The Last Voyage of the Demeter is a 2023 horror film directed by André Øvredal. It is based upon Bram Stoker's classic Gothic Horror novel, Dracula, specifically the chapter "The Captain's Log". Starring in the film are Corey Hawkins, Aisling Franciosi, Liam Cunningham, and David Dastmalchian.
The story tells of the nightmarish final voyage of the Demeter as it sails from Romania to England... with an unexpected passenger aboard. The film released in theatres August 11, 2023. Interestingly, it is the second 2023 film by Universal to be based upon Dracula, the first being the horror comedy Renfield.
Previews: Trailer
The manifest for this voyage is comprised of the following:
- Action Survivor: Both Anna and Clemens become this by the end. Anna in particular shows clear prior knowledge of how to use a gun (presumably due to being from a rural village with hostile wildlife), but it's not until she's back to her full strength that she has the will to fight.
- Adaptational Explanation:
- In the original novel, while it is implied Dracula massacred the crew of the Demeter, there is enough evidence to suggest he was innocent and one of the crew did it instead. The film removes any ambiguity by showing Dracula attacking the ship's livestock and crew.
- Adaptation Deviation: To the point of verging on In Name Only.
- Despite adapting the events of less than a single chapter, the timeline is so loosely adhered to as to be unrecognizable, with everything from the book that could have been a scene being notably absent. To give but one example, the captain is specifically noted to have been dead for two days when the authorities in Whitby discover him, while the film's climax takes place only one day before they reach London.
- The captain is the subject of many deviations, from the addition of his grandson to the complete negation of his Dying Moment of Awesome. He's also much more keyed into the plot in this version; In the original novel, the captain was the last person to learn about Dracula and didn't see him until his last entry in the log, while here his crew are much more eager to loop him into things.
- Dracula is here reimagined as a near-feral Orlok-esque winged vampire, appearing to entirely lack the shapeshifting abilities of the book (although he does sprout previously-absent wings after feeding), with even his final appearance dressed to the nines but unmistakably inhuman.
- The book makes no mention of any additional vampires created from the crew. The film has Olgaren and Toby return as vampiric zombies after Dracula's feeding was interrupted, a fate shared by Anna in the end. Said zombies also burst into flame in direct sunlight, another notable deviation from the book.
- The captain's death bears some specific mention for how it is rearranged. In the novel, he is found lashed to the wheel with a rosary and cross, having starved to death untouched by Dracula. In the film, his cross entirely fails to ward off Dracula, and Clemens actually unties him from the wheel and lets him down so he can die of his injuries.
- While the film shows the Demeter beached on a rocky shoal, in the book the ship practically sailed itself into harbor, with Dracula disembarking in the form of an intimidating black dog. Several paragraphs are even spent on the subject of who is legally responsible for the wreckage.
- Adaptation Explanation Extrication: In the original novel, an impenetrable fog surrounds the Demeter the entire time it is in the English Channel, preventing them from contacting any other ships for help or going to any of the many ports on both sides of the Channel. While the fog can be briefly seen in the movie, the fact that it is the reason they're not putting in somewhere or why the crew doesn't try to get help in one of the world's most heavily trafficked sea-lanes isn't brought up.
- Adaptation Expansion: The film focuses on, well, The Last Voyage of the Demeter, which encompassed a single chapter of the original Dracula novel.
- Adaptational Heroism: Not that the crew in the novel was evil, but their role is limited to being picked off by Dracula, and as awesome as the captain's death is it still leads Dracula to port. In this movie not only they actively try to fight him off, but even attempt to prevent him from reaching the coast. Not to mention that Clemens manages to survive the encounter and vows to hunt him down.
- Adaptational Nationality: The original novel mentions a crewman named Abramoff; in the film, he's changed to Abrams and played by an Irish actor.
- Adaptational Non Sapience: Subverted with Dracula. Early on in the film, Dracula is presented as a feral predator. When he infects Olgaren, not only does he mimic his scared words, but he does it again near the end of the movie when he gives a Shut Up, Kirk! to Clemens, and the movie ends with Dracula having already donned his iconic garb to fit in with the humans in London.
