In the saturated cinematic world of bloodsuckers, it’s important to carve a niche to help the film stand out from its predecessors. For Andre Ovredal’s The Last Voyage of The Demeter, the visual palette drenched in melancholic grays and blues are effective in creating atmosphere, the film falls prey to predictability.
Written by Bragi F. Schut and Zak Olkewicz, and starring Corey Hawkins, Aisling Franciosi, David Dastmalchian, Woody Norman, and Liam Cunningham, it’s no secret that Universal is desperate to get their monster cinematic universe off the ground, but haven’t had much luck. After watching the movie, it’s clear the studio will have to continue its search for success.
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The Last Voyage begins in Whitby England 1897, where the Demeter is shipwrecked, and desolate. The local police discover and try to investigate, but are too spooked to continue. The film then backtracks to four weeks earlier in Romania. The Demeter is docked and looking for crew to help take cargo to London. Clemens (Hawkins), a cambridge educated man looking to return to England, saves Captain Eliot (Cunningham) grandson Toby (Norman) from getting crushed by a large crate. Clemens is then invited on board to work. There are several boxes of cargo, all labeled with ominus dragron crest symbols that weirds out the local Romanians who can’t wait for the ship to leave their shores.
On the Demeter, things run smoothly at first, but are then shaken up by the arrival of Anna (Franciosi), a stowaway within the cargo. She’s on the verge of dying and admisistered a blood transfusion to save her life. While the woman is unconscious, things fall a part as the animals on board are killed via blood drainage. This is when the crew turns on each other blaming one another for the incident, when one isolated member is confronted by Dracula himself. As they discovers what they are dealing, they find their chances of survival grow slim with each passing moment. Now they must decide whether to abandoned ship, or stop the creature before it gets to its destination.
Ovredal, without a doubt, has a commendable directorial eye. The atmospherics he achieves in the claustrophobic bowels of Demeter are reminiscent of Ridley Scott’s iconic Alien — a small crew, tight quarters, isolated amidst the wide, and unforgiving space. The connections of human vulnerability against nature’s vastness, much like space in Alien, underscores the horror well. However, the director’s pursuit of balance of horror and drama is let down by the screenplay. Writers Bragi F. Schut and Zak Olkewicz unfortunately offer nothing refreshing. Each move Dracula makes is predicted well in advance, making the Count less a creature of terror and more an expected inconvenience.
The film doesn’t just borrow atmospheric notes from iconic predecessors. The creature design takes a page out of the Nosferatu look-book and fairs better when rendered in practical effects with Dracula actor Javier Botet. However, some sequences are ruined by obvious VFX that squander the moments of terror by making the audience aware of the artificiality on screen.
It is the cast of The Last Voyage of the Demeter that truly prevents the film from sinking into cinematic oblivion. Corey Hawkins delivers a memorable performance as Clemons, anchoring the narrative and providing a much-needed pulse to the story. Anna, showcases smarts, proving that the characters could have been more than just lambs for the slaughter if given a stronger script.
In essence, The Last Voyage of the Demeter is an atmospheric journey that promises much but delivers little. There are moments of brilliance, especially in its practical character design and the occasional spine-chilling scene, it feels longer than it actually is. In the ongoing quest of Universal to discover that perfect concoction of horror, intrigue, and storytelling, it seems the hunt continues.
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