Back in the early 2000s, audiences could treat themselves to a near-endless array of middlebrow, high-concept films every week. Pitch Black (2000), Reign of Fire (2002), Ghost Ship (2002), and every Final Destination film are just a handful of the offerings released during this era – some of which hold a special place in fans’ hearts. Whether it was a man with an ocular transplant fighting nocturnal aliens on a faraway world, or a bearded Matthew McConaughey jumping into the maw of a marauding dragon, it was easy to take for granted the embarrassment of riches at our collective moviegoing fingertips. Above all, these films presented an opportunity to set your mind to a low-thought mode and just enjoy the images unfurling in front of you in an endless stream of violent bliss.
The Last Voyage of the Demeter is a throwback to yesteryear, a film that seems like it would’ve done gangbusters in the early aughts when kids were first introduced to Hulk Hands and “Hip Hop’s #1 Energy Drink,” Pimp Juice could still be seen on shelves. It’s a simple story, “Dracula on a ship,” and adapted from an even shorter chapter from Bram Stoker’s Dracula, “The Captain’s Log,” that recounts the harrowing ordeal faced by the merchant ship the Demeter.
The film begins with local authorities receiving word that a ship has been dashed upon shoreline; no survivors have been found. Found among the wreckage is a captain’s log, excerpts of which we’ll hear intermittently throughout the following flashbacks. The moviegoing public knows what has transpired, but the main draw is whether the events will correspond with our own depraved imaginations.
Like the truncated section of the novel, the film keeps its focus tight, quickly establishing the desires of the various shipmates during a dinner scene, focusing on Dr. Clemens (Corey Hawkins), an educated Black man navigating a White world, who wants nothing more than to understand the mysteries of the world. Clemens will be our emotional center for the rest of the film. As for the rest of the London-bound crew, who rib one another for spending their take on frequent brothel visits, there isn’t much to learn. Between the film’s first scene and the countless films that have begun in this manner, getting to know these people would be a moot point, and director André Øvredal provides no reason that we should.
So the Demeter continues its voyage apace, with an atmospheric medley of close-quartered men with short tempers living by candlelight, and livestock shuffling below deck, all underscored by the din of a groaning ship. And, of course, there’s the peculiar cargo that earned the crew an extra pouch of coins to ask no questions and leave before sundown.
Before long, a pallid young woman named Anna (Aisling Franciosi) is found aboard, and Dr. Clemens begins blood transfusions to bring her back to health. Meanwhile, things start happening to the animals – even the rats abandon ship – and it’s only a matter of time before the crew realizes they may be the quarry.
What serves the story well is that the cast comprises vaguely familiar actors who have been quietly producing great character work over the last several years, like the severely underutilized David Dastmalchian. There are no marquee stars to distract from the proceedings, just performers whose anonymity allows the viewers to relish their various means of dying. Unfortunately, however, the deaths come swiftly under cover of darkness, and only a handful of scenes take the time to keep the creature at bay long enough to recall those older, starkly lit iterations of the character.
It’s because The Last Voyage of the Demeter is shorn of rich backstory and profound monologue that it should’ve been an elaborately conceived thrill-kill horror, but it instead stays in one gear: day breaks, accusations are hurled, night falls, people die, repeat for nigh on two hours.
The biggest problem with plucking one chapter out of dozens, and one of the briefest, no less, is that it is no longer held in place, contextualized by its bookends. By eschewing the centuries-spanning tale of a complex character – through romance, horror, and outsiders’ perspectives – there is a feeling that The Last Voyage of the Demeter is incomplete, contingent upon information that we do not receive in this film, that would make it mean something more.
What worked best about those early 2000s body count films is that they were rife with clichés, bad acting, worse special effects, and, most often, bad music, but they offered self-contained worlds that allowed you to poke around and pick out a few things you like. Should The Last Voyage of the Demeter have added a Mudvayne track to the closing credits? Who knows, but it would’ve at least been something for us to ponder.
The Last Voyage of the Demeter is now in theaters.