- Adaptational Ugliness: Dracula wasn't exactly a handsome guy in the book, but he was rather humanlike in appearance, being a decrepit-looking old man with a mustache. Here, he's a hideous, batlike Humanoid Abomination, looking and acting more like a wild, feral beast than a human.
- Adaptational Wimp: Dracula's ability to shapeshift, control the weather and the mind of others are all left out of this movie, and he gains a vulnerability to the sun. The trope is hugely downplayed, though, since what is left is more than enough to make him an unstoppable threat. One might assume he still has these powers, but held back because he didn't consider the crew enough of a threat to use them.
- The Alcoholic: Petrofsky. Wojchek waves off his death as having simply fallen overboard from drink (despite the blood on the deck). Other members of the crew are unconvinced, claiming there wasn't enough alcohol on board to get someone with Petrofsky's tolerance drunk enough to fall off the ship.
- Anyone Can Die: Given the Foregone Conclusion of the source material, absolutely nobody is safe. In the end, Clemens is the only survivor.
- Apocalyptic Log: As in the novel, the captain's log, which provides occasional narration as the situation onboard goes from bad to worse.
- Artistic License – Geography:
- The dialogue states that after the ship passes the Gulf of Biscay, their only course of action is to continue on to London, which is absolutely not the case, as by that point they would've been in the English Channel and could've just as easily landed anywhere in Brittany or Normandy if they didn't want to make landfall in England.
- This extends to the entire voyage, as unlike what the movie implies, the Demeter's route would've never taken them to any point where sailing to a port during the daylight time wouldn't have been an option. Were it not for the points of origin and destination, a viewer might be forgiven for thinking the movie depicted a transatlantic voyage.
- Asshole Victim:
- Petrofsky and Larsen. The former is a surly drunk who makes derogatory comments about Clemens and Anna, and the latter holds his knife at Clemens when he attempts to retaliate. Fittingly, the two men are Dracula’s first human victims.
- Joseph seems like an all right guy early on, but once Dracula has killed several members of the crew, his self-righteousness boils to the surface. He claims Dracula's appearance is a curse from God, and chews out the crew for various "sins" they committed (while conspicuously not bringing up any "sins" of his own). He then knocks out one of his crewmates and tries to steal a boat to escape, so the audience is unlikely to mourn him when Dracula simply flies out to his boat to eat him.
- Back Stab: Clemens buries an axe into Dracula's back, although it does nothing but anger him.
- Badass Boast: Anna delievers one, after shooting Dracula.Anna: [shoots Dracula in the back.] You are in my head. In my blood. You have damned me to hell.
- She later gets another one minutes later when she cuts the ropes to send a wooden pole into Dracula to try and kill him.
Anna: [Cuts the rope sending the pole flying into Dracula.] Die, you Devil. - The Bad Guy Wins: A Foregone Conclusion, since the Demeter's fate is established in the opening of the film and this is merely a single chapter in the larger story of Dracula. Clemens survives, and has a haunting encounter in a busy pub where Dracula taunts him before vanishing into the foggy streets.
- Bat People: The final form that Dracula adopts once he starts attacking the crew openly is a humanoid creature with bat wings, though Anna notes that he's capable of appearing human to disguise himself when he so chooses.
- Bittersweet Ending: With the exception of Clemens, everyone onboard the Demeter dies, and Dracula has made it to London along with Clemens. However, he is dedicated to finding the vampire and killing him for good.
- Black Dude Dies First: Inverted with Clemens who survives and seeks to hunt down Dracula.
- Call-Forward: Clemens uses blood transfusions to treat Anna when he first discovers her, the same treatment Van Helsing would prescribe for Lucy Westenra in the novel.
- Canon Foreigner:
- While most of the crew were never directly named in the original Dracula novel, a log does enumerate them: 1 captain, 2 mates, 1 cook and 5 hands, with no doctor being mentioned, so this applies to Clemens who also survives the events of the story and is last seen hunting Dracula down in London.
- There is, naturally, no mention in the novel of a female stowaway being found in one of Dracula's crates full of dirt.
