‘The Last Voyage Of The Demeter’ Review: An Admirable Attempt At Gothic Horror
Bram Stoker’s Dracula changed my young life, steering me into the spooky waters of gothic lit. The epistolary format foreshadowed a love for found footage and an impending obsession with vampires. It shaped my still-growing mind to go practically feral for any adaptation of the novel. So I’ve been feasting this year, especially with the recent releases of The Last Voyage Of The Demeter. While audiences at large may not be enjoying this Gothic resurgence, those who love shadowy hallways, candlelit bedrooms, and stormy nights will find themselves enthralled by the latest from Andre Øvredal, the man behind Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark and The Autopsy of Jane Doe.
Specifically, this is an adaptation of a section of Dracula titled “The Captain’s Log” that details the strange happenings on the Demeter which transported Dracula to England. Corey Hawkins shines as the film’s protagonist, Clemens, a doctor who scores a spot on board the Demeter after saving the life of Captain Eliot’s (Liam Cunningham) grandson Toby (Woody Norman). As he prepares to set sail to England with the mismatched crew, bad omens already abound about the mysterious cargo aboard, which is obviously Dracula buried in a bunch of dirt. As soon as the voyage is underway, a monstrous version of Dracula (played by the always incredible Javier Botet) almost immediately begins picking off crew members.
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Aisling Franciosi’s Anna is then revealed as Dracula’s traveling snack, a blood bag to keep him barely alive. As the puzzle pieces come together and the body count rises, the humans fight a doomed battle against the monstrous Count.
Writers Bragi F. Schut and Zak Olkewicz try their hardest to put an original spin on something where we already know it ends in tragedy. This contained story is ripe for horror pickings, after all, and it’s smart to concentrate on one section of Dracula rather than trying to contain its epic scale into a two-hour film. And The Last Voyage Of The Demeter is definitely a nasty film that isn’t afraid to break a few taboos of blockbuster horror to weave a cruel narrative that tries to get to the heart of Bram Stoker’s original text. The inclusion of Franciosi’s character provides a further example of Dracula’s cruelty as she functions as merely a living buffet. Cinematographers Roman Osin and Tom Stern pull out all the stops to build tension ala Alien as the bowels of the boat are portrayed as both vast and deeply claustrophobic.
But its source material also damns the narrative as we already the specifics of the ending where Dracula achieves his goal and buries his claws into London. Yet the script really wants us to believe that this is a mystery and that we have no idea about the villain and his specific motivations. The audience is so far ahead of the narrative that by the second half of the film, it begins to drag. Instead of creating a lean, mean creature feature, The Last Voyage Of The Demeter doesn’t trust its audience to know where the story is going.
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The entire film is very Gothic and restrained, which is great if you like that type of film (calling all Crimson Peak fans). I include myself in the group of people that occasionally enjoys a good Gothic romp about the mansion (or ship). But such a narrative doesn’t necessarily appeal to horror audiences at large. Plus, the film never really commits to its tone. It’s both gory and bloodless, action-packed and slow. It’s a confusing tone that isn’t altogether bad, but it’s jarring. You never feel quite sure of what the film is going for, and while that kind of purposeful confusion has worked to the benefit of some horror films, such is not the case for The Last Voyage Of The Demeter.
The Last Voyage Of The Demeter is a fun Gothic horror movie on the high seas. Is it predictable not only due to its source material but also to the tropes it so often adopts? Yes. Could it use more blood? Yes. But it’s still an entertaining piece of vampire fiction that shows our villain as a monstrous creature rather than a dazzling humanoid. The cinematography is stunning and Andre Øvredal proves yet again he knows how to direct the hell out of a horror film. But it’s ultimately too restrained to truly pack a punch.
Summary
The cinematography is stunning and Andre Øvredal proves yet again he knows how to direct the hell out of a horror film, but ‘The Last Voyage Of The Demeter’ is ultimately too restrained to truly pack a punch.
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