The crew of a Russian schooner sets sail from Romania to England to deliver a cargo of 50 wooden crates. However, they soon discover they’re not alone, as an evil presence turns the trip into a nightmarish fight for survival. Based on a chapter from Bram Stoker’s Dracula. A film by André Øvredal, starring Corey Hawkins, Aisling Franciosi, David Dastmalchian, Javier Botet, Liam Cunningham, Jon Jon Briones, Chris Walley, Stefan Kapicic, Martin Furulund, Nikolai Nikolaeff, Woody Norman, Graham Turner, Andy Murray, Nicolo Pasetti, Christopher York, Vladimir Cabak, Rudolf Danielewicz, Noureddine Farihi, Malcolm Galea, Adam Shaw, Jack Doggart, Joe Depasquale, and Sally Reeve.
The LAST VOYAGE of the DEMETER
André Øvredal
(2023)
In 1897, a Russian schooner was chartered to carry a private cargo, consisting of fifty wooden crates, from Romania to England. When the ship arrived, it was derelict. The name of the vessel was Demeter, and this is the story of its crew.
The merchant ship Demeter docks in Varna, Bulgaria on 6 July 1897, to collect a private cargo bound for Carfax Abbey in London. The crew is shorthanded, so Captain Eliot (Liam Cunningham) has instructed Mr. Wojchek (David Dastmalchian) to recruit additional hands before the ship’s non-stop voyage to England.
Clemens (Corey Hawkins), a well-dressed man with a university education in medicine and astronomy, overhears that the Demeter is looking for new crew members. Captain Eliot and Mr. Wojchek are intrigued by Clemens’s background, but Wojchek is skeptical of his strength. However, Eliot changes his mind when Clemens saves the life of his grandson, Toby (Woody Norman). Impressed by Clemens’s quick thinking and bravery, Eliot hires him to replace the new crew member who quit in fear after seeing the dragon emblem on a wooden crate.
Amidst the raging storm, Clemens discovers an unconscious woman buried in dirt inside a broken crate. The crew believes she is a stowaway, and that a woman on board is a bad omen. Despite the crew’s superstitions, Clemens performs blood transfusions to help the woman fight the infection that is ravaging her body.
One of the most common superstitions about women on ships is that they bring bad luck. This belief may have originated from the fact that women were often seen as being associated with the land, while ships were seen as being associated with the sea. As a result, it was thought that women would be out of place on a ship and would bring the wrath of the sea upon the crew.
The crew of the Demeter is gripped by fear as a dark and sinister presence begins to manifest itself. Clemens and Olgaren (Stefan Kapicic) are filled with dread as they sense something malevolent lurking in the shadows. The livestock on board are found brutally slaughtered, their bodies bearing the same telltale bite marks. The creature begins to feed on the crew, one by one, and the ship is plunged into chaos.
He is here. On the ship.
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Based on a chapter from Bram Stoker's Dracula. A film by André Øvredal, starring Corey Hawkins, Aisling Franciosi, David Dastmalchian, Javier Botet, Liam Cunningham, Jon Jon Briones, Chris Walley, Stefan Kapicic, Martin Furulund, Nikolai Nikolaeff, Woody Norman, Graham Turner, Andy Murray, Nicolo Pasetti, Christopher York, Vladimir Cabak, Rudolf Danielewicz, Noureddine Farihi, Malcolm Galea, Adam Shaw, Jack Doggart, Joe Depasquale, and Sally Reeve.
It is spoken in my village of an evil that lives in the mountains above. A castle older than any of us. An evil that appears as a man when it wants to hide its true nature. And at night, he feeds on the blood of the innocent.
Directed by Norwegian filmmaker André Øvredal from a screenplay by Bragi Schut Jr. ansd Zak Olkewicz, The LAST VOYAGE of the DEMETER is a supernatural horror film and a captivating adaptation of the Dracula story, which has been told countless times before. The film focuses on the story of the Demeter from Chapter 7 of Bram Stoker’s famous novel, titled “The Captain’s Log,” a lesser-known but no less terrifying chapter. This allows the filmmaker to create a more complex and terrifying portrait of Dracula.
The film is full of suspense, mystery and atmospheric horror. Its strengths lie in its strong performances, its haunting score, and its evocative visuals. However, the film’s pacing could be improved in some places, and the script could be tightened up a bit.
While I notice that some of the characters’ behaviors seem illogical, it’s important to remember that this story takes place in a time when people had different understandings of the world. In an era where superstition and ignorance were commonplace, it is not surprising that they sometimes acted in ways that seem irrational to us today.
The LAST VOYAGE of the DEMETER was theatrically released in the United States on 11 August 2023, by Universal Pictures.
Dracula is an 1897 Gothic horror novel by Irish author Bram Stoker. It’s the book that defined the modern vampire mythos. The story follows Count Dracula, a centuries-old vampire from Transylvania, as he attempts to relocate to England to find new blood and spread his undead curse. It opens with young solicitor Jonathan Harker traveling to Dracula’s remote castle to finalize a real estate deal, only to discover his host is a monster keeping him prisoner. The story then shifts to England, where Dracula begins preying on Jonathan’s fiancée Mina and her friend Lucy, prompting a small group, including Mina, Jonathan, Dr. John Seward, and vampire hunter Abraham Van Helsing, to band together to track and destroy him before he can claim more victims.
The novel is told through an epistolary format of letters, diary entries, newspaper clippings, and ship’s logs, and it’s actually a brief section of this format that inspired The Last Voyage of the Demeter: “The Captain’s Log” chapter, which recounts in just a few fragmented pages the doomed voyage of the ship carrying Dracula’s coffin from Varna to Whitby, England, as the crew disappears one by one.
Dracula also popularized many vampire tropes still used today, including aversion to sunlight and garlic, shapeshifting into a bat or wolf, no reflection in mirrors, and repulsion by crucifixes and holy water, and the novel has never gone out of print, inspiring countless adaptations from Nosferatu to modern reinterpretations.