- The captain's grandson Toby is likewise a complete fabrication for the film.
- Classy Cane: While searching the cargo for signs of the monster, Clemens discovers an elegant cane with a dragon's head partially buried in one of the boxes. Dracula later uses this cane to taunt Clemens in a busy pub, tapping it on the floor to draw his attention before vanishing into the streets.
- Closed Circle: The Demeter is a cargo vessel in the middle of the ocean, preventing the cast from leaving when things start to go wrong. Even worse, they had an opportunity to stop in port early on when the animals died, but if they did that they would lose their early delivery bonus and so chose not to.
- Continuity Nod: The Brides themselves do not appear, but Anna indicates that her people have been giving people to Dracula for centuries to appease him. She is merely the latest "gift" offered to him, and yet another woman being preyed upon similar to Lucy and Mina.
- Contrasting Sequel Main Character: Clemens is one for Abraham Van Helsing. Both men are professional doctors and men of science in general, but while Van Helsing is already well versed in the supernatural and quick to identify the threat's origin, Clemens has no such background and initially tries to find more mundane explanation for the threat facing them. Because of the above-mentioned knowledge, Van Helsing is able to better plan against Dracula's actions with the loss of only a single member of his group, Clemens ends up being the Sole Survivor of his own. Van Helsing also commands considerable respect and is a fairly big name in the medical world, while Clemens struggles to find work due to the racism he faces (which makes this contrast a twofold, since Van Helsing is accepted despite being a foreigner, while Clemens is ostracized despite being English).
- Death by Materialism: When Dracula charters the Demeter to take the 50 crates to London, he includes an £800 bonusnote , to be split among the crew if they make the run in a certain amount of time without making any stops in any port along the way. This means that after all the ship's livestock is slaughtered, the crew doesn't take the logical option and divert to a nearby port, dooming them all.
- Death by Pragmatism: Joseph decides to steal a lifeboat in the middle of the night to escape Dracula. That would have been a smart decision if Dracula wasn't killing the crew one at a time to make sure they last the journey and are able to keep the ship going. By already removing himself from the crew, Joseph just made himself Dracula's next meal.
- Death of a Child: As one might expect from a story with such a Foregone Conclusion, Toby does not survive the events of the story. This pretty much destroys the captain's spirit.
- Defiant to the End: Thankfully averted as Anna saves him. Clemens as Dracula has him at his mercy, says to him in a defiant toneClemens: [as Dracula has him by the throat.] I do not fear you.
- Despair Event Horizon: Toby’s death breaks Captain Elliot, and after getting over a brief delusional episode where he thinks Dracula can revive him, he resolves to go down with the ship.
- Developing Doomed Characters: Dracula doesn't really make his first appearance until the half-hour mark, with the time before that spent getting to know the various seamen before they become vampire chow.
- Doomed by Canon: Clemens ends the movie pledging to hunt down Dracula. Since he's a Canon Foreigner and there was no mention in the book of anyone else pursuing Dracula outside of our protagonists, we know Clemens' quest is doomed to failure.
- Dracula: The vampire menacing the crew, naturally, though it isn't until about halfway through the film that he finally gets name-dropped by Anna.
- Evil-Detecting Dog: All the animals freak out when Dracula emerges from his hold. Early on, Huckleberry the dog is shown barking through the floor at Dracula's shadow down in the cargo area.
- Face Death with Dignity: Unlike Olgaren and Toby, who both die screaming, Anna makes no sound as she lets the sun’s light ignite her.
- Facial Horror: The scene with a vampiric Olgaren burning in the sunlight, with a closeup of his skin bubbling like boiling water.
- Foregone Conclusion: Anyone who has read the original Dracula knows that the Demeter arrives in England with no surviving crew. This is played with slightly in that while Clemens survives, he arrives in England separately from the Demeter and makes no report of his survival, leaving the newspaper accounts to match those in the novel.
