The template for the type of horror movie where a group of people are stuck in one place and an unstoppable force picks them off one by one — inspiring everything from “Jaws” to “Alien” to “Scream” — finally gets its own big screen adaptation.
There have been dozens of film and TV adaptations of “Dracula,” but one of the scariest and most unsettling chapters from the original novel, the titular vampire’s cruise from Transylvania to London with an all-you-can-eat buffet of seamen, is often overlooked.
But for anyone who has read the novel, that single chapter titled “The Captain’s Log,” in which the ship’s captain recounts the ship’s harrowing and disturbing voyage, is a near perfect outline for a horror movie.
As a fully realized film, however, “The Last Voyage of the Demeter” is so close to being a great horror film but is held back by a couple of choices that neither live up to the premises’s potential nor stick the landing in what was set up by the film itself.
Nevertheless, when it comes to the slew of characters from the Universal Classic Monsters, I’d much rather have this approach to a new “Dracula” movie than Tom Cruise’s attempt at “The Mummy” any day.
The story is set aboard the Russian schooner Demeter, which was chartered to carry private cargo — 24 unmarked wooden crates — from Carpathia to London. Among the crew are a doctor (played by Corey Hawkins), the captain (Liam Cunningham), the first mate (David Dastmalchian) and an unwitting stowaway (Aisling Franciosi).
The trip starts off well, but several days into the voyage, a crew member is found missing. Soon thereafter, another sailor spots a tall, thin man who is not like any of the crew. A search of the ship finds no other stowaways, but every few days another sailor disappears and the crew becomes numb with fear.
The Demeter later washes up on the shore at Whitby on the England coast during a terrific storm. Its crew is nowhere to be found except for the captain, dead and clasping a crucifix, discovered tied to the wheel.
Taking what amounts to about 25 pages and extending it to a two-hour film has its advantages and challenges. With the framing device already showing audiences how the story ends if you haven’t read the novel, the suspense of what happened should be lost. And yet, through some stellar direction from André Øvredal, knowing the ending turns the story into a ticking time bomb as each of the crew is introduced and much of the ship is explored during the first 20 minutes or so.
When the horrors begin in earnest, that connection to the crew paired with some truly great performances from the likes of Hawkins and the always captivating Dastmalchian makes for a great haunted house-esque thriller. Sure, we know that no one makes it, but you might not know in which order they’re picked off as their differing morals and beliefs come into conflict.
Although this is technically a Dracula movie, this small snapshot in his story has the vampire in his most monstrous and un-human form. Starting with the Count at his weakest and most zombie-like and then slowly growing in each power was a great opportunity for the make-up and special effects teams to show off what they can do, similar to the transformation of the titular monster in the “Alien” movies.
For many of the choices here, the viewer’s enjoyment mileage may vary. Because this is an expansion on a single chapter, the filmmakers could have gone in so many directions. Rather than showing Dracula so often, as cool as the effects are, he could have remained hidden or seen as just a shadow, sort of like the shark in “Jaws.” And while some pretty dark and sad chances are taken with the plot, sticking so close to the original chapter’s descriptions can come across as boring or uninspired to fans of the book.
Unfortunately, “The Last Voyage of the Demeter” is not doing so well at the box office despite being a pretty good monster movie. Show the studios this is something audiences are interested in and see it in theaters before it leaves.
