The Last Voyage of the Demeter is a 2023 Universal Pictures release directed by Andre Ovredal and starring Corey Hawkins, Aisling Franciosi, David Dastmalchian, Woody Norman, and Liam Cunningham. This film is based around the 7th chapter of the Bram Stoker novel ‘Dracula’ and tells the story of a crew transporting 50 unmarked wooden crates from Carpathia to London via ship. Unbeknownst to them at the time, one of the crates aboard carries the brutal, immortal Dracula inside! The crew must set aside their differences in an attempt to fight for survival and stop whatever force is lurking in the shadows. This movie had a lot working for it, the feel of the 1890’s atmosphere on the rickety wooden ship, and the way they utilized the dark corners of the ship and the pitch-black sea as ambience in the night scenes, as well as the creepiness of the random knocks and creaks aboard an old wooden ship at sea just to name a few. This movie also presented us with a very different look to the classic character of Dracula, instead of his normal eerie suave gentleman he is normally seen as in his human form, he was seen as his normal form in this representation. A beastly, man bat like savage with a never-ending thirst for blood.
The story in itself was pretty basic, not too dense or hard to follow as long as you understand the classic Dracula story or at least know all the basic vampire lore (such as not being able to go into the sun, a thirst for blood, etc.) and the majority of the film takes place on the merchant ship, the Demeter. This film sits right around 2 hours and felt like it drags just a bit at times, but it did a pretty good job of keeping you reeled in as a viewer with the threat of Dracula returning upon nightfall constantly looming in the background. I personally loved the look and feel of this Dracula, the threat of him is there before you ever get a full reveal of him building up anticipation, but once you do see him in full, I was not disappointed, he looks scary and threatening and is an absolute savage in the way he feeds in this film. The crew had some stand out performances in it as well, notably the ever so noble and intelligent Collins (Hawkins), the forewarning Anna (Franciosi) who was responsible for relaying most of the Dracula lore to the crew and the viewer, and the representation of heroic innocence Toby (Norman) were the most stand out roles of the crew members in my humble opinion.
This story in itself is more chilling and suspenseful than it is horrifying or intense, which is exactly the way it needed to feel. Don’t get me wrong, there are still some jump scares aboard the Demeter and brutal kill sequences are sprinkled in throughout, but the story itself revolves more around the fear and desperation of this doomed crew as they attempt to fight for survival against a blood hungry monster. If someone was wanting to start someone on the horror genre a movie like this one is a good place to start. Nothing is too bone chilling or intense or hard to watch, but there are still some scenes to make you jump, some kills to make you squirm, and a creepy feeling and dark ambience that looms throughout. This movie was another sort of box office flop which is a shame because it really is well acted and put together and I love me anything to do with the classic Universal Monsters, but it’s understandable because it came out in a weird time of year for horror kind of and fell under the radar a bit compared to the other films that dropped into theaters at the time. If you’re into monster movies, movies that take place out at sea, Dracula, or just macabre tales set in older times then this should be right up your alley. Give it a watch and support, these Universal Monster characters! They kickstarted everything that is horror today so we can’t let them die out!
