One of our local movie critics is a fan of horror movies, so I always pick his brain on films in this genre. He informed me before the movie started that “The Last Voyage of the Demeter” was just a small section of Bram Stroker’s Dracula, so he was surprised they made a two hour movie out of it. But hey, wasn’t “The Hobbit” a short story, and they gave us a trilogy of films? And there’s something about a horror movie taking place at sea – it sort of becomes Dracula combined with “Jaws” (with a few Titanic elements thrown in).
We watch as Clemens (Corey Hawkins, who was so great in “In the Heights”), a talented physician who can’t find work because he’s black, landing a spot on this ship (after initially being denied even that job). Captain Eliot (Liam Cunningham, who looks perfect for the part with his huge white beard) wants to make this his final voyage, but not in the way it’s going to become. His first mate Wojcheck (David Dastmalchian) is going to take over the Demeter. It seems odd that watching him, he’s hard to warm up to. We also run into a young girl (Aisling Franciosi) that everyone thinks is a stowaway. Well, she was actually brought on board for Dracula to feed on during the long journey (apparently he packs his own food, instead of just relying on the ship’s crew).
It was enjoyable to watch, despite a bunch of cliches. Since it’s well acted and nicely shot, you can forgive the lack of storytelling. And there’s something about a horror movie taking place in 1895 that’s a bit more fun. Folks have to light up lanterns to see, and when they get drunk they’re talking about brothels (even if there’s a little kid around).
Since I mentioned “Jaws” earlier, I will say that, unlike “Jaws”…which Spielberg was smart enough to wait awhile before we actually see the shark…we see Dracula (Javier Botet) too early. And, it’s a weird creature with wings. I always thought Dracula was a person who could turn into a bat. Not some huge, 10-foot combination of both, with a head that looked more like the alien in “Alien.”
I’m not so into the Dracula story. I loved “Renfield” (Nicolas Cage) earlier this year, and really dug “Let the Right One In” as a foreign film version with a “young” girl. And who doesn’t love “Shadow of the Vampire” (Willem Dafoe, John Malkovich)? For humor, I thought “What We Do in the Shadows” was one of the best movies of 2014. But I wanted a little something more from this story. The two most interesting things it had going were the storms and waves really messing with the boat, and fire used when the sun shone on a vampire (that’s not a spoiler alert).
The two child actors in this were great. There’s a chef on the boat that’s a religious nut, and he’s a fun character (although I’m not sure why the crucifixes had no effect on Dracula).
And when the dog is taken out, I thought of a time Tom Hanks was on David Letterman, and Dave asked him what the deal was with that flop “Turner & Hooch.” Hanks smiled and said, “Ya know Dave, if you have a movie with a cute dog, you don’t kill the dog at the end of the movie. Riddling it with bullets just wasn’t a good idea.”
Okay, maybe that was where a “spoiler alert” was needed.
I also thought the segment about rats on ships was interesting, as well as a few of the lines. One of them was the girl saying, in response to a crew member thinking Dracula was running: “He’s not running from us. He’s rationing.”
If you saw the trailers and wanted to see this, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. It was a serviceable, mid-level horror flick.
2 ½ stars out of 5.