- Genre Blind: Played for Drama. Despite having several clues about how to best confront Dracula, the characters' unfamiliarity with their monstrous foe causes them to miss these and plays into the Foregone Conclusion of the crew's fate. From not realizing that vampirism is infectious and that vampires can be harmed by daylight, despite witnessing two infected crew members go up in a conflagration in the morning sun, to not realizing that a holy object and sufficient faith can repel Dracula. This leads to their final plan to kill Dracula being to attack him with guns during the nighttime when he appears, rather than striking when he's vulnerable in daytime.
- Glowing Eyelights of Undeath: Dracula possesses these, and make him easy to spot when he's lurking in the shadows.
- Hard Truth Aesop: Clemens delivers a sad but true fact about life to Toby when Dracula kills his dog Huck. He notes that sometimes, things out of your control can cause things to go horribly wrong despite your promises, and all you can do in the face of that is to do your best. It proves prophetic when despite the heroes' best efforts, Dracula makes it to London and the Demeter is lost with all hands save Clemens.
- Harbinger of Impending Doom: The scarred old man in the opening of the film, who changes his mind about joining the crew once he sees the dragon on the boxes they're carrying and loudly tells them why. Unfortunately for the Demeter, no one heeds his warnings until it's too late.
- Holy Burns Evil:
- Notably averted, as a departure from the source material (where Dracula can be repelled by holy objects). There are several deeply religious characters on board and multiple rosaries that get significant, lingering shots during the movie. Captain Elliot even holds one up when making his final confrontation with Dracula. They do absolutely nothing, though whether this is because Elliot's faith was not strong enough, or if holy objects really do nothing against this incarnation of Dracula, is not made clear.
- Possibly played straight with vampire Olgaren. When Toby clutches a rosary and starts silently praying, he seems to stop trying to break down the door, but this might have just been because Dracula was already in the room with him and he was letting his master close in for the kill.
- Hope Spot: The vampiric Olgaren attempts to break into the captain's quarters where Toby is hiding, but is ultimately stopped by the rest of the crew. All seems well, until the child realizes he isn't alone inside the room. The crew's frantic efforts to finish breaking into the room are too late to save Toby, who dies soon afterwards from the bite and becomes an Undead Child.
- How We Got Here: The film opens with the wreck of the Demeter being discovered by the police, then spends the rest of the movie showing its slow demise at Dracula's hands.
- Human Sacrifice: Routinely sacrificing villagers to appease Dracula's hunger is apparently how Anna's village survived living under his rule for hundreds of years. It's implied she was specifically raised for this purpose herself.
- It Can Think: The crew slowly realize the monster aboard is smart. Using misdirection, targeting them in vulnerable areas and using strategy makes Dracula far more dangerous.
- Jack the Ripoff: In the final scene, Dracula is dressed to the nines in a fancy coat and top hat that invoke the Trope Namer.
- Jump Scare: Several in the film, the most effective being ones where Dracula is illuminated by a flash of lightning, and the most egregious being early on when Olgaren suddenly sees Dracula's face through his spyglass when looking around the ship at night (only to see nothing when he lowers it).
- Let's Split Up, Gang!: Downplayed. When searching the ship after discovering the injured Olgaren, the captain insists that everyone break off into pairs rather than going off on their own. This still results in Toby being unaccounted for, and leads to his subsequent death.
- Looks Like Orlok: This incarnation of Dracula takes many design cues from Orlok, most notably the bald head and pointed ears. Dracula is also distinctly needle-fanged in this version.
- Mercy Kill: Wojchek shoots the vampire Olgaren to give him a quicker death than burning alive in the sun.
- Monster Progenitor: Dracula's bites infect his victims with vampirism when they die, as per the source material, though unlike in the novel it doesn't seem to make them into a being like himself. Rather, his progeny appear to be more like classic undead, semi-mindless slaves with none of his special powers and easy prey for the typical vampire weaknesses, like sunlight.
- Monstrous Humanoid: Dracula starts out desiccated from not having eaten in some time, and when the crew stumbles across his emergency rations (Anna) he decides to go on a feeding frenzy, ending the film as a monstrous bat-person with a fang-lined mouth.
- Moody Trailer Cover Song: The song for the trailer is none other than a moody remix of "Bullet With Butterfly Wings" by The Smashing Pumpkins.
