This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movie being covered here wouldn’t exist.
The Last Voyage of the Demeter is a horror movie about the crew of the Demeter unknowingly transporting Dracula from Transylvania to London. Based on the section “Log of the Demeter” from Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the voyage of the doomed crew is told from the diary of Captain Eliot. Starring Corey Hawkins, Aisling Franciosi, David Dastmalchian, and Liam Cunningham, the Demeter (which I’ll be calling it for this review) was honestly better than I thought coming in.
For starters, I love monster movies, and there is no monster more famous than Dracula. Normally Dracula is portrayed as a man (see Nic Cage in Renfield), but here he is more of a beast. I want to give props to the movie for two things: 1. Dracula looked pretty disturbing this way, and 2. They did not hide him at all.
The filmmakers took extra care to use a practical Dracula anytime they could, and it looked great. He looked feral which fit the tone of the movie perfectly. The crew understood the assignment. They put him on screen often and made his screen time count. Most of the time, movies like to keep their monsters in the shadow until the climax, but we see him in his full form very early on.
They also kept most of his carnage on screen which I really appreciated. Again, most of the time, movies like to keep the kills off-screen to add to the mystery of what is doing the killing. That’s not the case here. The movie lets you know twice off the bat that no one on the ship was alive when it docks, so you go in expecting to see Dracula mess everyone up and he does not disappoint.
As for the rest of The Last Voyage of the Demeter, I had some issues. I’m not sure if it was just my theater but the audio was much louder than normal. I get that horror movies normally get a little boost to add emphasis to the scares but here everything was just too loud. Like I went to use the bathroom at one point and I could hear the movie from across the hall.
I felt like they could have done a better job creating a more isolated feeling for the movie. It takes place almost solely on a boat in the middle of the ocean but you never really feel the desperation that causes. When their food becomes limited, it’s like “Well everyone will just have to have a little less.” As the crew is picked off by Dracula, the tone remains just to get to London. I felt like it was a missed opportunity, like how The Descent has its monsters but utilizes claustrophobic situations to add to the tension.
The pacing was slow, and the story got repetitive. For the most part, once the Demeter was sailing, the story became: “Night- Dracula picks someone off. Day- talk about what happened last night.” There were many times during the day scenes where I kept thinking, “ok we have to be getting closer to the end now right?” and we were not.
I don’t have much to say about the cast outside of Dastmalchian and Cunningham felt perfectly cast as old-timey seamen. Corey Hawkins is a well-rounded lead, and everyone made it feel like it took place in the 1800s.
Final Thoughts
The Last Voyage of the Demeter is pretty good if you’re looking for a monster movie. The bat creature design works incredibly well, and Javier Botet does great in the role of Dracula. The Demeter gets bloody and really doesn’t hold back with who (or what) gets slain by the beast. I don’t know if it’s in the plans, but given the Demeter is based on Dracula and has an open ending, I would not mind seeing a sequel. It has its faults for sure, but I definitely enjoyed my time with The Last Voyage of the Demeter.
