The Last Voyage of the Demeter
The legend of Dracula is born.
The crew of the merchant ship Demeter attempts to survive the ocean voyage from Carpathia to London as they are stalked each night by a merciless presence onboard the ship.
- Year: 2023
- Country: Germany, India, United Kingdom, United States of America
- Genre: Fantasy, Horror
- Studio: Phoenix Pictures, DreamWorks Pictures, Wise Owl Media, Reliance Entertainment, Studio Babelsberg, StoryWorks Productions
- Keyword: ship, based on novel or book, sacrifice, vampire, supernatural, gothic horror, dracula, 1890s
- Director: André Øvredal
- Cast: Corey Hawkins, Aisling Franciosi, David Dastmalchian, Javier Botet, Liam Cunningham, Chris Walley
Last Voyage of the Demeter, manages to wring every creepy last drop, out of what is, a rather limited setting. This is a disturbing film in many respects. It takes the myth of Dracula as envisioned by Bram Stoker and makes something fundamentally primal, awful and genuinely chilling, out of it. This vampire is not your polite, European, with dental problems but more your monstrous Nosferatu.Its a sensible choice, as it amps ups the fear factor, in what is,the confined setting of a ship. Acting is top shelf too and really adds depth to what is already, a more than decent, horror film. The only real downside is a few inconsistencies in the plot. Two of the characters go to investigate the crates, where they suspect the vampire dwells. One says she has no idea how to kill the vampire, having observed a crew member, who was bitten, burning in daylight. Indeed, why would the other character, who asks the question, apparently a doctor, not be more observant too? The captain and the remaining crew, are left out of this dangerous expedition, why? Why too, go at night, in the knowledge that this is when the vampire is out and about, taking compulsory blood donations? In summary, an above average horror film that's truly creepy, disturbing and chilling. Perhaps only limited a little by the confines of its setting and a few, rather obvious, plot holes.That said, I still rate this a decent watch, if you enjoy vampire films.
Very middle ground horror movie. The CGI Dracula is pretty boring throughout. Not much new to offer.
MORE SPOILER-FREE MINI-REVIEWS @ https://www.msbreviews.com/movie-reviews/mini-reviews-2023-edition "The Last Voyage of the Demeter breathes new life into the Dracula narrative, offering a surprisingly fresh take on the classic tale. This adaptation stands out with exceptional makeup work, impressively relying on real, practical effects instead of succumbing to the CGI trend. A remarkable choice that adds realism to the gruesome scenes filled with gore, bloody kills, and shocking imagery. Director André Øvredal's willingness to make bold decisions deserves much praise, as do the claustrophobic, eerie atmosphere and a potent score that avoids the formulaic build-ups to jumpscares. Gorgeously shot with excellent control of dark lighting and commendable VFX. Despite its strengths, the film overstays its welcome, falling into a somewhat predictable structure. A notable frustration arises from the nonsensical decision to reveal the ending in the opening sequence without substantial justification, leaving a lingering dissatisfaction with an otherwise daring, visually striking, highly entertaining horror flick." Rating: B+
The Last Voyage of the Demeter is a movie directed by André Øvredal (Troll Hunters, 2010, The Autopsy of Jane Doe, 2016), that tells basally the prologue of 1897's Bram Stoker's "Dracula" (1847-1912) that tells about the Captain's Log of the Bulgarian ship named after the movie tile in 1867, before the events that happens in England. Bragi Schut Jr. that took almost 20 years to put the idea to a movie adapted the text to a full screenplay (Escape Room, Velvet Road) and there may reside the big flaw of the movie, because the rhythm is inconsistent and the plot even being interesting moves very slowly, with many flaws. It tries to emulate an ancient Alien the 8th passenger movie to this claustrophobic setting. Maybe the worst mistake was to put a protagonist Corey Hawkins in the role of the afro-english doctor Clemens that survives the trip and will start the hunt for Dracula, this already show in a pre-credits scene where the doctor is on a bar and see's the shadowy figure of Dracula, alrey telling the viewers that will de a sequence, on cinema or streaming. Nothing to say about the well know story - a massacre of the tripulation of the ship, that consists with the book, and the arrival at the destiny as a wreck with the coffin containing earth of Dracul's "bed" (I wonder if it sunk in the middle of the Atlantic what would happened - no earth, but no no sunlight so...anyway:). After some gruesome assassinations on the ship, is obvious that somebody would be suspicious of each other, but not in the scale they happen, The mouse and cat cat between Dracula (in his man-bat form) and crew is the main core of the movie. Göran Lundström made the wonderful prosthetic work that was used almost 100% oon the scenes with dracula only using CG to put the artist that interpreted it on the creature (that is very similar to the one at Midnight Mass at Netflix) Beside the prosthetics and some scenes, the movie is too slow, and the final is ridiculous. I would give it a score of 6,0 out of 10,0 / B- by the effort.
The voyage of Dracula across the seas to London was a tale that I always wanted to see put to film. Unfortunately, this movie did not put enough of an emphasis on this actually being Dracula. Yes, it was stated in the movie by the characters, and some of the lore was set up at the start, but once they set sail on the Demeter, it turned into another demon-beast just killing victims. Dracula's monstrous form looked great, there just wasn't enough of the "human" part of him portrayed. The movie looked good, and the characters were interesting enough that they were not just monster fodder. Maybe there wasn't enough Dracula-as-a-plague, either. It was constantly stated that he needed to feed, but that's not the same as his bat and rat, disease-carrying, rabid animal characteristics.
The Last Voyage of the Demeter has a huge amount of wasted potential. The setting is atmospheric and the cast is decent. The real downside to it is that it shows way too much way too early. The suspense and mystery is killed by completely unveiling the "bad guy" in the first third of the movie and it unfortunately devolves into a B-movie adjacent creature flick from there on. I'm not one to complain about characters making dumb choices for the sake of the story in a horror movie, but I think this one really turns it up to eleven. I don't recall a single film in recent memory that had the main characters make such consistently wrong decisions throughout and it kinda turned into eye rolling in the last third. Overall I really wanted to like it, because the setting and theme was intriguing. It's not a horrible movie by any means, but it's a shame to see how close it came to being good, just to end up being pulled back into mediocrity.
The Last Voyage of the Demeter, nope. They had to do it didn't they? A movie about the ship that brought Dracula to England in the late 19th Century and... modern day political messaging. They were like, nope, we can't just make a Dracula movie, we have to push ***THE MESSAGE*** and honestly, that's what killed it. No one wants that. They don't want the racial politics, they just wanted Dracula killing people on a boat in the 1880s. Instead what they got was Dracula killing people on a boat, Black people are smarter and more capable than white people, pushing the political message. You don't really want that. You literally just want to see Dracula killing people on a boat. You already know they are going to lose. You already know they are all going to die. The movie doesn't even have to be good, it just has to be gory fun. But they decided that they had to have ***THE MESSAGE*** more than cheap gore and horror violence.