- Offscreen Teleportation: Dracula can disappear if the camera is off of him even for a moment. One notable example is an upward panning shot that shows Dracula's legs underneath the table, but once the camera gets above it, he has vanished.
- Ominous Fog: Happens a few times during the movie, with one particular instance near the end heavily implied to have been summoned by Dracula himself to make him harder to spot for the crew.
- Outliving One's Offspring: This already happened in regards to Captain Elliot and his daughter, and then he essentially goes through it again when Toby dies.
- Politically Correct History: Subverted. During the first half of the film the trope appears to be in play, as the fact that Clemens is not only Black but also a doctor (a pretty unusual combination in that time and place) is completely unremarked upon, but then the prejudices that such an individual would've faced in the closing years of the XIX century become a plot point. Clemens was one of the first Black doctors to graduate from Cambridge medical school, but his skin color made it impossible for him to get any job in England. The only reason he was in Varna at the start of the movie, completely broke, was because his credentials had gotten him a job offer as personal physician to King Carol of Romania, which promptly got rescinded once they became aware of his ancestry.
- Pragmatic Villainy: Dracula brought Anna aboard to feed on her blood, presumably so as not to draw the crew's attention. When Clemens gets her out of reach, he makes do with eating the livestock and the rats, and only attacks the crew when he runs out of those. Even then, he only kills one at a time, both to "ration" their blood, and to make sure the ship has enough people to get him to England.
- Raised by Grandparents: Toby is being raised by his grandfather, Captain Elliot.
- Rain of Blood: How the crew find Olgaren in the rigging after he goes missing—Clemens sees the blood dripping onto Toby's shirt.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Clemens gives one of these to Dracula at the end, emphasizing that while the others believe he's a devil or a god, the fact that he feeds on them to survive means that he's just as mortal and scared of death as the rest of them. This ends up saving his life, as Dracula makes a point of sadistically toying with him afterwards rather than just killing him outright, which gives Anna time to save him.Clemens: [ Defiantly calling out to Dracula.] You want them to believe that you're a god! You and I both know that you're not! You bleed like any of us! You sleep in dirt! You feed! Above all else, you feed! You want us to... to fear you! Underneath, you're afraid! You're afraid of what lies on the other side as any other living thing!"
- Recycled In Space: Inverted - it's Alien but with Dracula on a boat!
- Retirony: Captain Elliot states early on that he intends to retire, and this will be his last voyage. He's correct about the second part, but will not survive to enjoy the peaceful life he'd planned for his retirement.
- Romanticism Versus Enlightenment: Clemens is a learned man from Cambridge, a doctor who professes a desire to understand the world and make sense of it, and insists on using logic and advanced (for the time) medical practice in the face of the horrors on the ship. Meanwhile the crew is established as being superstitious and emotionally-charged. Toby even remarks early on how Captain Elliot prefers the Demeter, an old wooden ship, to a more modern steam-powered vessel. Dracula himself is presented as a distinctly "old world" monster from a very feudal country, one who is aided by the crew's supernatural beliefs rather than thwarted by them. Notably, the "enlightened" Clemens is the only survivor of the crew. This is actually in line with the original novel, where Dracula represented the old world and superstition while Van Helsing was a man of science and reason although, unlike Clemens, he had no issue mixing it up with faith (also some of his tools, like phrenology, would be considered superstition rather than science today). Van Helsing's greater success is due to, among other factors, having a crew that actually listens to him.
- Rule of Three: Over the course of the story, three people are transformed into vampires and then killed by sunlight.
- Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: Joseph tries to escape the Demeter alone on a lifeboat when Dracula starts killing people openly. Since Dracula has wings by then, it doesn't work out for him.
- Shoot the Dog: Subverted. After Toby is bitten but left still alive, Clemens worries aloud about his chances of survival, recalling how Olgaren turned and became a threat as a result of his wounds. Wojchek starts to hand him a gun, demanding he "look him in the eye" when he does it, and Clemens balks at the implication and turns him down. Considering Toby's ultimate fate, it might have been kinder if he had.
