By MICHAEL GINGOLD
Starring Corey Hawkins, Aisling Franciosi and Liam Cunningham
Directed by Andre Øvredal
Written by Bragi Schut Jr. and Zak Olkewicz
Universal
Given the Gothic sensibilities director Andre Øvredal has brought to everything from THE AUTOPSY OF JANE DOE to SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK, it was high time that he applied his skills to a period piece. Yes, SCARY STORIES was set in the ’60s, but we’re talking a story set in a truly bygone era–in this case, the year 1897, when Bram Stoker’s seminal DRACULA was first published. There have been hundreds of films and other media derived from that novel since, but screenwriter Bragi Schut Jr. was the first to have the inspiration to turn one crucial chapter into a feature-length narrative. His THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE DEMETER script, set on the ill-fated vessel that brings Dracula from Transylvania to London, has been (ahem) floating around for over two decades, with numerous filmmakers attached, and now that it has finally landed, Øvredal proves to have been just the right choice for the project.
THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE DEMETER, whose final script was written by Schut and Zak Olkewicz, tells an old-fashioned story with a few modern touches, chief among them the casting of African-American Corey Hawkins (KONG: SKULL ISLAND, THE WALKING DEAD) in the lead role of Clemens, a doctor who’s one of the very first of his race to have a Cambridge education. On the docks of 1897 Bulgaria, that’s one impediment to his winning a place on the crew of the Demeter, which is setting sail to Britain; another is that his book-learning is perceived as no substitute for sailing experience. But he’s able to take the place of one potential deckhand who departs after noticing an ominous symbol on one of 50 crates being loaded onto the ship, ultimately bound for Carfax Abbey.
Anyone familiar with DRACULA will also be aware that these boxes are bad news, and as if in acknowledgment that most people coming to LAST VOYAGE will know how it turns out, the filmmakers open with a scene straight out of Stoker’s book in which the derelict Demeter crashes on the rocks off Whitby, and proves to have nothing but corpses on board. Right from this start, Øvredal gives great atmosphere, as he and cinematographer Tom Stern take advantage of all the shadowy possibilities down in the ship’s cargo hold and other lower sections. Production designer Edward Thomas, whose credits range from 21st-century DOCTOR WHO to the elaborate settings of the ESCAPE ROOM duo, and his team turn the Demeter into a palpable environment full of fine period detail as well as potential danger.
We know, of course, that one of those crates contains Dracula, who in this telling does not appear in the human guise of a Bela Lugosi, Christopher Lee or Gary Oldman but as a feral beast whose features look closer to Max Schreck’s Nosferatu. Indeed, ghoul-performance specialist Javier Botet is billed as playing “Dracula/Nosferatu” in the end credits, and Øvredal uses his distinctive physicality well, as the vampire creeps and darts around in the background and darkness, stalking an ensemble of prey with nowhere to escape. The prosthetics by Göran Lundström (THE BATMAN) that turn Botet into a true creature of the night are good and creepy, and his attacks are startlingly savage and bloody.
Yet the emphasis in THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE DEMETER is not so much on the horror of Dracula and his blood-shedding, but on the Demeter’s crew and how they react to the malignant presence plaguing them. For a while, they’re not aware that they’re sharing their ship with something monstrous, and even once they are, they’re ill-equipped to deal with it. (Though some of them are a superstitious lot, the movie dispenses with the usual rote recitations of vampire lore and the ways one can kill them.) LAST VOYAGE becomes a claustrophobic survival saga akin to ALIEN or THE THING, as some of the men rise to the occasion and others fold under pressure. Complicating matters: the discovery of stowaway Anna (Aisling Franciosi), who first reveals the menace’s name and has an unfortunate connection to Dracula.
Franciosi, previously beleaguered in Jennifer Kent’s THE NIGHTINGALE, brings an affectingly haunted vulnerability to Anna, and has some strong moments with Hawkins as Clemens attempts to save her. Hawkins makes for a fine lead, expressing the doctor’s scientific inquisitiveness (and determination to make sense of the world, which is threatened by Dracula’s presence) and will to overcome both the human and monstrous obstacles he’s confronted with. Liam Cunningham is just right as the Demeter’s Captain Eliot, trying to both maintain his command while events spiral horrifically downward and to protect his grandson Toby (Woody Norman), and David Dastmalchian, doing a very creditable Bulgarian accent, lends strong support as first mate Wojchek. The rest of the cast have fairly standard roles as sailors, some more accepting of Clemens’ presence on board than others.
Given that we have a good idea what will happen to almost if not all of them, THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE DEMETER sustains suspense as Øvredal punctuates the close-quarters tension with occasional epic ship-at-stormy-sea moments. If the pacing flags at times, there are others that take us by shocking surprise, particularly where the fate of one character, and its aftermath, are concerned. The only awkward moment comes at the very end; without giving anything away, let’s just say that the film closes on a very contemporary note that likely was not a part of Schut’s original draft 20-plus years ago.
