Numerous horror movies have been produced about the iconic vampire Dracula created by Bram Stoker, dating back to the silent film era with F.W. Murnau’s 1922 movie, Nosferatu. The latest entry in the Dracula story comes from filmmaker André Øvredal and focuses solely on one chapter of the Stoker novel The Last Voyage of the Demeter.
The film begins in 1897 on the shores of Whitby, England, with the shipwreck of the Demeter. A voice-over from the ship’s captain reading from his log warns that if the evil from the ship makes it ashore, may heaven help those it finds.
Upon investigation, the local police found no survivors on board.
A flashback shows the events four weeks prior in Transylvania. Captain Eliot (Liam Cunningham) and his first mate, Mr. Wojchek (David Dastmalchian), look for men to help fill out the crew for the voyage to England. Clemens (Corey Hawkins), a Cambridge-educated man, volunteers to be the ship’s doctor in hopes of returning to London. After demonstrating his knowledge of ship operations and saving the captain’s young grandson, Toby (Woody Norman), from a falling crate, he’s welcomed onto the ship.
Once the ship is loaded with its strange cargo consisting of 50 crates filled with dirt and bearing the mark of a Dragon Crest, the Demeter sets sail.
It’s after the first night that things start to go bad for the Demeter and her crew. All of the livestock on board have been killed, and their blood’s been drained. To add to the confusion, the crew discovers a stowaway. The stowaway is Anna (Aisling Franciosi), a young woman near death and in desperate need of a blood transfusion. Clemens performs the procedure and saves her.
The following night, one of the crew goes missing. The same thing happens the next night. With fear and superstition beginning to take over the crew, the captain orders that no man will stand a night watch alone. However, the next night, the two men standing watch discover the cause of their crew members disappearing when they come face to face with an evil-looking, human-sized bat creature that attacks them.
As Captain Eliot, Clemens, Wojchek, and the last remaining few begin to realize the true terror of what’s hunting them, they must decide whether to abandon ship or to try to kill the monster.
Dark, dull, and tedious, The Last Voyage of the Demeter is a terrible misfire in the horror genre with zero scares and an unimpressive cast. It borrows too heavily from other great horror films, including Nosferatu, 30 Days of Night, and most of all, Alien.
The film fails miserably to create any sort of tension or suspense. The overuse of jump scares becomes predictable after just the second instance, and they’re groan-inducing rather than frightening.
Unfortunately, Dracula, as portrayed by Javier Botet, lacks any personality and is turned into a huge grayish bat creature with wings. It seems as if this look was taken from the Netflix series Midnight Mass, which is far superior.
Nearly all of the characters in the film are one-dimensional and uninteresting. Liam Cunningham delivers the best performance as Captain Eliot, who goes from being a seasoned seafaring man to a terrified and desperate soul fighting to save his grandson and his ship. All the other performances are wooden and forgettable.
Lacking originality, character development, and – most importantly – scares, The Last Voyage of the Demeter has no bite and should sink at the box office.
GRADE: C-
MPAA Rating: R for violence
Release Date: August 11, 2023
Running Time: 1 hour 58 minutes
Studio: Universal Pictures
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