The Last Voyage of the Demeter adapts a single chapter from Bram Stoker's Dracula and turns it into a two hour film. The film is directed by André Øvredal known for his work on Trollhunter and The Autopsy of Jane Doe.
The Last Voyage of the Demeter follows the crew of a merchant ship as they sail to London to deliver fifty wooden crates. However, it's not an easy trip as Dracula is aboard the ship and hunting the crew down. From the opening onscreen text, it is clear this monster is Dracula but is also referred to as Nosferatu in one instance, a supposed homage to the 1922 classic.
The most noticeable difference of this version of Dracula is his appearance. Instead of looking like a human, this version appears like a Wendigo with bat wings. DC Comics' Man-Bat looks very similar to this appearance of Dracula. The usual weaknesses of Dracula such as sunlight and a crucifix have no effect on this version as Dracula is unkillable here.
The horror tropes are prevalent in The Last Voyage of the Demeter. The trope of a dog dying is the first major instance of the genericness of the film's horror. What follows is expected jumpscares that occur right when you expect them to including looking through a telescope only for Dracula to appear and random moments of someone touching someone else's shoulder. The violence maintains its gore throughout and the practical effects are one of the only positives within the story. This version of Dracula is ruthless from ripping off someone's face to hanging a mangled corpse onto the ship's sail.
The possession of the crew members who were bitten plays more like zombies or Deadites from Evil Dead than following the vampire lore that the film establishes. The possessed crew mates were turned quickly into vampires usually in the span of minutes except for the female protagonist Anna who was bitten before the movie started and didn't turn until the end.
Ultimately The Last Voyage of the Demeter takes a unique approach of adapting only a few pages of Bram Stoker's classic but in turn creates a forgetful horror film that can barely follow its own rules that it creates.
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