Bram Stoker’s Dracula chapter “The Captain’s Log” comes to the big screen with The Last Voyage of the Demeter directed by André Øvredal.

 

The main protagonist is Clemens (Corey Hawkins) who is seeking help to get back to London because he could not get a job as a doctor due to the color of his skin. While Clemens seeks a ride back to London the story also follows Captain Elliot (Liam Cunningham) as he lets his first mate, Wojeck (David Dastmalchian), know that this will be his last voyage. This will be a voyage the captain will want to forget. The voyage will take the crew from Romania to London with multiple unmarked crates. As the ship sails, the crew’s livestock is slaughtered, and an unidentified woman is found inside one of the crates with bite marks all over her. You soon learn that the woman is Anna (Aisling Franciosi), and she lets the crew know that a being called “Dracula” is on the boat with them. As the four-week voyage continues the crew will have to work together to kill Dracula before they take port in London. The only question is will they be able to survive the last voyage of the Demeter?

 

I found myself really liking this film even though I was hesitant before seeing it. This movie easily could have been the typical scary movie where you anticipate all the scares and even the outcome of the film. Instead, I found myself on the edge of my seat in fear of what would happen to the crew next. I thought the cast did a really good job with their performances. The design of Dracula was great and some of it seemed practical while most of it was CGI. The film also did a great job of making you think you could see Dracula in the background. Sometimes he was, but then there were moments when the effect just played on your imagination. The only quarrels I had with the film were with the character of Anna because it felt like she served one purpose and that was it. It also plays off some movies I am familiar with like Alien for example. This takes away from the movie because it’s just the same story in a different time.

 

The film wasn’t 100% perfect, but I did find myself having a great time. I would watch this again when October rolls around because this has Halloween vibes to it. You can go see this in theater, but I think it would also be okay to wait for it to come out on streaming services.

 

Rating: 3.7 out 5