The Last Voyage of the Demeter

 I'm not that horror movie watcher, but I do like my Dracula from time to time.

And this movie is based on a single chapter from Bram Stoker's novel, "The Captain's Log".

 

Now, often movies that linger long in development hell are rubbish, but this one is actually greatly enjoyable, especially as the idea for making it was formed... with Bram Stoker's Dracula from 1992, only to come out in 2023, 31 years later!

 

Even though the movie was a box office bomb, I guess that has more to do with the genre and blockbusters seemingly need to include the Hulk these days, then the actual quality of the film...

 

In August 1897, the merchant ship Demeter washed up on the shore of England, and in the wreckage investigators find the log of it's captain, Eliot, and the doomed voyage they endured.  One month earlier the vessel had taken cargo aboard in Bulgaria, delivered by local Romanian workers.  But the workers don't want to stay and go along with the vessel, declaring they must make haste before sundown.

 

Seeking more crew, Clemens, a doctor and Cambridge graduate, is enlisted after an other candidate refuses the job for seeing the mark of the dragon on the crates.  When an accident threatens to crush Eliot's grandson Toby, Clemens saves him and earns the gratitude of the captain.  Aboard the ship another crate falls and reveals a woman inside buried in dirt.  Clemens performs a blood transfusion on her, saving her life.  Later in Aegean sea, Clemens and Olgaren, one of the crew, spot a mysterious figure shrouded in fog on the deck.

 

 

A night later, all the livestock and the ship's dog are found dead, as the woman, named Anna, awakens and warns them of the "monster of Transylvania" that feeds on human blood.  She tells him it is known as Dracula and she was offered as a Slave of Blood by her village in order that he left them alone, revealing several bites on her body and telling he is already on board the Demeter.

 

Olgaren gets bitten, turning him into a thrall.  He escapes and starts hunting Toby, trapping him a room together with Dracula.  The young boy can't escape and is bitten by Dracula, as Olgaren, bound to the mast of the ship now, bursts into flames upon sunrise.  Despite blood transfusions from his grandfather, Toby dies and is wrapped in cloth for a burial at sea.  But Eliot believes that he sees him still moving, opening the cloth.  The now thrall-stated child attacks him, bursting in flame by the sun and burning the captain before being tossed in sea and sinking to the bottom.

 

The remainder of the crew want to sink the vessel to prevent Dracula from arriving at his destination and causing further chaos, but they fail as they are killed one by one by the vampire bar Clemens and Anna, who does suffer a fresh bite.  They think they succeeded when they trap the vampire under a part of the mast as they jump ship, but the vessel runs aground, allowing him to escape and scream victorious for arriving in England.  Anna herself starts to turn to a thrall, and sails off on a piece of wreckage into the sun, burning up, as Clemens makes way to the coastline.

 

 

Later, Clemens hears the typical "all clear" knocking of the Demeter in a pub, and spots Dracula, dressed as an aristocrat.  He gives chase as the vampire disappears into the night...

 

Yes, I truly did enjoy this hunter and prey movie, even though we all knew from the beginning that it would end in victory for the vampire.  It had suspense, just enough darkness without becoming annoying, and the score by Bear McGrady helped a lot setting the atmosphere.  

 

I recommend it, even though it might have bombed, it deserves better!