The Last Voyage of the Demeter takes the wispy thread of an interlude and stretches it out to a bloated 2-hour flick. “The Captain’s Log” is a series of recorded entries from the seventh chapter of the 1897 novel Dracula by Bram Stoker. Screenwriters Bragi Schut Jr. and Zak Olkewicz adapt, and André Øvredal (Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark) directs. This chronicles the disastrous fate of the crew on the Demeter, a merchant ship sailing from Romania to London. The vessel’s inhabitants are unaware that a malevolent creature is onboard. This is basically Alien on a boat.
That entity is, in fact, the legendary vampire Dracula (Javier Botet). But this isn’t the elegant and well-groomed antihero. He’s an unholy monster that feasts on humans like a sadistic gargoyle—the crew attempt to survive the treacherous ocean voyage. Clemens (Corey Hawkins) is a doctor who previously studied at Cambridge. Initially rejected by first mate Wojchek (David Dastmalchian), he is brought on by Captain Elliot (Liam Cunningham) after Clemens saves the captain’s grandson. Toby (Woody Norman) is nearly crushed by falling cargo loaded onto the ship. That mysterious crate has the symbol of a dragon on it. Maybe leave it on the dock?
Watching people simply die one by one is a dull experience. The film predicably unfolds as a dutiful exercise. Something violently kills their dog Huckleberry and the livestock. An investigation uncovers a stowaway (Aisling Franciosi) — barely alive — in the cargo hold. Given her weakened state, she is cleared of suspicion. Nevertheless, more seamen are killed one by one at night: Petrofsky (Nikolai Nikolaeff), then Larsen (Martin Furulund). Olgaren (Stefan Kapicic) is attacked, but he becomes a bloodthirsty drone. The sluggish pace of the story heavily relies on dark and rainy scenes that rarely show the full beast. However, atmospheric period detail and a pleasant score do enliven the proceedings from being a total waste.
08-10-23
5 Responses
I agree, it went on too long, but I liked it a bit more. I was all about the mood, dark and scary. As Dracula began to feed, of course, he became more powerful. They did a good job on the monster. He had the right, terrifying look. 3 ⭐️
I agree. He looked terrifying. Also the production design was nice.
I haven’t been to a movie in YEARS! And I no longer enjoy watching scary movies at night. However, I decided to take my daughter to a movie for her birthday, and am currently doing ‘opposites’ (think George Costanza) in my life so I bravely chose this one. We enjoyed it! I felt it had a good pace, the music was well done, as was the creature- both during and at the end. The Dracula at the end reminded me of Andre Linoge in Storm of the Century, cane and all! I’d go see it again! (Sticks tongue out) 😉😄 (Hi to cousin Ruben!)
Ha ha. Well I’m glad you enjoyed it. 👍🏼
This was movie was interesting for me. Yes, it was definitely a cliched horror movie at times (characters being killed off one-by-one and making “bonehead” decisions along the way, but I was quite surprised how much I found this movie to be entertaining, especially since it stretched and “filled in the gaps” of Stoker’s material on the subject of the dark fate of the Demeter. Maybe it’s because I was a sucker for period piece projects, so, combining that aspects with horror as well as the imagery of such an iconic figure as Dracula (more beast than man) was definitely an intriguing element to keep me invested in the movie. It wasn’t the absolute best, but it was still worth watching.