🩸🩸🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸
Directed by André Øvredal
Universal Studios is on a mission to rekindle the legacy of the most valuable property in their horror archives, Count Dracula. The Last Voyage of the Demeter feels very much like a counterpoint to this Spring’s earlier Universal release, Renfield. Whereas Renfield was fun, and a colorful presentation with Nicholas Cage chewing up (literally) the cast and scenery, The Last Voyage of the Demeter is all dread and shadows. Most importantly, it Makes Dracula Scary, again. (MDSA?)
This film takes direct homage from Chapter 7 of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, “The Captain’s Log”. The film brazenly opens with the wreck of the Demeter, washed up on the rocky shore of Whitby, England, with all hands lost. It also announces in the opening moments that this is a story about Dracula. So, prequel spoiler alert… Dracula is still “alive”. This film treats Dracula very much like the devil, and his appearance is even more demonic than that of Nosferatu. As he gains power and consumes crew, he changes dramatically. This is perhaps the scariest depiction of the Count ever seen. There is nothing genteel about this Count.
For those knowledgeable of Dracula lore, this is a real treat. Chapter 7 is one of the most provocative and suggestive in the book. It was a demonstration of the creature’s power and hints at his destructive force. The movie flashes back from the wreck to a Black Sea port in Varna, Bulgaria, where Captain Elliot (Liam Cunningham, Ser Davos from Game of Thrones) and his crew, including his loyal first Mate Wojcheck (Friend of Scariest Things, David Dastmalchian) are recruiting sailors and loading up cargo for a trip back to England. Among this cargo are a number of large crates delivered by Romani traders, of unknown goods, but are assigned the mark of a black dragon, to be delivered to a person unknown in London.
Of course, these crates are actually Count Dracula’s coffin and vessels of soil from his Transylvanian castle. Cargo scanning and manifests were pretty rudimentary back in the 19th Century. Would you like to declare any dangerous items? No? OK! Haul it up! A young Afro-Brit and Cambridge-trained Doctor Clemons (Corey Hawkins, Straight Outa Compton, Kong Skull Island) is one of the hands brought onto the Demeter, as his appointment to be a royal surgeon in Romania was dismissed when the patron discovered he was black. Again, hiring practices in the 19th Century also leaves a lot to be desired. Clemons rescued the Captain’s Grandson and livestock handler, Toby (Woody Norman), and is granted passage as the ship’s doctor by Captain Elliot in gratitude.
The voyage back to England goes smoothly for a while until two mysterious events unfold. One of the crates falls open in rough seas, and a young woman is found, near death in a box full of soil. Anna (Aisling Franciosi, The Nightingale) has been a victim of Dracula’s predation but is a survivor. The presence of a woman on the ship is an ill omen for the crew and is made worse when all of the livestock on the ship are found destroyed and festering, a sign that the vampire is now loose on the ship.
This sets the stage for the bulk of the movie, as the crew are attacked by Dracula (Javier Botet), usually while on watch, and of course, at night. The crew is incentivized to make all due haste back to London for bonuses, but eventually, they realize that there is a monster on board, and the nearest port will be England. The merchantman is now under-crewed, with the vampire able to sneak around the claustrophobic vessel, and no one is safe.
André Øvredal is a master of horror craft. His previous credits include Trollhunter, The Autopsy of Jane Doe, and Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. He is a craftsman of dark and shadow, and some of my favorite moments in this film are when he holds a shot in dim lighting, and then something moves that shouldn’t move, and it’s chilling. This movie is dreadful, in that it is FULL OF DREAD. You have already been given the end result, (for the most part) so you know the crew is doomed from the start. The question is do they go down swinging, or are they going to be easy pickings?
Given the amount of foreshadowing, the movie does deliver great surprises, and the plot armor is limited. Though some of the sailors are somewhat anonymous bearded seamen, there are plenty of great performances that really shine. All of the leads here do terrific, nuanced performances. Hawkins and Cunningham, in particular really flesh out their characters, and of course, we have to shout out to Dastmalchian for managing to be the skeptic while also knowing when to pivot and take action. Javier Botet doesn’t get enough credit for his work in costume. Much like Doug Jones and Andy Serkis, he does a lot of work in a mo-cap suit, his tall lanky body ideal to represent the gaunt and toothy of the night.
I do think there are a lot of suppositions that could have used some explanations for those more unfamiliar with the Dracula story. The knowledge that it is Dracula himself who made this transaction to buy property in England is left unmentioned, so the whole reason for the coffins on the ships could prove confusing to those new to the core story. Anna’s role is hinted at, but since she joins in media res, you eventually roll with the conceit that she was a victim and is now the most knowledgeable person on the ship relative to the threat.
I have always been a fan of the age of sail on film. The Terror, Master and Commander, Horatio Hornblower, and even The Pirates of the Caribbean have managed to capture my fancy. So in many ways this film was set up to enjoy. The merchantman vessel isn’t exactly a massive galleon or a frigate, so it keeps the set manageable. These kinds of movies, in order to feel authentic, are not cheap to make, so it is a big risk for Universal to launch a title like this. It is a movie that has gone through multiple previous directors and casts (Noomi Rapace, Viggo Mortensen, Jude Law, and Ben Kingsley all being attached to earlier versions of this film)
I think Universal got it right with this cast and crew. I am a bit concerned that it arrives at a time when it is difficult to promote the film (SAG strike) and that Universal didn’t exactly flood the zone with adverstising. I suspect this could be a word-of-mouth sensation, but I thought the same of Renfield, and whoooo boy, was I wrong on that one. (I still love that movie! Go see it!)
As a Universal monsterverse movie, this really fits in nicely with The Invisible Man and Renfield. They took the source material seriously, made an impressive period piece with solid jump scares and great atmospherics. Øvredal has pointed to Alien as his inspiration for this film, and it shows. Now we will see if the word of mouth can make this a minor hit. It may have gotten past the Barbenheimer juggernaut, schedule-wise, so perhaps this film will take advantage of the relative paucity of new films this week.
“I wanted this to be the scariest depiction of Dracula.”
André Øvredal, Director
I think he succeeded at that.
The Last Voyage of the Demeter is Rated R for violence, dread, and gore. It will start its wide theatrical release on August 11.
Review By Eric Li