YMMV / The Last Voyage of the Demeter

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Were the men who delivered the crates of earth to the Demeter from Anna's village? Or are they the "gypsies" who defend Dracula during the final battle in the novel? Or is the film implying both groups are one and the same?
  • Was Dracula acting frail around Petrofsky strictly a Wounded Gazelle Gambit? Or was he actually weak from going too long without feeding on Anna? He does act somewhat sickly the first few times we glimpse him (when there's no one around to fool if it were indeed an act), while he doesn't act sluggish at all in later encounters, suggesting Petrofsky's human blood may have revitalized him. After all, it's later openly stated that he was rationing his food until then.
• Aluminium Christmas Trees: Yes, nineteenth-century Cambridge had a number of black graduates, and was actually considered a hub for advanced English-language education of black people, British or otherwise, not least thanks to the town's history as a prominent headquarters of the abolitionist movement.
• Complete Monster:
  • Dracula is portrayed as a more feral beast than usual, but no less monstrous and sadistic. Once a man who spilled enough blood in life to make a pact with the Devil, Dracula has haunted Transylvania and surrounding countries for centuries, feeding on entire villages. With the population whittled down so much by his attacks that he needs new feeding grounds, Dracula charters the Demeter to carry him to England, planning to slake his thirst on the ride by keeping his latest victim, Anna, locked in a coffin and only released for him to drink the blood of. When Anna is found by the crew, Dracula decides to massacre everyone onboard down to young Toby, either tearing them to pieces or turning them into undead slaves. Dracula takes a personal enjoyment in mocking his victims' last words, and by the end has left the Demeter a lifeless vessel, with all of England now his playground.
  • In the original script (link): Dracula, called almost exclusively "Nosferatu" here, is even worse than the final film product. A monster who has fed on countless lives and wiped out entire civilizations with his heinous plagues, Nosferatu charters the Demeter to carry him to England to find more victims, tiding himself over for the voyage by devouring a young child. Nosferatu grows weary of the ride and begins slaughtering the crew for his own amusement. He uses his thrall Ponari to assist him while lying that he will save Ponari's beloved daughter from death, before turning Ponari into a vampire to torment him further. After wiping out an entire Navy vessel that tries to save the crew, Nosferatu kills almost everyone onboard the Demeter and, upon his arrival in England, begins spreading his plague on the land.
• Dancing Bear: Many YouTube comments in the film's first trailer had viewers admit that they wanted to see the film simply because it focuses on a portion of the Dracula Mythos that is usually ignored in most adaptations.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Wojchek is regarded as one of the film's highlights thanks to David Dastmalchian's performance and having one of the more complex character arcs in the film.
• Memetic Mutation: Describing the film as "Dracula on a boat", simply due to sounding funny.
• Moral Event Horizon: Dracula crosses it by killing and feeding on Toby, a child.
• Nightmare Retardant: For some, Dracula's part-human, part-bat design in this movie bears an unfortunate and not particularly scary resemblance to the Bat Boy, a cartoonish character from the defunct supermarket tabloid Weekly World News.

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