Main cast: Corey Hawkins (Clemens), Aisling Franciosi (Anna), David Dastmalchian (Wojchek), Javier Botet (Count Dracula), and Liam Cunningham (Captain Elliot)
Director: André Øvredal
The Last Voyage of the Demeter is about that ill-fated final journey of the Russian ship Demeter, as it transports what seems to be large wooden crates from Bulgaria to London. Yes, they are actually carrying Count Dracula to his new home, blah blah blah—go read Bram Stoker’s Dracula or watch one of the countless movie and TV adaptations of that novel.
Since none of the crew is found alive when the ship washes ashore near London, it’s pretty obvious that pretty much all of these characters are dead men walking.
However, will this movie dare to kill off the sole black guy Clemens the doctor, the sole woman Anna that serves as the unwilling thrall of Dracula, and the sole boy Toby that is also the grandson of Captain Elliot? Oh, the unbearable suspense of it all!
This movie is gorgeous to look at. The way every scene is shot and the lighting and the moody music in the background—they all come together so well to make this movie akin to some lovely work of art.
Sadly, the premise itself ensures that there is very little suspense to be had here. While I like that Dracula here is more monstrous and hence a departure from the whole pasty loverboy archetype prevalent in books and movies that feature that fellow, it’s a forgone conclusion to everyone except those that really had no idea about the source material that the creature onboard is you know what and he’s going to win in the end anyway.
It wouldn’t be so bad if the movie had taken some risks and flipped some of the stuff around, but ultimately, the characters are stereotypes and it’s too easy to deduce early who will survive and who won’t. The whole Dracula is stalking them premise is made up of familiar scenes reminiscent of every other horror movie out there, and all in all, this movie is a very pretty kind of whatever.
I won’t say that this is a bad movie, as it’s adequate enough for a pleasant kind of watch, but ultimately, it’s forgettable and I doubt I will remember much of it a few days down the road.
