A disgusting, blood-obsessed, bat-like creature haunts the corridors of your home. You spend each waking moment terrified of its return in the night. Your friends are dropping like flies and there is nothing you can do to stop it. This might sound like Robert Eggers’ latest historical horror film, Nosferatu, but it is indeed a description of The Last Voyage of The Demeter. Both films adapted, at least in part, from Bram Stoker’s Dracula, The Last Voyage of The Demeter chronicles the final days of The Demeter’s crew as they begin to realize the cargo they carry is eating them alive. Overlooked in the horror space, the film boasts gorgeous nautical sets, a killer score by Bear McCreary, and an uber-talented ensemble cast that includes the likes of Corey Hawkins, Liam Cunningham, Aisling Franciosi, and David Dastmalchian.
How Does ‘The Last Voyage of The Demeter’ Compare To ‘Nosferatu’?

The Last Voyage of The Demeter not only shares similarities with Nosferatu in that it is adapted from Dracula but also in tone and aesthetic. Like Nosferatu, The Last Voyage of The Demeter depicts its main vampire as a snarling, animal-esque beast. Its Dracula is ruthless and ugly with an unseemly, clammy pale skin stretched across its skeletal form. While Demeter’s Dracula is largely CGI, it also makes spectacular use of shadow work to build tension before fully revealing the monster’s form. The film also makes use of a similar blue/orange color palette in the contrast between the cool light of the moon and the warm light of candles, though not to the extreme of Eggers’ film.
The film takes a straightforward, less gothic approach to the traditional Dracula story, and it works. The Demeter is decidedly unromantic in its portrayal of vampirism but that is less a statement on their monstrosity and more a way to showcase its characters’ viewpoint. There is no Mina Harker or Ellen Hutter on the Demeter to be hypnotized or whisked away by the physical embodiment of their shadow selves. There is only a crew of ill-fated sailors doomed for death.

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While Nosferatu largely skipped over the terror and dread of Dracula’s “The Captain’s Log” chapter, it makes up the entirety of The Last Voyage of The Demeter. Despite audiences knowing, going in, that each of these characters is doomed, the movie maintains a consistent trepidation as each sailor is picked off one by one. Like John Carpenter’s The Thing, when the characters realize they won’t survive long enough to escape, they set out to destroy the monster hunting them before it makes it to its intended destination of London. The film pulls no punches. No one is safe from Dracula — not animals, women, or children. There is a palpable terror in the desperate struggle, not to survive, but to protect the rest of the world from the evil haunting them.
David Dastmalchian Shines In ‘The Last Voyage of The Demeter’

The Last Voyage of The Demeter also boasts gripping performances from its ensemble. A far cry from Late Night With The Devil’s Jack Delroy, David Dastmalchian’s Wojchek is a brooding, temperamental sailor with a greater love for the Demeter than any human. Ship life is all he knows and all he identifies himself through. He’s slow to please and wary of anything that contradicts the knowledge and traditions of nautical life. While this causes friction between him and the other characters, especially the well-educated doctor Clemens, it’s also strangely endearing.
Corey Hawkins is also a stand-out as Clemens. He and Dastmalchian feed off one another’s energy naturally. There’s a warmth and kindness to Clemens that offsets Wojchek’s seeming coldness and apathy. Hawkins carries himself with this refined, educated demeanor that’s also somehow humble and welcoming. He carries this emotional baggage that creeps out when the crew racistly mistreats him; baggage which isn’t immediately evident but simmers within him. Their own micro (and macro) aggressions against him are just one of a thousand he’s endured as a Black man living in the 1800s. And yet his presence on the ship is a bright one. As a man of science, it would be easy for Clemens to dismiss the supernatural beliefs of the crew, but he doesn’t. Clemens as a character is a breath of fresh air when it comes to Dracula films. One of the many themes adaptations play with is modern ideas vs. tradition and science vs. the supernatural, and Hawkins as Clemens balances both effortlessly.
The Last Voyage of The Demeter is an unsung gem among Dracula adaptations. It works on its own, certainly, but it’s so tuned into the lore and aesthetics of the Dracula story that it would make for a fantastic double feature with almost any other Dracula adaptation. Its use of real sets gives the film a tangible quality, as though you could reach through the screen and knock upon the wooden hull of the Demeter yourself. McCreary’s score is eerie and atmospheric and yet so stylized and distinct. And its ensemble cast will have you rooting for characters you know are doomed.
The Last Voyage of The Demeter is available to stream on Paramount+ in the U.S.
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Release Date

August 11, 2023

Director

André Øvredal

Writers

Bragi F. Schut
, Zak Olkewicz