The Last Voyage of the Demeter Movie Brings A New Dracula Nightmare To Life

This year has already got one Dracula movie with Universal Pictures’ Renfield, a comical take on the age-old vampire story starring Nicolas Cage and Nicholas Hoult, and now the studio have revealed the first trailer for their other movie based on the famous vampire, the more serious The Last Voyage of the Demeter.

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Steering the ship is director André Øvredal, who broke out with the adventurous Troll Hunter before creeping audiences out with The Autopsy of Jane Doe and then Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. The trailer for his latest, The Last Voyage of Demeter, suggests a tone somewhere in between; an epic-sized adventure packed with claustrophobic scares.

André Øvredal’s movie is based on the chapter of Bram Stoker’s novel told in the form of a Captain’s log written by the captain of the Demeter, the damned ship that brings Dracula to Whitby. Unlike Renfield, The Last Voyage of the Demeter is playing it straight as it tells the story of the Russian ship’s journey from Wallachia to England and how the crew begin to vanish one by one as the evil force of Dracula wrecks terror on the shipmates. Check out the first trailer below:

For anyone who has ready Stoker’s novel or seen any of the more faithful adaptations, the Demeter’s crew is completely wiped out, but how the story of the movie will play out is yet to be seen. The emphasis is clearly on the atmosphere of terror and the unseen menace that is brought to the ship’s crew rather than the ending of the story as seen in the novel. This is a movie that is all about the journey, literally, and certainly offers a much darker take on the story than the likes of Renfield.

Starring David Dastmalchian as the Demeter’s first mate Wojchek, the cast also includes Corey Hawkins, Aisling Franciosi, and Javier Botet who will be taking on the role of Dracula in the film. When it comes to behind the camera talent, Øvredal has plenty of previous horror offerings under his belt, having had hits including Trollhunter, The Autopsy of Jane Doe and Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.

The Last Voyage of the Demeter Will Be A Truly Scary Dracula Adaptation.

While there have been numerous versions of Dracula brought to life on screen over the last hundred years, star David Dastmalchian believes that The Last Voyage of the Demeter could well be one of the scariest ever made. While discussing the movie recently, Dastmalchian said:“André [Øvredal] is a student of and child of, grown up on the genre. Horror is his backbone and he is a true monster kid. He has this deep love and affinity for Bram Stoker’s Dracula, as do I. His knowledge of the book and his passion for the characters is so beautiful, and he’s got this really intense and unique vision and a way of telling stories that is so outside of the box. So anyone who’s familiar with his works like Trollhunter, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, The Autopsy of Jane Doe, you go, Well, this guy never takes a little swing. He takes a big swing. He took a huge swing with this film. I think it’s gonna scare the crap out of people, but it’s also gonna be one of those movie experiences that transports you to this other place.”

Øvredal confirms, “We’ve put a lot of effort into making the movie as unpredictable and as varied as possible in certain aspects. I always wanted to be very close to what the original text was, and I tried to embrace that as much as possible when making the movie. Of course, there are liberties taken because it’s just that’s the way it works. It’s a different medium, but I think we’re still very close to Stoker’s intent, the feeling, and the story. Generally, you’ll recognize many, many solid, clear plot points from the original text.”

The trailer also gives us a peek at Javier Botet’s Dracula, a more monstrous depiction lurking aboard the Demeter. Øvredal previously worked with the actor on Scary Stories, but Botet’s lean frame also makes him perfect for a role initially described as a “tall thin man” by the Demeter crew in the novel.

The director explains Botet’s casting and role here, “As soon as we started talking about it, he was such a clear front-runner, and we wanted somebody who could be something else, something that can behave in a way that you don’t necessarily expect. He, of course, can do all that. Yes, that reference is also true, but I think just his talent as a creature performer and as an actor on screen was the leading choice, and of course, I love him. That was an easy plus and an easy bonus.”

The trailer for the long-awaited The Last Voyage of the Demeter is here, giving a glimpse of the horror based on “The Captain’s Log” chapter from Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

Øvredal for the trailer’s release about what we can expect to see and the horrors that await. The trailer gives us a peek at the passengers aboard the Demeter, including actors Corey Hawkins, Aisling Franciosi, and Woody Norman. The presence of all three suggests that we can expect the unexpected here.

When asked if the more monstrous depiction was part of the allure of this project, Øvredal’s answer explains what we can expect from this iteration of Dracula.

“I thought that was one of the most original aspects to the story,” he tells us. “When it’s so focused on just this journey, making that into an Alien on the ocean kind of tone, and the enemy is just unknown to these characters. They’re just a crew on a cargo ship, taking some boxes to England and some other freight. To see Dracula from their point of view as a monster that’s invading their world and they cannot escape was absolutely one of the biggest appeals of the whole script. I mean, on a very core level.

“But you don’t follow Dracula around as a character, as the sophisticated aristocrat that he actually is. You find him as a feral blood addict who needs the blood; he’s desperate on this journey and needs to start taking down the crew one by one to survive. It’s a survival story in some ways on his part. I find that to be a great aspect of this story. I’m very curious to see how the audiences are feeling about the portrayal of Dracula, which I’m very proud of.”

Also noticeable in the trailer is the use of practical effects. Øvredal explains, “Both producer Brad Fischer and I really love practical effects. After making a movie with Guillermo [del Toro], that also added variety to that love for it. We always try to keep it live on set and keep it with very grounded physical effects in the characters and in the way we approach. There is a lot of special effects makeup involved. It’s all been a very exciting and very intense journey making this movie, that’s for sure.”

The entire premise, a voyage at sea, introduced a whole new set of complications for practical effects. Øvredal explained the intense challenges of bringing his vision to the screen.

The filmmaker recalls, “Filming on the ocean or filming in a tank has its challenges. Especially when you add special effects makeup in the rain with wind machines, huge wind machines, and on a boat that’s rocking and then water splashing from everywhere and just coordinating and making all that work; if there is a gust of wind coming in from the Mediterranean Sea because we were shooting on Malta, all that stuff, suddenly you have to take down the whole operation because the wind is too strong, and it can topple the ship. And in the middle of the pandemic, in COVID. It was crazy.”

While the crew may be confined to a ship, trapping them in place with Dracula, their voyage is long and vast. The director elaborates, “It’s definitely meant to be a horror epic. It’s a big journey across Europe from Varna to the English coast, and it’s a haunted house at sea, like Alien on the ocean in 1897, but with Dracula as the Alien. That’s the feeling we were going for. It is a bigger, broader story for a horror movie.

“In addition to just being scary on a very classical level, I also think it has existential horror based on what you also already observed, that there are other elements on that ship.”

The Last Voyage of the Demeter sets sail for theaters on August 11, 2023.