The Last Voyage Of The Demeter Review: Dracula Meets Alien In This Bloody Chiller
Dracula has been dead and loving it for over 125 years. The blood-sucking count has been adapted to screen in every conceivable way, and he shows no signs of stopping. Earlier this year we got the legendary vampire in the form of Nicolas Cage in "Renfield." He's been Bela Lugosi, and Christopher Lee, and Frank Langella, and Udo Kier, and Gary Oldman, and — well, I could go on and on, until the sun comes up and turns me into dust. Bram Stoker's vampire captures our imagination; he's sleek, seductive, and deadly. He can woo and kill in equal measure. We love Dracula, don't we folks? That said, with so many Dracula movies out there, what else is there to do with the material? I mean, can anything come close to the dizzying, sophisticated highs of "Dracula 2000"?
"The Last Voyage of the Demeter" takes a somewhat novel approach. Rather than adapt Stoker's entire epistolary novel, "Demeter" opts for one specific chapter — a captain's log that chronicles the doomed journey of a ship hauling old Drac from Romania to England, where fresh necks await. It's a solid setup because it mirrors one of the best horror movies ever made: Ridley Scott's "Alien." Like "Alien," we have a ragtag crew trapped on a ship hauling a slimy monster, but instead of space, the ship is at sea, and instead of a Xenomorph, the monster is none other than Dracula.
But this isn't the suave, sophisticated Dracula, sporting a cape and a tux. As played by Javier Botet, an actor who specializes in portraying monsters, this Dracula is feral; a snarling, bat-like creature with a row of fangs and a really bad attitude. And oh yeah, he's hungry. Very, very hungry.
Welcome aboard
André Øvredal's dark, moody, bloody movie cuts to the chase — this is a lean film, more concerned with things that go bump in the night than story or character. The Demeter is gearing up to sail from Romania to England, and the small crew needs a few more men. Enter Clemons (Corey Hawkins), a doctor who wants to get back to England after losing out on a job due to the color of his skin. First mate Wojchek (David Dastmalchian) rejects Clemons at first, but after the doctor saves the life of Toby (Woody Norman), grandson of the ship's kindly captain (Liam Cunningham), he earns his passage on board.
Also on board: a bunch of mysterious crates. The wooden boxes are emblazoned with the seal of a dragon, and all the locals who spot that image are prone to making the sign of the cross in terror. There's something strange in the neighborhood, but the crew of the Demeter shrugs it off — they have a job to do! And if they get their cargo to England in record time they'll score themselves a big bonus. Yes, capitalism reigns supreme, even when dealing with Draculas.
The bonus concept is a neat explanation as to why the crew doesn't just turn the hell around when spooky stuff starts happening almost instantly. They want their money! Vampires be damned! During the day, life on the Demeter is normal, full of ropes being pulled, waves crashing against the hull, and men looking like they're one lime short of scurvy. But by night, something feeds. The ship's dog and all the livestock get slaughtered first, and things only get worse from there. Øvredal stages these scenes in murky darkness, which is both atmospheric and kind of annoying due to how little we can actually see.
Comparisons to Alien are inevitable
If you've read "Dracula," or even if you've just seen the trailers for "Demeter," you know that one of those mysterious crates houses Dracula, slumbering in his native soil as he awaits his destination. But he's not alone. Another crate busts open revealing Anna (Aisling Franciosi), a woman from Romania who knows all about Dracula. It seems she was stowed away to be a midnight snack for Drac, and she might've succumbed to her wounds were it not for some primitive blood transfusions conducted by Clemons (it's the past, so no one has to worry about blood type, I guess). This essentially makes Anna our source of exposition; she's from a village that lived in the shadow of Dracula's castle, and therefore she knows all about the vampire and his ways. Despite growing evidence, the men remain skeptical, until one by one they end up with their throats ripped out, blood spurting onto the wet deck of the ship.
"The Last Voyage of the Demeter" is simple, and I don't say that in a derogatory way. Comparisons to "Alien" are inevitable — it seems like the blueprint for the film. But "Alien" is a superior movie; a brilliant combination of character-building, world-building, and sheer terror. "Demeter" wants to be those things, but the script, which has languished in development hell for several years, is too thin. Outside of a few speeches about wanting to understand the world, Clemons isn't much of a main character. He's just sort of ... there. Still, Corey Hawkins does what he can with the role, and the rest of the cast backs him up admirably. Liam Cunningham, as the ship's captain, delivers the best performance in the film, bringing a calm, commanding kindness to the part and making the character feel more fleshed-out than he really is.
But maybe none of that is important. Maybe all that's important is the concept of Dracula stalking around chomping on necks. Like the Xenomorph, the count sticks to the shadows, stalking out to ensnare prey. Dracula is pure monster here; the characters refer to the creature as it, not he. A romantic figure this is not. And that's kind of refreshing in a way. We've seen the debonnaire count countless times, why not give his more monstrous side the spotlight for a change?
But is any of this scary?
But is any of this scary? I'd argue "Alien" is one of the scariest movies ever made; a nightmare dripping in dread. "Demeter" can make no such claims. The design of Dracula here is effectively gnarly — kind of like Gollum meets the subterranean creatures from "The Descent" — and several of the stalk-and-kill sequences might give you the creeps. But "The Last Voyage of the Demeter" is so slight that it becomes difficult to get invested in the horror of it all. Despite the best efforts of the actors, it's very hard to care about any of these characters. And when we don't care about a character, it's hard to make us interested in their potential demise. I'm not saying you'll be actively rooting for these people to get Drac attacked, but you won't care much about their fates either way.
And yet, "Demeter" is a mostly effective monster movie. Its simplicity will be a feature for some, not a bug. I'm a fan of all things Dracula, and went into "Demeter" hoping for a fresh take on the character and his machinations. But the film diminishes Dracula ever-so-slightly; turns him into a primal, creeping monster, not the cold, calculating mastermind as portrayed in so many books and movies.
It also doesn't help that by adapting a specific chapter of a book, "Demeter" doesn't have much of a conclusion. The filmmakers could've either jettisoned Stoker's book and given the film a definitive finale, or they could journey wherever the source material took them. They chose the latter, and I can't help but think that's a mistake. This is not the end of Dracula, just the beginning. And unless we're suddenly given a "Second to Last Voyage of the Demeter" sequel, the story ends here, on a weak note. But maybe that won't matter to you. Maybe you just want to watch Dracula bite and slash his way through a cast of characters against the backdrop of stormy seas. If that's what you're looking for, "The Last Voyage of the Demeter" will give you plenty to sink your teeth into. I don't know if I'd call this a memorable take on Dracula, but as a simple little monster movie with plenty of atmosphere, it does the trick.
/Film Rating: 6 out of 10