The Last Voyage of the Demeter(2023)(Review)

Before we begin, allow me to ask you: when you close your eyes and picture Dracula, how do you see him? Do you prefer the romantic human type? Or how about the feral Ghoul type? Director Andre Ovredal (The Autopsy of Jane Doe, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark) recently brought us a new entry in the Dracula universe with ‘The Last Voyage of the Demeter.’

Based solely off of a single chapter within Bram Stoker’s legendary novel, this film takes the idea of a cargo ship unknowingly carrying the Count across the ocean only for the liner to arrive smashed into the side of a cliff and without a trace of a single soul onboard. Its a small chapter told mostly through a captain’s log and newspaper articles – so this film takes a lot of artistic liberty to tell its tale.

Truthfully, I found this film to be rather dull. The production design is absolutely insane (featuring a budget and creative input from both Amblin Entertainment & Universal Studios), the music is beautiful, the acting is well done, and the creature effects are top notch. However, the story itself struggles to find a strong pace. While this film literally plays out like ‘Alien’ at sea, the reveal isn’t as scary, the kills are vicious but almost too quick, and when the shit really hits the fan we’ve only got like 30 minutes left of this 2 hour feature.

It’s not a terrible movie by any means, and when compared to what else 2023 has offered its definitely worth a mention, but I was a bit bummed out and tired by the end of it.

However, I’ll add the caveat that I’m not typically a vampire fan to begin with, so it’s entirely possible that this film will hit home for someone else.

2.5/5
“The Last Voyage of the Demeter” is currently streaming on Hulu and Amazon.

‘Til Next Time,
Mike Cleopatra