Review: THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE DEMETER (2023)
Martin Furulund and Javier Botet in THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE DEMETER, directed by André Øvredal.
I’m not a superfan of the TV show Chopped, but I love its premise. Forced to be resourceful with unknown factors, chefs are surprised by ingredients and have to use them all to create a delicious (and beautiful) meal for a panel of judges. Sometimes the contestants are given bizarre foods to use, increasing the difficulty level and minimizing the options before them. Other times, the chefs are presented with a perfect blend of ingredients right in their wheelhouse that will lead to a scrumptious plate and deliver them unto victory. THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE DEMETER is that rare instance where the ingredients are all there to make something spectacular, but ultimately results in a fairly bland dish with some nice notes but nothing special. It’s not a complete failure or a horrible movie, but a disappointment based on pedigree of the filmmakers, the premise, and more.
It’s the 19th century and the crew of the Demeter is transporting a large, if a bit mysterious, shipment from Romania to London. The captain (Liam Cunningham) intends for this to be his last trip so he can take care of his grandson (Woody Norman) on dry land instead of their current living situation on the boat. His first mate (David Dastmalchian) goes in search for some new sailors to round out the crew when he finds doctor/seaman Clemens (Corey Hawkins). Many locals seem superstitious and scared of the cargo, but the Demeter forges ahead—not realizing that Dracula (Javier Botet) is lying in their hold. And he’ll need plenty to eat for the long voyage ahead.
Aisling Franciosi and Corey Hawkins
The Dracula reveal is not a spoiler as it is literally declared in the opening scroll of the film—not to mention all of the promotional material (and if anyone is familiar with the novel they will recognize it too). The fact that this is a cursed vessel full of doomed people is never in doubt. This means that the emphasis is no longer on the what or why, but the how of the situation. If you know the ending (which, in this case, should be a bit of a twist), then you’re ahead of the characters at all time and the tension dissipates. Therefore the filmmakers need to make audiences invested in these characters, to the point of almost forgetting their tragic fate, and make the journey more compelling than the destination. Consider TITANIC, SELMA, or OPPENHEIMER—viewers know what ultimately happens (in the wider context) in all of these tales. But the writers and directors make the characters and proceedings so engaging that it’s no longer the point if the ship sinks, the march happens, or the bomb is made; those conclusions are practically afterthoughts to the people and what it took to get them to the endpoint.
And that is the biggest sin committed by THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE DEMETER—it never answers the basic question of why should we care? Clemens is an interesting character—with a good performance by Hawkins—but is never given enough to make us invested in him as he sails towards destruction. That doesn’t mean he, or really any, character needs some lavish or tragic backstory; but they need to be interesting somehow! Funny, or intimidating, or sympathetic, or whatever else so they leave an impression as more than just a number in a body count. This is a really interesting premise for a film, extrapolating this small aspect of Stoker’s novel into a full feature. It allows for paranoia, horror, drama, even comedy rising from the camaraderie of the crew all while in a setting that is both majestically expansive but inescapably cramped. Sure, we know what ultimately comes to pass—but think of all the dynamics and tension in play just due to those circumstances. Instead, it feels like weak attempts at creating individuals only to have them dispatched in mostly uninteresting ways.
This is made all the more confounding by the fact that LAST VOYAGE is directed by André Øvredal, a bonafide genre filmmaker who has delivered some incredible works in the past. THE AUTOPSY OF JANE DOE is an incredible movie that takes place in a single location that feels claustrophobic and permeated with a sense of dread while featuring a couple of characters that the audience truly cares about. But there are very few signs of the director of that film (or the competent work he exhibited in TROLL HUNTER, MORTAL, and SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK) found in LAST VOYAGE. The set design is really cool, the performances are decent—but the pacing is off, the intensity is lackluster, and the attempts at horror mostly fall awkwardly flat. The screenplay by Bragi F. Schut and Zak Olkewicz is the base of these problems, again taking a brilliant concept and deflating much of the tension and intrigue; and their too late attempts at fleshing out characters comes in the form of awkwardly written monologues that feel shoehorned in rather than a natural extension of the characters they created.
The movie isn’t a total wash. The ship set is really cool and impressive. Hawkins, Cunningham, and Dastmalchian all do the best they can with the material they have. Botet is his usual impressive self with brilliant movement while being covered in a really effective design. Unfortunately, as the film progresses, that design becomes less practical and more CG (at least in appearance), meaning that the threat of Dracula gets watered down a bit as it feels distanced from the humans on the screen. Much of it goes along quickly enough, though there are some patches that feel like it’s drawing things out and it certainly runs too long.
THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE DEMETER isn’t terrible. It’s…fine. There are certainly worse films out there and it has some impressive bits (mostly thanks to Botet and cinematographers Roman Osin and Tom Stern) so you can’t just write it off. But at the risk of using a bad vampire pun, the whole affair feels toothless. It’s fitting that this movie is based on a captain’s log because it reads like a checklist going through the events, rather than an immersive tale of dread and tragedy. Øvredal and company had all of the ingredients laid out before them but could only turn in a barely acceptable dish.