
Popular Posts
Lostprophets Singer Ian Watkins Taken Hostage and Brutally Stabbed in Prison: Report
Chad Kroeger Pauses Nickelback Show Due to Vocal Issues: "I Cannot Take Your Money"
Taylor Swift Announces New "Eras Tour" North American Dates in 2024
Bruce Springsteen Kicks Off North American Tour with World-Class Performance in Chicago: Review
Beyoncé's Tour Rider Includes Brand-New Toilet Seats at Each Venue: Report
