#like that new dracula movie??? the last voyage of the demeter??? that movie looks actually SCARY | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

pb-dot · 8 months

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Last Voyage Of The Demeter

It's honestly a bit of a wonder that nobody has done something like this before. The doomed voyage of The Demeter is a small piece of the overall story, but it is very much a story within the story, and even though the ending is a bummer and kind of a given, there are enough turns there to make a decent horror movie and at least one very memorable character in the form of The Demeter's captain whose final middle finger to his Transylvanian passenger is pretty iconic

Anyway, I was pretty excited to watch this movie, partially because I'm re-experiencing Dracula along with the rest of the world through Dracula Daily and partially because the director is Andre Øverdal, whose career I've been gleefully paying attention to since Troll Hunter in 2010 and, perhaps more salient to this movie, the locked room chiller The Autopsy of Jane Doe.

As for the results, it was certainly a decent attempt. From an adaptation standpoint, it was a mixed bag. While some choices were unexpected but decidedly sensical, like the decision to use less of the Debonaire and Devilish Dracula and more of the Fucked Up Man-Bat Dracula, others I didn't love but understood, like doing the "vampires and thralls burn like hell at the slightest brush of sunlight" thing. Some choices, however, did feel like they were motivated by a series of studio notes. One such presumably noteborn idea is having the landlubber characters of Mr. Clemens and Anna taking the lead on the whole thing, one presumes to not spend too much time with salty sailors in this salty sailors having a bad time movie.

Other decisions still seem more like Øverdal seeing what he could get away with, like including a child in this doomed journey for no other apparent reason than to tell the moviegoing public he isn't afraid to put some child murder on screen. As far as transgressiveness goes it's not paradigm-shatteringly huge, but he'll get some point for having me wonder if he's actually going through with this child peril business.

In general, the horror in this movie works decently, although I do feel we're given too much of Dracula's gnarly ass too early. I know references to the shark basically not being in 75% of Jaws are practically a cliche at this point, but it keeps being harped on because it works and so many horror movies forget that no matter how good your FX is, it's nothing to the power of growing paranoia. Granted, Drac has a few tricks up his fleshy sleeves to save for the finale, and seeing those tricks unfurl it's pretty rad, but I would be happy with sacrificing some screentime from the feature character for some tension-building.

From a cinematography standpoint, the movie works fine. Some of the day-for-night-looking business in the third act does strain the suspension of disbelief a tad, but I appreciate the effort put into a movie that is for the most part perceivable to the eye in a generation where more and more horror movie ADs seemingly go "It's dark, because dark is scary, right?" without thinking much on the people who try to watch the thing.

When we are talking aesthetics though, I would say Demeter's biggest sin is choosing to give the Count's blood draining the most comically overstated Glugg Glugg-noise I have heard outside of depictions of thirsty Looney Tunes drinking water. Like, I get using sounds the audience might be familiar with as a base, but when I expect your very scary horror villain to eventually tilt his head back and go "Ahhhh" then it might be time to reconsider.

So in short, I wouldn't call Last Voyage of The Demeter an instant classic or anything, but it's entertainingly pulpy gorefest of the kind late summer is made for in my opinion. I could have done with more gore actually, but it could be that the two new Evil Dead movies have desensitized me somewhat. Also, you know what they say, Waste Not, Want Not.

#last voyage of the demeter #movie review #film review #peebs reviews #dracula

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maybeamiles · 9 months

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Saw the last voyage of the demeter today. HOLY SHIT IT WAS FUN. 10/10 good first horror movie.

I am pleased to report that I was not too scared by it. The jumpscares were, well, jumpscares, but between knowing the monster in advance and not actually being scared of vampires, blood, or gollum-esque monsters, I was able to enjoy the movie and not be constantly looking over my shoulder when I got out of the theater.

(Of course, it helps that I live in the middle of a fucking desert and saw the 12 O'clock show. If I'd been in, say, Edinburgh and seen the evening show, I would probably be far more spooked.)

Anyways I have more thoughts but they are SPOILERS SO BE WARNED. THEY ARE UNDER A CUT FOR A REASON.

But if you want a TL;DR without the spoilers: Changes were made to the version we saw in Dracula, they were good and necessary changes, and Dr. Clements is going on my list of favorite characters who deserve a happy ending.

Alright, so yalls have seen the movie now? Okay let's go.

First of all, 10/10 for including a multicultural/multiracial cast. More period shows should do that.

Second of all, I love Dr. Clements. He is such a good protagonist for this story. He would fit in so well with the main dracula crew, and I now want to write a fanfiction where he meets Van Helsing in a bar somewhere and joins the Vampire-Hunting squad. Or bumps into the crew at the Abbey. That would be good, too.

It was fascinating to see Clements, a man of pure science, deal with the threat of the supernatural, and it was nice to see him go "this shouldn't be possible, but here we are, so I'm going to figure out why, and how to stop it." Then the more superstitious crew tried to blame anything other than what was in front of them. Him and Anna are a tiny microcosm of the whole Vampire-hunting crew, minus Van Helsing's expertise.

