HMS Dracula

Film: The Last Voyage of the Demeter
Format: DVD from DeKalb Public Library on basement television.

When I heard that The Last Voyage of the Demeter was in the works, I was excited; it’s one of the major parts of the Dracula story that hasn’t gotten a great deal of treatment in the various movies based on Stoker’s original work. Nosferatu probably covers the time on the Demeter more than any of them, and it still feels like short shrift. It really is a great set up for a horror film. Dracula travels from Romania to England on a ship, which turns up in port completely abandoned and derelict. So what happened on the voyage?

The problem, of course, is the moment you start thinking about it, the answer becomes clear: the ship ends up derelict, which pretty much means that everybody on board serves as provisions for Dracula during the crossing. What that means is the film that we’re going to see is going to essentially be that—it’s a vampire-based slasher film, where we count down the crew and work under the assumption that the person who is the closest thing we have to a sympathetic main character will be the equivalent of our final girl.

The fact that we as the audience know that the crew is doomed since the Demeter shows up abandoned and derelict is a weakness of the film, sadly. If anyone is going to survive, it’s going to be kind of a break with the story, and something that would have to happen in a way that the survivor(s) can’t otherwise impact the legend of Dracula or the story that would naturally frame this one. It’s a shame, because the very thing that makes The Last Voyage of the Demeter interesting (its connection with the Dracula story) is the thing that makes the way the story plays out inevitable.

It really is a good set up for a horror movie. Not only do you have a vampire, and a much more bestial version of a vampire than we typically get—our Dracula is very much a human-sized bat-like monster—you have the equivalent of what makes a haunted house story work, or a film like Alien. The people on the ship are trapped. They can’t call for help because phones don’t exist on ships at the time, and certainly not on sailing vessels. They’re also in the middle of the ocean, so it’s not like they can easily leave. It’s what makes any haunted house story work, and it’s exactly what should make this work as well.

Clemens (Corey Hawkins) wants to return to England and tries to sign on with the Demeter, but is not given a place on the crew despite his being a doctor. However, when one member of the crew quits after seeing Dracula’s heraldry on the side of a crate, Clemens gets the place on board after all. The ship sets sail under the guidance Captain Eliot (Liam Cunningham, who can’t seem to get away from ships), and soon enough, things start going wrong.

For instance, all of the ship’s animals, intended to be provisions for the trip, are found killed. A woman named Anna (Aisling Franciosi) is discovered as an unwilling stowaway in one of the crates brought on board. She is anemic and sickly, mainly because she has been repeatedly drained by Dracula, as she was his intended food source. And then crew members start vanishing, which is quite upsetting when you are on a ship and no one is nipping down to the gas station for a pack of smokes.

Eventually, the presence of Dracula on board is discovered and understood, but this is also a weakness of the story. Anna knows what is happening. She’s aware that she was packed away like a Boar’s Head ham for her to be snacked on. But it takes some time for her to actually tell anyone what is going on. Why? Because the plot needs to build up suspense for everyone so that the movie can reach its intended running time.

I wanted to like this a lot more than I did. The concept is great, but it’s immediately obvious where it’s going. It’s also extremely dark. If we are in a nighttime scene, you’re likely going to miss a lot because of how physically dark so much of the film turns out to be.

And so, The Last Voyage of the Demeter remains a story best-kept in the middle of Stoker’s book. There are no surprises here, so we know exactly what we’re going to get.

Why to watch The Last Voyage of the Demeter: It’s the part of the Dracula story that needed to be filled in.
Why not to watch: If you know Dracula, there’s not a lot of mystery here.