adamgehrke.com

Traveling from Carpathia to England in 1897, the Russian freighter Demeter, sets out to sea tasked with the delivery of crates upon crates of mysterious cargo. In short order strange happenings begin on board, the slaughter of all livestock, disappearance of any rats on board, and then the discovery of a delirious stowaway, Anna (Aisling Franciosi), who warns of the presence of evil on the ship. Now, Captain Eliot (Liam Cunningham) along with his crew and recent edition, a doctor, Clemens (Corey Hawkins), find themselves in dwindling numbers. All preyed upon at night, will any live to see the end of the Demeter’s last voyage? Written by Bragi Schut and Zak Olkewicz based on a chapter from Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Directed by André Øvredal this creature feature, semi origin story of Dracula makes a moderate effort to expand on the source material in a way that might feel natural, but unfortunately falls significantly flat in character and emotional development. Ultimately, we’re not given strong motivation or reason to care about any of the crewmen, and, as the film unwinds and Dracula spins up, the ending result is rather, meh. Telegraphed jump scares and pulled punches in terms of gore offer little to actually make audiences squirm, seasoned horror veterans will have to dig elsewhere for their fix. On the positive, creature and production design get solid marks, but sadly, not even a score from Bear McCreary can pull on the heart strings of the living as the undead take the screen. Boatloads of missed potential and the lost lesson of not revealing your creature too soon, end result, a considerably more tame ride than the R rating would project. The Last Voyage of the Demeter runs an hour and fifty eight minutes in length.