"The Last Voyage of the Demeter" makes for a gnarly, old-fashioned monster movie with bite

The Last Voyage of the Demeter (2023)

“Bat on a Boat” or “Vamp Ship” would’ve rolled off the tongue better, but “The Last Voyage of the Demeter” is the name of the latest incarnation in the Dracula lore. Based on the chapter “The Captain’s Log” in Bram Stoker’s “Dracula,” the film is essentially “Alien” on the high seas. Instead of a Xenomorph on the spaceship Nostromo, it’s the Count on the titular Demeter. Stripped of any seductive, gothic romanticism, director André Øvredal's atmospheric tale gets to be a vicious, bloody monster movie with some gnarly bite. 

A cargo vessel sets sail in 1897 from Romania to England, led by Captain Eliot (Liam Cunningham) and his first mate Wojchek (David Dastmalchian), or at least that’s the plan. A bunch of wooden crates, one filled with dirt and emblazoned with the foreboding seal of a dragon, should be a red flag, but it’s too late. Dracula is here and he is famished, first taking out the livestock. The crew is doomed, and a barely-alive Romanian stowaway named Anna (Aisling Franciosi) later awakens and lets them know what they’re up against. 

Writers Bragi F. Schut and Zak Olkewicz give us a compelling lead character in Clemens, a Cambridge-educated doctor whose plans were dashed due to a hospital not liking the color of his skin. He’s played by the charismatic Corey Hawkins (“In the Heights”), who gets the only real character evolution. Apart from Clemens and the captain’s young grandson Toby (Woody Norman), we don’t have deep investment in these characters. Most of the interchangeable crew members are just there to be fodder and sustenance for Drac, but the performances are all solid and where they need to be. Read the full review at GuyAtTheMovies.com

Grade: B -

Universal Pictures released “The Last Voyage of the Demeter” (118 min.) in theaters on August 11, 2023.