The Last Voyage of The Demeter never made it to the shores of the UK last year after UK distributor eOne shut down its UK theatrical operations. However, lucky fans at FrightFest 2024 were able to board the ill-fated ship for its UK premiere. With a star-studded cast retelling The Captain's Log chapter from Bram Stoker's Dracula, the film is directed by André Øvredal of The Autopsy of Jane Doe, Trollhunter, and Scary Movies to Tell in the Dark. So, expectations were high for festival audiences walking in.
The film details the final voyage on the Russian schooner, which sees a crew transport 24 unmarked wooden crates from Carpathia to London. Among the crew is English doctor Clemens (Corey Hawkins), who is initially turned down by quartermaster Wojchek (David Dastmalchian) but is brought aboard after saving Captain Eliot's (Liam Cunningham) grandson Toby (Woody Norman). A storm means one of the strange crates falls and in it, the crew find a woman, Anna (Aisling Franciosi) barely clinging to life as Clemens saves her with a blood transfusion. When she awakens, she warns the crew of a monster travelling on the ship that feeds on the blood of humans before it starts picking them off one by one.
Tension mounts on the dark, dismal Demeter as the crew are slowly driven to madness, or becoming meals to the ravenous Dracula on board. Øvredal treats viewers to the slow burn, sinister horror her horrified audiences with in his previous work with lingering, bloody visuals and gothic horror tropes. We are given swift glimpses of the monster before finally seeing his full, terrifying form as he rips apart the naive sailors in a fashion far more gory than one may expect as they begin.
But missteps in the narrative easily take viewers out of the creeping dread Øvredal is trying to build, leaving you scratching your head rather than watching through parted fingers. It dances with dark themes but never goes all in, while also never becoming quite as action-packed as it hints at, nor as traditionally gothic. The Last Voyage of The Demeter makes bold choices in how it retells the classic story with a fresh slant, but it swings and misses on many levels.
Breathtaking visuals and a story rich in detail do little to save The Last Voyage of The Demeter from running aground, despite the anticipation that surrounded the film when it was originally set to release. Off-beat narrative choices mean the film doesn't reach its full, frightening potential, but it still manages to provide some solid scares and a gripping exploration of one of Dracula's most overlooked plot points.
The Last Voyage of The Demeter had its UK premiere at FrightFest 2024 on Saturday, August 24.
