'The Last Voyage of the Demeter' Review: A Tale of Two Fangs
The Universal Monsters are the backbone of Halloween, at least in a traditional sense. The Wolfman, Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Invisible Man, Frankenstein and his bride, and of course, Dracula. Universal could go 100 years without releasing a single movie about any of these entities and we’d still see people dressed in cloaks and claws in mass every October. They’ve become an immortalized, core aspect of the Holiday, and really, of all things scary.
Obviously, Universal won’t let 10 years go by without one of these movies, let alone 100. They’ve tried, tried, and tried again to make their monsters work in the modern era. The most recent failure was their proposed “Dark Universe” in the early-mid 2010’s, which saw the abysmal release of both a Mummy reboot (2017) and a Dracula-action hybrid movie, infamously known as Dracula Untold (2014).
Despite promising a sprawling, gothic cinematic universe led by the likes of Johnny Depp and Russel Crowe, they immediately backed away from their ambitions in the wake of the aforementioned double-failure. Even if Dracula Untold is a harshly over-hated, surprisingly fun ride through black castles and blood-stained battlefields (another conversation for another day), the Dark Universe’s failure has meant the widespread dormancy of these characters on the big screen for nearly a decade, until now.
With the release of The Last Voyage of the Demeter, the waters have begun churning once again, as the titular ship rolls onto the shore of mainstream relevancy to deliver Dracula upon it once more. Fitted with an animalistic overlay and an ornate cane and top hat (seriously), “how do you like him now?”, they seem to be asking. Uh, well enough?
Last Voyage feels like a response to the overwrought failure of the Dark Universe; it’s a much safer approach, for better and worse. The claustrophobic, singular nature of the film works greatly in its favor, but on the other side of the same coffin, it struggles to forge a unique identity.
Director André Øvredal has a clear reverence for monster pictures of old, with his constant framing of Dracula as a larger-than-life, uncontainable entity, suggesting him to be the devil himself on multiple occasions. The more, as the film calls him, “beastly” approach to the character, whilst still maintaining his twisted humanity, is ingenious. But in committing to Dracula as more monster than man, the film turns to some of the worst horror clichés that plague the genre today, often dumbing down his legendarily scary aura with obnoxious jumpscares that align him more with the Annabelle doll than his castle-dwelling buddies, at least in those moments.
Thus, the result, reflecting on the movie as a whole, is an unfortunate battle between compelling tendencies that call back to Dracula’s golden age and a new, seemingly corporate insistence that he be made nothing more than another bump in the night. The former wins out thanks to a strong final act, one that could work well as an isolated short film of its own; still, the feeling that this film could’ve been so much more sinks it in retrospect.
Though the potential is not lost, and if Universal has anything to say about it, we could see more of this new universe. The film’s ambiguous ending suggests an possible sequel, and thanks to a strong lead performance and serviceable screenplay, they may have done just enough to warrant it. Corey Hawkins is an outright star in the lead role. He imbues a relatively simple character with intense passion and life, and when the script rises to the occasion alongside him, there are some truly special character moments that result.
The screenplay manages consistently sharp dialogue the whole way through. Although occasionally hampered by cheap tension build-up and lazy exposition, discussions of philosophy, life, and the mystery of the world delight the intellect and lend themselves to this iteration of Dracula as a force of nature.
The film’s biblical undertones and Christian iconography serve as an intriguing backdrop to discussions about Dracula, the devil, and how they may be one in the same. None of the men on the Demeter agree specifically on terms of faith, but they all come to believe in Dracula as more than man or monster by the film’s end, and that particular angle is handled exceedingly well.
The cinematography adds to the mix with glistening shots of dangling crosses, hands folded in prayer, and Dracula falling in and out of focus, seething past it all. He’s always framed tightly, seen in close-quarters, smothering the screen in his ambience. A problem arises there, though, as the film never really pulls back, even when the sun is out and Dracula is nowhere to be seen.
The suffocating cinematography makes sense for the Dracula appearances, but when the same level of space is maintained everywhere else, it hurts the film in two directions. The oppressive feeling that follows Dracula slowly begins to feel less special as the film sails along, simply because the entire thing is visually stuck in that mode.
Similarly, despite being on a massive ship with multiple levels and countless nooks and crannies, there is little to no sense of scale on camera. Conversations are cramped, and the ship set may as well have been built solely above the shoulders of the actors, because it’s really all we ever see.
Aside from the occasional clever flick of the camera or compelling tracking shot (which most often get cut off before they have a chance to get interesting, anyway) we’re left feeling unfulfilled; promised a vast vessel with plenty of space for Dracula to utilize, only for a select few rooms and angles to be shown and used. It just stings… or bites. Whatever, it severely dampens the experience.
Even so, it’s difficult not to have fun with Last Voyage. Emmy-winner Bear McCreary’s screeching score works to distract from the near-nonexistent visual variety, and when paired with the near constant screen presence of Corey Hawkins’ Dr. Clemens, Dracula, or both, it goes down pretty easy, all things considered. Not to mention the stunning practical effects work, both with Dracula and the array of injuries that this cast of characters endures throughout.
This release is, in execution, akin to The Pope’s Exorcist, which was came out only a few months earlier in April. It’s a lean, studio-stunted yet passionate horror film that boasts a strong lead performance and vintage setting. Much like the former, it isn’t great, but absolutely deserves the attention of horror junkies. If that’s you, give The Last Voyage of the Demeter a chance.