Movie Review: 'The Last Voyage of the Demeter'

The Last Voyage of the Demeter (2023)

Directed by Andre Ovredal

Written by Bragi Schut Jr, Zak Olkewicz

Starring Corey Hawkins, Aisling Franciosi, Liam Cunningham, David Dastmalchian

Release Date August 11th, 2023

Published August 13th, 2023

The Last Voyage of Demeter is the second attempt this year by Universal Pictures to tap the Dracula I.P for box office dollars. The first attempt, Renfield, was a disaster business-wise. Whether you enjoyed Renfield or not, the movie cost $65 million dollars and made $26.7 million at the box office. The Last Voyage of Demeter cost Universal and Amblin Entertainment more than $45 million dollars and on its opening weekend, Demeter made a meager $6.5 million. This is no reflection on the quality of The Last Voyage of Demeter but rather on the marketing of the movie which failed to convey the horror elements of the movie well enough to rope in that often very loyal market.

As for the movie, it's far better than the reputation the film now has another Dracula related box office failure. The film stars Corey Hawkins, a tremendous young actor who appears doomed to supporting roles after his leading man play here failed at the box office. Hawkins plays a man named Clemens who purports to be one of the first black doctors to graduate from Cambridge University. However, because of the severe racism of the time, Clemens was unable to find work after his graduation. He then accepted a position in Romania only to find that he'd been offered the position by someone who didn't know Clemens was black.

Now, having been stranded in Romania for an unspecified amount of time, Clemens finds a potential way to get home to England. A ship called Demeter is set to transport cargo around the Horn of Africa and back to England, a two and a half month trip. They need hands and after locals refuse to board the ship, having seen carvings and symbols on the cargo that they recognize as evil, Clemens finds himself hired as Ship's Doctor and Deck Hand. He's also getting a share of a small fortune that the crew of the Demeter has been given for this trip, a sum large enough to get the Captain (Liam Cunningham) and his first mate, Wojchek (David Dastmalchian) to ignore the many, many red flags going up regarding this trip.

It should not be very hard, nor should it be considered a spoiler, to know that the cargo is, in fact, the body of Count Dracula (Javier Botet), his many possessions, and a young woman, Anna (Aisling Franciosi), who is set to be Dracula's traveling snack until he starts chowing down on crew members. Plans change when the box containing Anna breaks during the trip and she's rescued by Clemens. Dracula then is forced to start feeding on livestock and then step up to eating the crew while leaving just enough of them alive to finish the journey to England.

The Last Voyage of the Demeter is based on a detail including in the 7th chapter of Bram Stoker's book, Dracula. In that chapter, a newspaper article details that the Captain of the ship that brought Dracula to England was found tied to the wheel of the ship, dead, and clutching a crucifix. The story of The Last Voyage of the Demeter thus extrapolates a story from that into 'how did the Captain of the ship end up tied to the wheel?' It's not a bad idea really, that's a clever way to expand on the Dracula story, it certainly has strong horror possibilities, having Dracula's victims trapped aboard a ship, entirely unaware of what it is that they are fighting against or how to kill it.

There is no Dracula lore from which to draw upon for the crew of the Demeter. No one knows the nature of the beast and thus how to kill it. Certainly, other than Anna, who has a role to play after she's awakened from a coma, no one even knows that the creature is a man-bat who thrives on drinking blood. This leads to a series of debates where even the smartest characters are forced into mental gymnastics to attempt to explain what kind of monster they are dealing with. It's a rare movie where everyone's response to Dracula is what it should be, pure terror followed by failing attempts at rationalizing something that is completely insane.

Corey Hawkins is a terrific leading actor for this story. His Clemens is a man of science and reason who clings to his beliefs just as much as the ship's deeply religious Cook clings to his beliefs. As both are confronted by an evil they can't make sense of, their dedication to their beliefs becomes the key to their potential death. Each must learn to let go of their hard fought beliefs in order to survive this very real threat and while Hawkins may have main character powers that keep him around, the Demeter story from Dracula is that the crew did not survive. Thus, there is a genuine suspense as to whether even the main characters of The Last Voyage of the Demeter will survive.

The Last Voyage of the Demeter was directed by Andre Ovredal and while I find his direction somewhat tedious, he tends to draw out scenes a little more than necessary, creating a sluggish tone, his choices of violent ends are exciting an unexpected. Fire has a big role to play here and the deaths by fire are horrific and shocking visuals that have impact. The fire effects are tremendous and each time fire plays out in The Last Voyage of Demeter your stomach churns over the stunning visual and Ovredal's unwillingness to shy away from the horror.

The Last Voyage of Demeter is far from greatness but it has enough things that are good about it that make it worth seeing. The film makes a nice companion piece for Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula. The film has a good niche among the lore of Bram Stoker's incredible story. I admire The Last Voyage of Demeter as a writing exercise with the simple premise of how the Captain of the Demeter ended up lashed to the wheel. Screenwriters Bragi Schut Jr. and Zak Olkewicz expand the Dracula universe in The Last Voyage of Demeter in a clever fashion that adds to the horror resume of one of our most famous movie monsters.

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