The Last Voyage of The Demeter (Netflix) 2023

The tale of Dracula has captivated horror fans for decades and 2023 gave us not one but two new spins of that tale: the drama comedy Renfield, and the suspense horror movie Last Voyage of the Demeter. This review is for the latter which takes a single chapter from the original Dracula novel, originally told as a series of Captain’s log entries, and develops it into a fearsome survival story against a powerful demonic foe.

 Our story begins with a doctor, Clemens, joining the crew of the ship Demeter, heading from Bulgaria to England. The Captain, Eliot, has been contracted to transport multiple crates to London. With him are his young grandson Toby, quartermaster Wojchek, and a crew picked out from the port. 

Their uneventful journey takes a turn for the worse when a mysterious stowaway, Anna, is discovered in one of the crates. She has strange bite marks on her and the crew sees her as a bad omen. Unrest turns to trouble when it becomes clear something else had emerged from another crate and is now picking off the crew one at a time.

 Seeing the crew interact, and fleshed out by an amazing cast, is possibly this movie’s greatest strength. When there is tension it is thick as the supernatural fog constantly surrounding the ship. The script endears us to the characters and their motivations, and by midway I found myself genuinely rooting for them to make it out of this ordeal. 

 While the overall plot inadvertently recalls familiar horror movie cliches, each death is treated with appropriate emotional weight. There is one particularly tragic sequence, possibly the crew’s darkest hour, where the actors truly shine. 

 Another impressive aspect was the set design. From the clothes to the environments to the Demeter itself all looked great accompanied by stunning cinematography and VFX, effectively capturing that late Victorian era vibe. 

My favourite aspect was Dracula himself, here given a more demonic appearance and becoming increasingly inhuman as he feeds on his victims. He is not some feral ghoul though, still retaining his sharp tongue and a cruel wit about him. 

My only nitpick would be how the size of the Demeter itself does not seem consistent and the leaps in logic certain parts of the plot take to draw out the suspense. Up on deck, the Demeter does not look that large; one could easily see the bow from the helm. 

Yet inside it seems labyrinthine in its many rooms and passages. Effective in giving us thrilling chase sequences but a leap in logic. Similarly, for the kills that happen on deck, plot contrivances happen to ensure nobody is within earshot of the screams or nobody is in a position where they could just glance clear across the 50 or so meters of ship deck. 

 With that nitpick out of the way, I otherwise loved this movie. Last Voyage of The Demeter is not the most original movie, pretty much Ridley Scott’s Alien on a late 19th century merchant vessel instead of a space ship, but it is effective. Gorgeous set design and VFX, endearing characters, and a well paced plot balancing suspense and drama. Highly recommended.