The Last Voyage of the Demeter

Just saw the critics ratings for this film on Rotten Tomatoes. Eh? Please ignore them. This film was atmospheric, thrilling, well acted and brutal. The set design was amazing also, so much detail. I can't believe the reviews. Go watch it and make your own mind up. Excellent little creature feature with a great premise and I had a great time.

The critics gripes are that they knew what was going to happen at the end of the film because it was derived from a chapter from the Dracula novel. So this doesn't make it an interesting watch anyway? That is also just a straight up false assumption. Film reviewers have really lost it these days. I have learned a lesson through watching this film first and then looking at reviews afterwards.

As a Dracula film this is pretty subpar. Honestly the worst depiction of Dracula, as a meandering, crawling, naked goblin thing that can barely speak and kills with its claws and inefficiently consumes about 50% of the victims blood while spraying the rest all over the place like a slasher film. Hardly accurate to the highly experienced and methodical killer from the book who has mastered the art over centuries. Additionally, the movie is by no means accurate to the books plot as the crew is the wrong nationality and the sequence of events doesn't even attempt to mirror that which was logged in the ship log from the book. So what is this? I'll tell you what it is. It's a movie about a 19th century cargo ship which gets terrorized by a creature that can only be explained by legend, despite taking place in an age of science, and which was inspired by a chapter in the book Dracula. So why try and limit the stories capability within the parameters of Dracula when you could have easily made adjustments to the plot and made your own independent story? Beats me but that's what they did and there is no fixing it. Shame.

Overall the movie was OK but not GREAT. I knew this film would be different from the trailers and that it was. Horror/Fantasy I guess you could call it? Definitely not scary or jumpy. I thought the cinematography was pretty good and the story definitely had some potential. I found the acting good I just felt at times I found it to be a bit cheesy. I feel like they gave away too many clues in the beginning and than it dragged itself out for a while before anything really happens. The ending is pretty decent I'll give it that. You definitely have to like this genre to fully appreciate the movie I think. If you're not a fan of this stuff and you're just going for something to do you probably won't enjoy it.

The only other Dracula movie I've seen was the original 1931 movie while I was in class, though I was barely paying attention to it, so...

Anyway, this movie was pretty decent and it was enjoyable for what it was. (I got the theatre all to myself, which was fun, but I forgot how big and salty a large bag of popcorn was, so that may have ruined it for me) The acting was fine, the characters were at least mildly interesting, I liked the costumes, and the tension was decent as well.

I do think that Woody Norman did pretty well, his character was probably my favorite overall lol

What confused me a little is that the characters were a bit stupid?? So, Dracula is on the ship (though I don't think they know it's him yet), killing people on the ship, they don't decide to search the crates until later in the movie, and in the middle of the night at that?

However, the movie did manage to get me slightly sad during one of the scenes, which is good because I usually get mad at movies instead of sad.

I'd try to give it a watch if I were you but don't expect a cinematic masterpiece or anything like that.

They talked about the moorland but didn't show anything.

Also they didn't show anything bah Romania or Bulgaria.

These two factors reduced the atmosphere.

The movie is creepy at times, the settings claustrophobic n the idea of exploring the uncharted portion of the novel is downright solid but the lack of blood n action made me give low ratings.

Also some of the scenes are shot in too much darkness n the kills happens very fast. Some terrible fast cut editing which ruins the fun.

The make up of the Dracoola will remind of Nosferatu 1922 n Salem's Lot.

The characters make dumb decisions. After eventually knowing that the creature hides during the sunlight n inspite of knowing his hiding place, nobody takes the effort to throw his casket in the water nor do they try to search him or destroy his casket during the daytime.

Also why the Dracoola goes after Joseph (the chef) is beyond me.