Movie Review: The Last Voyage of the Demeter

The horror film from director André Øvredal, The Last Voyage of the Demeter, feels like it was intended to be a gothic set piece that affected a slow burn on the crew and audience to create a lasting horror experience. Instead, the film proves neither interesting nor scary in the sense that it is ostensibly supposed to be a horror film.

The story is culled from a chapter in the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker, that chronicles the journey of the merchant ship Demeter as it transports unmarked wooden crates from Carpathia to London. Once at sea, strange occurrences beset the ship and when the ship finally arrives on the English shores, it is a crewless, derelict wreck.

Working from a screenplay by Bragi F. Schut, Stefan Ruzowitzky, and Zak Olkewicz, director Øvredal appears adrift in the maritime horror setting. It ultimately feels as though the story needed a bit more updating to be an effective vessel for Øvredal’s vision. Whereas the director debuted in 2010 with the far superior Troll Hunter, this new film comes across as a step backwards as it lacks the passion and devotion that was at the core of his earlier work.

Throughout one gets the sense that the film should be far moodier, and perhaps a bit more riveting, than it ultimately is. There are numerous horror-film moments where the crew insanely goes their separate ways only to meet with individual gruesome deaths. It also doesn’t help that the visage of the vampire is so prevalent in the film’s promotional materials that it renders the fiend’s final reveal particularly impotent.

The cast does their best to keep things afloat, but there is little that standouts like Corey Hawkins as the main character Clemens, Aisling Franciosi’s Anna, or even David Dastmalchian’s Wojchek can do to steer the wandering plot in the proper direction.

Aisling Franciosi in “The Last Voyage of the Demeter.”

Ultimately, The Last Voyage of the Demeter fails to deliver on its promise of classic tale of gothic horror. It had the opportunity to be a period version of something along the lines of John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982), but it failed in the sense that the film seems hopelessly out of step with its setting and desperately wants to connect on a more contemporary level.

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Mike Tyrkus

Editor in Chief at CinemaNerdz.com

An independent filmmaker, co-writer and director of over a dozen short films, the Editor in Chief of CinemaNerdz.com has spent much of the last three decades as a writer and editor specializing in biographical and critical reference sources in literature and the cinema, beginning in February 1991 reviewing films for his college newspaper. He was a member of the Detroit Film Critics Society, as well as the group's webmaster and one-time President for over a decade until the group ceased to exist. His contributions to film criticism can be found in Magill's Cinema Annual, VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever (of which he was the editor for nearly a decade until it too ceased to exist), the International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, and the St. James Film Directors Encyclopedia (on which he collaborated with editor Andrew Sarris). He has also appeared on the television program Critic LEE Speaking alongside Lee Thomas of FOX2 and Adam Graham, of The Detroit News. He currently lives in the Detroit area with his wife and their dogs.

@miketyrkus

Mike Tyrkus

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