MOVIE REVIEW: THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE DEMETER

 

Dracula's unholy presence dooms the crew of the merchant ship Demeter as it sails from Carpathia to London.

Director: André Øvredal

Cast: Corey Hawkins, Aisling Franciosi, Liam Cunningham, David Dastmalchian, Javier Botet

Release Date: August 11, 2023

Genre: Horror

Rated R for bloody violence

Runtime: 1h 58m

There's a built in predictability ingrained in The Last Voyage of the Demeter due to the nature of the story. However, the cast and crew do an admirable job of delivering some tension and thrills.  André Øvredal film borrow heavily from Ridley Scott's original Alien in terms of set up and structure, so much so that's hard to tell if it’s an homage or just straight up plagiarism, an early discussion about bonuses kind of leans me toward the latter.  Either way, Øvredal's self-assured style delivers a glossy, well shot film that establishes the setting and mood early on by keeping the monster in the shadows until the midpoint of the film.  The monster itself uses Count Orlok's design from 1922's Nosferatu as its basis which gives him a more animalistic and menacing look.  It makes the character a tangible threat to the collected human chum assembled for his feeding.  Corey Hawkins and Liam Cunningham lead the cast with deadly serious turns as the ship’s doctor and doomed captain.  They both deliver stoic, committed performances that make the film far more watchable than it deserves to be since the script doesn't flesh them too much.  They still manage to make the characters interesting enough to make the audience care about their wellbeing.  Aisling Franciosi and David Dastmalchian don't fare quite as well in supporting roles as they struggle to make their characters come off as more than one dimensional.  They do the best they can with underwritten characters but your left with the sense that some depth would have added to the overall quality of the film.  Ultimately, The Last Voyage of the Demeter is the very definition of disposable entertainment which delivers just enough to keep you entertained during its runtime, but it'll be quickly forgotten shortly thereafter.  

C+