The Last Voyage of The Demeter (Frightfest 2024) Review

I feel like I’ve been chasing The Last Voyage of the Demeter for the past year, as I heard of it last summer when it played in some US cinemas and thought it sounded really interesting. I then waited for the UK release – which got cancelled, and conceded it would show up on streaming – which it didn’t. Research has also shown that pre-production goes all the way back to the early 2000s, with names such as David Slade and Neil Marshall set to direct at various points, so this thing seems to have been a production and release nightmare from day one. Eventually, it ended up in the hands of Trollhunter director André Øvredal, and I optimistically jumped at the chance to watch it when I saw it on this year’s Frightfest slate.

It’s not going to be a future classic, that’s for certain. The Last Voyage of the Demeter is far from a perfect film, but I really respect it as a unique and fresh take on what has become a relatively tired genre.

First of all, I love the setting as the tension, particularly when it comes to monsters, thrives best when the location is claustrophobic, and The Demeter is where we spend 95% of the film. It’s worth pointing out that this is an adaptation of a chapter from Bram Stoker’s iconic Dracula novel (if you remember BBC’s Dracula from a few years ago, this is essentially a feature-length version of the second episode), which does explain where the material comes from, but you don’t need any background knowledge to get into this. The fact that the creature is Dracula doesn’t really matter as much the fear it instils in the crew – which is where the excitement comes from and what propels the story.

People expect male vampires to look like Robert Pattinson or David Boreanaz, here Dracula couldn’t look less human, with the wings of a bat, the face of a demon, and the voice of Satan himself. It’s a great bit of motion-capture CG, and I love that it’s not overused as we don’t see much of it for the first half. We only see its frightening shapes and shadows when it ends up taking a victim, but it’s worth it for some really nice gory kills that certainly went harder than I was anticipating. The Demeter itself is a fairly big vessel, but as the shit begins to hit the fan, it begins to feel less and less massive – the claustrophobia and rising tension reflected in the performances.

This has a far more impressive cast than I was expecting, with Corey Hawkins, Liam Cunningham, Aisling Franciosi and David Dastmalchian making up the rest of the ensemble. While there are some occasionally dodgy accents (David, I love ya, but you might want to rethink what accent you’re doing), the acting is mostly top-notch, and the sense of doom that the film fosters is mostly down to the talent of its cast. Cunningham in particular, is fantastic as the old wise captain who has a lot of emotions to work through. I’ve never seen Game of Thrones so I can’t attest as to what his acting is like in that show, but he definitely impressed me here.

So, The Last Voyage of The Demeter has a lot going for it. A cool setting, some great classic bits of horror, and a fantastic group of actors to bring it to life, so why has the general response to this film been mostly mixed?

I think I understand a main issue that people have, as horror fans (especially horror critics), are inevitably going to be curious when a film takes a more “traditional” slant on the formula. The Last Voyage of the Demeter doesn’t transpose this Dracula story into a modern setting and it doesn’t give us any new twists – it just wants to tell the story in the setting in which it was written. As a result, if it doesn’t give them the same feel as all those classic ’50s and ’60s Horrors do, then they’ll probably be more disappointed. While The Last Voyage of the Demeter is trying its damndest to be a classic horror, it’s still a film released in the 2020s and, as a result, it’s going to have more modern film conventions that slightly impede on its traditional aims – exhibit A being it’s too long.

I know I mention things being overlong a lot, and I promise it’s not because I’ve got a short attention span, but a horror film with a confined setting like this and a relatively simple whodunnit story doesn’t need to be just shy of two hours. It’s not like I was ever bored, but when I can feel the scriptwriters and director stretching something out unnecessarily, it does annoy me. If this was about fifteen minutes shorter then I wouldn’t really complain, but The Last Voyage of The Demeter does stretch itself a little thin. The first act is a little slow and doesn’t really do a great job at building tension as, apart from a couple of shots of a crate that we suspect contains something monstrous and a nice short prologue, there’s not much here to really allude to the grisly horror that this will turn into. It makes it a nice surprise when it does, but when you know the film is about a monster attacking a ship, you want to get to the spectacle.

I do appreciate the amount of attention The Last Voyage of the Demeter gives to its characters as there are some really interesting ones. I love the inclusion of Aisling Franciosi, who I first saw in Stopmotion, and she’s fantastic with what she’s given here. I also think the main character, a doctor called Clemens, is a great one to focus on as he ultimately becomes the metaphorical “anchor” for the remaining crew of The Demeter, and he is wonderfully dramatic once we start getting to the end.

There are times when the film can become a little muddled, for example the second act doesn’t quite know which character to focus on, some vanishing for multiple scenes at a time, and the “Rules of the Beast” becoming a bit confusing at times. Still, the different rules do lead to some wonderfully gruesome kills and immolations, which are really ballsy for a horror film on a bigger budget. The ending of the film is very satisfying, if a little bit sequel-baiting, and gives the film a focused, dramatic and emotional conclusion after all the chaos. While it doesn’t really need a sequel (this is one of those open-ended conclusions that can be left up to imagination), I would be interested in seeing a land-bound take on this story on the off-chance that they do another one.

Although I don’t think The Last Voyage of the Demeter will be known as a future classic of the horror genre, I do see “cult favourite” written all over it. If you like traditional horror stories told with emotion and heft then this is right up your alley and, despite my reservations, I can definitely see myself watching this again. Yes it’s got problems, but it’s also got style and it’s got balls, two things that really help it stand out.

So standard worldwide release when?

Alex’s Archive – The Last Voyage of the Demeter (2024)