Directed By Andre Ovredal

Starring – Corey Hawkins, Aisling Franciosi, Liam Cunningham

The Plot – Based on a single chapter, the Captain’s Log, from Bram Stoker’s classic 1897 novel Dracula, the story is set aboard the Russian schooner Demeter, which was chartered to carry private cargo of twenty-four unmarked wooden crates from Carpathia to London. The film details the strange events that befell the doomed crew as they attempt to survive the ocean voyage, stalked each night by a terrifying presence on board the ship.

Rated R for bloody violence

(5) The Last Voyage of the Demeter | Official Trailer – YouTube

POSITIVES

“Captain’s Log” has always been the one underutilized chapter in the Dracula novel, so the idea of maximizing its potential for a feature length film had me firmly excited, and from a director’s standpoint, Ovredal completely crushes the look and essence of this particular time period, all with an unrelenting ruthlessness that earns every bit of its coveted R-rating. The 45 million dollars in production values here are spent terrifically towards being some of the year’s best in everything from costume designs, set pieces, and even make-up, which more times than not caters to practicality rather than C.G. Ovredal continuously capitalizes on immersing audiences to this doomed voyage at sea feeling like an actual tragedy that is unfolding before us, with clashing water orchestrating the sound designs, and claustrophobic camera work all but cementing the tight quarters of the Demeter, which gives the crew very few places to hide from Dracula. On the world’s most infamous vampire, the decision here is to maintain him inside of the animalistic side of his design, which I feel pays off brilliantly towards the viscerally menacing side of the character. When Dracula is first established, there’s an uncontrollable side to his rage, which illustrates his primal thirst for not feeding in a few days, and while it does eventually sedate with each victim, his morbid thirst for gore and brutality certainly does not, bringing out the savage within him for the way that not even women or children are safe. Performances across the board of this film are also really effective, despite the characterization for each of them feeling very thin for a two hour engagement. Especially in the case of Hawkins, Cunningham, and David Dastmalchian, there’s a real transformative appeal to their portrayals that allows us to see each of them in entirely new lights, whether in the form of Hawkins’ consistent British accent and evaporating gentility, Cunningham’s stoic ruggedness as the ship’s captain, or Dastmalchian’s disappearing act into the gritty aggresiveness as first mate Wojchek. Everyone here makes the most of the opportunity, and because of such, keeps us firmly invested where the script sometimes trails off. Also bringing a thunderous charge to the proceedings is music composer Bear McCreary bringing a rampant urgency and atmospheric dread to the corresponding visuals that can be felt internally in every orchestral achievement that he can properly muster. McCreary is definitely one of the best composers going today, and the homage he supplants towards the 1931 original Dracula, without downright covering those themes, is easily the grandest measure in seamlessly matching up that original time period.

NEGATIVES

In hearing my positives, many will prematurely assume that I had a deep appreciation for this film, but the contrasting issues do more than enough to weather its prominence, especially in the script, which is all over the place with pacing and pursuit problems. For starters, this film’s entirety feels handcuffed by our memory of the novel, which pretty much spoils everything that we’re going to learn about this particular installment. This condemns “The Last Voyage or the Demeter” to not only feeling heavily predictable, but also confined by trying to make a name of its own by measures that would allow it to etch its own place in history. On top of this, the structure of the proceedings feels very one-dimensional and repetitive, where a group of stupid characters are doing stupid things, and more times than not fall prey to their supernatural passenger, and this formula growing old by the forty-five minute mark of the run time. This is made all the worse when you realize this is a two hour movie, where urgency isn’t even remotely earned, and deviation in approach remains firmly grounded to the wash, rinse, recycle outline that it has captained for itself. On top of the script, the frights themselves lack the kind of sharp bite that will thrill or even accidentally shock audiences, with some of the weakest jump scares in consistency that are so easily telegraphed minutes in advance. Because the atmosphere is so perfect at conjuring something dark and plaguing in the essence of this ship, the execution of its antagonist maintains that one-note appeal that never transcends his capabiltiies, outlining that if a character is alone in a dark corner of the ship, odds are they’re a goner. As for the aforementioned characters, I wish more of the minutes were spent properly fleshing them out to the point that we cared about their well-being, or even felt a brief moment of impact for the way they’re continuously disposed of. This is felt the loudest with Franciosi’s Anna, who bursts onto the scene at the end of the first act, then is fleshed out with the kind of attention given to a hotel doorman. This is most frustrating for someone like me, who loved her in 2018’s “The Nightingale”, and even felt she was robbed of an Oscar nomination for the role. She’s too good for a role this meaningless, and I wish the film would’ve done more with her and others who deserve to be conveyed as living, breathing entities, instead of a body count. Finally, while the tension and stakes are ramped up significantly during the third act climax, the ending of this film and the audacity it conveys fell very flat for me, especially in the sequel-baiting of its final minutes. Without spoiling anything, I can say that not everything goes as you would expect for the entirety of this ship crew, and it kind of undermines the unshakeable control that Dracula has over them, which the movie spends the entirety establishing, all to lead to a hinted direction, which we will undoubtedly never experience, so what’s the point?

OVERALL
“The Last Voyage of the Demeter” has enough heart in homage to properly justify walking in the immense shoes of its classic literary and cinematic predecessors but sinks its sails on a thrill-less redundancy that drowns on for nearly two hours. While Ovredal commits himself and his efforts to the same prominence that steered “The Autopsy of Jane Doe” and “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark” towards its destination, this overlong voyage is left stranded at sea, leaving the captain going down with this 45-million-dollar ship.

My Grade: 5/10 or D