All of the new characters were good additions. Even the dog. I liked the little detail where, as things got more dangerous and the crew got whittled down, Anna put on mens clothes and integrated into the crew. And the stuff with the kid? GOD, THAT WAS HEARTBREAKING.

They did make some changes to the story of the crew. They didn't try to put blame on the first mate, they made the captain lose it a little bit over the death and vampirification of his grandson, they didn't have the captain tie himself to the wheel, and they didn't have anyone commit suicide in order to escape Dracula.

I think that these changes, while not the most accurate version of the original Demeter's story, worked very well. In the novel, the Demeter's story is dark foreshadowing, another glimpse at the terror that will be inflicted upon the main characters. They never learn the nature of the monster. That wouldn't work for a modern audience that would immediately think "vampire" the moment blood loss was mentioned. As such, we needed a sense of resolution that we wouldn't have gotten if they had just been "yep everyone died. We never see what killed them. Wow, that sucks."

There were even some changes to the vampire lore in dracula. Vampires are no longer repelled by crucifixes, and they burn in direct sunlight (which they don't do in Dracula). That makes Dracula a much more physical threat (and maybe means they actually had a chance of killing him).

The horror we got was very much a "bad things are happening, but we don't have the skills to fully stop them" kind of horror. The decision to have some of the crew members turn was amazing. It made things so much tenser when I realized there were two vampires they had to deal with, and then the scene where the kid turns and the captain kinda looses it? OUCH. And then Anna. Poor Anna. She had it so rough. I think she died in the water from cold or injuries or something, but her death was a very narratively satisfying end to her story.

And finally, the ending. GOD THAT ENDING. Logically, I know there's no way that Dr. Clements would survive if he actually found Dracula. He doesn't have the tools or knowledge to defeat him. But I still think it would be very cool to have a Dracula AU where he teams up with the main cast for whatever reason. I think this guy deserves a proper victory after everything. I had no clue how they would make an "everybody dies" story end in a satisfying way, but BOY did they pull it off. I want Clements to survive all future encounters with Dracula even if I know he shouldn't.

#last voyage of the demeter #movie review #dracula #horror movies #tw suicide mention #last voyage of the demeter spoilers

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lorereadsclassics7 · 8 months

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So we watched "The Last Voyage of Demeter" (2023)

Not gonna lie, we've been looking forward to this one for months now ever since we first saw the trailer. Now as for whether it held out or not...

Plot Accuracy: 7, now honestly it almost was a solid 8 because they actually put some Demeter quotes from the book logs, as well as used correct character names and death order. However, the addition of 2-3 new characters (doctor, mystery lady, and the kid) threw us off a bit ngl. I would have still put it at a solid 8 up until the halfway point despite it though if not for the last 40ish minutes or so. The whole point of the Demeter was that is was a tragedy. These people never had a chance to make it out alive and the start of the movie even comments on that by saying there were no survivors. Whoever directed this movie clearly disagreed with that narrative because guess how the movie ends. But I did love how it captured the horror of the experience and did mostly follow the plot because that part was honestly well done.

Movie plot: 6, sadly. The aforementioned end of the movie is mostly to blame for that. Like I said it does follow book plot quite well overall and it is a well made supernatural boat mystery/horror. I honestly love the cgi, music, and atmosphere. I've seen people say they're put off by the way Dracula looks, and while I do agree to an extend I do love how much it reminds you of Nosferatu (1922) design for Drac. Having him look so gargoyle-like was honestly p neat, even if keeping that design after he came to Britain was... a choice. Very Van Helsing (2004) as Kal would say. Honestly we were very much vibing w the movie up until around the halfway point.

Look the actors gave their best but the movie just fell... flat. I don't know whether it was the dialogue or the very caricature-like characters or even the three added characters but I honestly had a hard time getting myself to care for them. Kal says it's because of the false hope they try to give you with 'maybe they'll live' despite knowing how it ends, but I say it's a bit more than that. Also the 'lone survivor seeking revenge' ending just begging for a sequel? Look, I could forgive the lady lasting that long before turning because of the blood transfusion, we see the same thing happening in the original with Lucy; but I can't explain the sheer disappointment we experienced seeing the doctor survive to the end.

Like if I went into this movie not knowing anything about Dracula I would have made a few jokes about it being cliche and put it under 'cool looking but unmemorable movie'; but as a Dracula fan? Do expect some frustration with it if you wanted it to be a true adaptation.

I'm treating it the same way I do Dracula (2020). Cherrypicking which parts of it I consider canon and ignoring everything else. Just get rid of the new characters and the movie is honestly p neat. Not as good as I expected but we definitively saw worse things that I can tell you.

#dracula movie night #the last voyage of the demeter #the demeter #dracula #dracula movies #spoiler warning a bit more than usual #just gonna pretend I didn't disappear for who knows how many months again #also we might have watched around 3 more movies I forgot to review #apologies #speaking of #we did find it funny how our reaction to it was the opposite to the 2013 movie we saw before that (I'll get to it eventually here)#where there we were ready to give up on the movie and its reincarnation romance plot up until the ending #have to give credit where credit is due and they really did make it so the ending made sense #here it's the opposite #the beginning and most of middle were p awesome #the end was just disappointing ngl #but it is a pretty (scenic) movie tho #that I will admit

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