My quick rating - 6.3/10. I went into The Last Voyage of the Demeter knowing the basic premise and honestly wondering how they were going to stretch one chapter of Bram Stoker's Dracula into a nearly two-hour movie. Turns out, putting Dracula on a ship with nowhere for anyone to escape is a pretty solid start.
The first thing that grabbed me was just how good this movie looks. The Demeter itself feels alive, and not in the friendly Disney ship kind of way. Every hallway. Dark corner. Even a creaking floorboard feels like something horrible is waiting around the next bend. Half the movie takes place in near-total darkness, and that works. Every time somebody wandered off alone, I knew they were about to have a really bad evening.
What I really liked was the crew. They actually feel like real people instead of the usual collection of horror movie victims waiting for their turn. Liam Cunningham does a great job as the captain, trying to keep everyone together while things slowly spiral into complete chaos. Watching the crew slowly realize they're trapped on a floating buffet for Dracula was half the fun. To be fair, if I were on a ship and people kept disappearing every night after loading a suspicious coffin from Transylvania, I probably would've connected the dots a little sooner.
All the horror aspects are executed very well. There are jump scares, but the constant feeling of uneasiness is what got to me. In this movie, Dracula is not a romantic gentleman in a cape but rather an outright horror monster. Transformation effects are executed superbly, while the killings that do happen have no restrictions at all. The gore isn't over-the-top, but just brutal enough to show us how this version of Dracula wouldn’t want to be interviewed.
Some people will probably say the movie drags in the middle, and at 118 minutes, I get it. Personally, I wasn't bothered. The slower pace gave me time to get invested in the crew before Dracula inevitably turned their workplace into the world's least enjoyable cruise.
The ending didn't completely land for me and seemed to be setting things up a bit too much. This wasn’t enough to prevent me from thoroughly enjoying this flick. The Last Voyage of the Demeter turned out to be a good-looking gothic horror movie full of atmosphere, fine acting, creepy monsters, and lots of suspense.
If you're a fan of Dracula, classic Gothic horror, or just enjoy watching people realize they're trapped. On a ship. Soon to be served up as dinner for Dracula, this is well worth checking out.
https://jackmeat.com/the-last-voyage-of-the-demeter-2023/
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