- Shout-Out:
- Toby's dog is named Huckleberry. It's quite probably a reference in-universe as well given that the books involving him were originally released in 1876 and 1884 and the film is set in 1897.
- Sole Survivor: Clemens. While he and Anna make it off the ship, she lets herself burn in the sunlight before she gives in to her vampirism, and Clemens makes it to London alive.
- Something Only They Would Say: A non-verbal version. Early on in the film, Toby teaches Clemens the particular knock-on-wood signal the Demeter's crew uses to communicate around the ship to indicate all's well. In the epilogue, Dracula tauntingly repeats this same signal to get Clemens' attention in a crowded London pub, using his Classy Cane to make the knocking sound, before leaving into the streets, to tell the ship's Doctor that all is not well with him still being alive, and challenging him silently to finish what they started on the ship, if he dares.
- Slasher Smile: The expression Dracula makes towards most of his victims before feasting on them. Enhanced by his many bulging sharp teeth.
- Slashed Throat: How Dracula kills Petrofsky before feeding on him.
- Spoiler Title: The Latin American title for the film is "Dracula: Sea of Blood".
- Suicide by Sunlight: Anna chooses to climb onto wreckage to greet the rising sun, rather than become another monster. Unlike the other vampires burned by the sun, she dies peacefully.
- Tainted Veins: Those who are cursed with vampirism seem to show these, most notably Toby and Anna shortly before they catch on fire.
- Uncertain Doom: Since Clemens isn't part of the Dracula novel, it can be assumed that his path never crossed the Harkers and their allies. That, and the way Dracula seems to be baiting him into following at the end of the movie, it could be that he's Killed Offscreen, but there's no way to know for sure.
- Undead Child: After being killed by Dracula, Toby briefly resurrects as a vampire in the middle of his Burial at Sea, before he is quickly ignited by the sun’s rays and tossed overboard.
- Vagueness Is Coming: As the unsettling events begin to pile up, Olgaren, who saw a glimpse of Dracula the previous night, concludes that "evil is onboard".
- Vampire Bites Suck: We get varying levels of gore on the vampire bites, from Petrofsky getting a huge chunk taken out of his throat, to Anna having several hideously bruised bite marks, but in all cases Dracula's bites are vicious and painful for his victims.
- Vampire Hunter: Clemens becomes one at the end of the story, vowing to hunt Dracula down and put an end to his evil.
- Viral Transformation: Early on, the crew worry that whatever killed the animals might be contagious. They are partially correct, as is Clemens' theory that Anna's condition is the result of "infected blood". Everyone that is bitten, but not immediately killed, ends up turning into a vampire. The blood transfusions are able to delay the change, but ultimately cannot save Toby or Anna from turning.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: He's never shown doing it, but it's clear that Dracula can grow and retract his wings at will.
- Weakened by the Light: We never see if Dracula is susceptible to sunlight, as all of his scenes take place at night, but the victims he's turned all painfully combust once exposed to the light of day.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Wojchek hires three new crewmen in Varna. One of them quits after seeing the dragon emblem on the crates, and is replaced by Clemens, but the other two disappear from the film completely after the ship leaves port.
- Worthy Opponent: Granted, it's mostly tinged with sadistic intentions, but Dracula seems to form this opinion towards Clemens over the course of the film, openly confronting him when Clemens gives a passionate The Reason You Suck speech over how he's ultimately as mortal as the rest of them, aiming to break his spirit for the insult. Whilst they both mutually fail to kill the other, in The Stinger Dracula intentionally alerts Clemens to his presence in a London pub before vanishing into the streets, clearly inviting him to have another go at stopping him so they can both settle their score.
- Would Hurt a Child: Dracula has no issue targeting little Toby and killing him like the other people onboard.
- Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Captain Elliot spares Anna from being tossed overboard as a stowaway because she's a girl.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Dracula appears to Petrofsky as a malnourished and frail creature just seconds before he reveals his true strength and kills him.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: Early in the film, the crew happily discusses a bonus that has been promised to them if they can deliver Dracula's cargo to London early. Needless to say, he doesn't give it to them.
