Mini Movie Review: THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE DEMETER (2023)
Note: This is not a paid promotion for the film in question but a quick, spoiler-free article detailing some of my thoughts on it. I support of the WGA-SAG strike which, as of this writing, remains ongoing.
It’s been a busy summer at the movies, what with all your Missions Impossible and your Barbenheimers and various other great or not-so-great viewing choices. But as summer’s end draws near and we look forward to another spooky season, I want to point your attention towards a new release that can hopefully find its audience in the coming weeks.
On paper, The Last Voyage of the Demeter sounds like it should be a failure. A Dracula movie where you barely see Dracula, based on a single chapter from the original book that nearly all adaptations choose to remove or skim over? It’s a tough sell, which is probably why various people spent about two decades trying to get this project made. But now that it’s finally here, I can say it was very much worth the trouble.
We’re living in the age of so-called “elevated horror,” where most films in this genre seemingly feel like they need to be subversive, comment on the state of society or carry some deeper meaning about the human condition. And there’s nothing wrong with that! I just think we tend to forget the value of a good, old-fashioned scarefest that tells us a story we all know and does so really damn well. That’s what Last Voyage of the Demeter does. It’s Alien by way of Gothic horror, a film that embraces its roots and unearths new frights in this overlooked part of the Dracula narrative.
This is not the urbane Dracula skulking through modern society, threatening it but ultimately overpowered by it also. This is Dracula as an apex predator on familiar turf, terrorizing people who have no chance of stopping his rampage. And the film does an incredible job of capturing that creeping dread and utter helplessness that the Demeter section of the novel conveys. It’s a bleak film where no character’s survival is guaranteed and you’re going to see things that other horror films might not be willing to show. There are some deviations from the novel, mainly the addition of new characters, but for the most part, the film remains true to the intended spirit of Stoker’s narrative—something that many Dracula adaptations fail to do.
Because Universal helped produce and distribute this film, I will eventually be covering it in more detail on Horror Is Universal. For now, I just want to tell people to go watch it. Critical reviews are mixed right now, probably because of the film’s simple and off-putting nature. But if you are a horror fan and you know what you’re walking into, there’s a lot to appreciate and enjoy with The Last Voyage of the Demeter. It’s a much-needed reminder that successful horror doesn’t need to reinvent the wheel, but simply be great at what it sets out to accomplish.
That’s all for now. I’ll see you in the future with more stories and articles!
—Dana