6th October, 2023: the Introduction.
As I write this … ?
I’ve not — officially — made up my mind about what I’m going to watch.
I have — as I do, every day — started dinner.
And yes: it’s Friday, so it’s fish and chips.
Frankly, I’ll be eating that whilst watching an old friend’s Judge Dredd video.
Then … ?
Watching a movie.
Hopefully?
It’ll be a little lighter than the last long-form drama I saw.
7th October, 2023: The Last Voyage of the Demeter.
Based on a chapter of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, The Last Voyage of the Demeter opens with a title page: telling us that the eponymous ship had been chartered to carry fifty crates from Romania to England.
Then shows us that it arrived at Whitby as a derelict: a derelict, with all hands lost.
We go back in time: to see the Demeter loading at the port of Varna, in Bulgaria, and to listen to its Captain — Captain Elliot (Liam Cunningham) — filling in the ship’s log.
The Roma cart drivers who bring the crates the Demeter has been hired to carry?
Are reluctant to load the things onboard: and eager to get out of Varna, before sunset.
~≈🧛🏿♂️≈~
Whilst the ship is being loaded?
We see the world-weary Captain Elliot at Varna’s port offices.
He and first mate, Mr Wojchek (David Dastmalchian) have to hire new crewmen, file various bits of paper work, and fish Captain Elliot’s nine-year-old grandson, Toby (Woody Norman), out of trouble.
Trouble that almost turns lethal.
As Toby?
Almost gets killed by a crate that’s broken free of its ropes.
Only to be rescued by Clemens (Corey Hawkins).
Jobs for someone in his shoes … ?
Are very rare.
So saving Toby’s life … means Clemens has a job, and a free ride home.
Little does he — or his new crew-mates — know exactly what’s in the crates or how lethal the trip home is going to be.
~≈🧛🏿♂️≈~
Now … what did I make of The Last Voyage of the Demeter?
Was it good, bad or indifferent?
And was it lighter and fluffier than the last film I saw?
If you didn’t know, that last film was 1984’s Threads.
And strictly, I should maybe call Threads a made for TV movie, play or long-form drama.
As — back in the mid 1980s — it was made for, and first aired on, TV.
These days I suspect it, and others like it, would be screened in a cinema.
However we watched it?
Threads is both wonderful, powerful … and deeply distressing: especially its final scenes.
By comparison?
By comparison, and despite being a supernatural horror movie based on part of one of the horror novels?
The Last Voyage of the Demeter is light, fluffy, and almost optimistic.
It’s also very good.
The basic plot — of the Demeter’s tragic journey from Europe to Britain — forms only part of Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
Which is where I possibly have an issue.
I’m always one for textural authenticity: what’s on screen has to have some connection to what’s on the page.
I couldn’t tell you if that’s the case, here.
I grant you: Captain Elliot is found tied to the ship’s wheel when the Demeter is washed ashore: just as in the original novel.
And at least two characters can be seen as parallel to ones in the book.
- Clemens is the film’s equivalent of van Helsing: scientifically curious, but very aware of the threat he’s facing.
- Anna (Aisling Franciosi) seems loosely based on Mina Harker: enslaved to Dracula after the monster has repeatedly fed on her, and linked to him in a way that means she can follow him.
But?
I couldn’t tell you how authentic the film is to Stoker’s text: it’s been several years since I’ve read it.
What I can tell you … ?
Is that what we get on screen, in The Last Voyage of the Demeter, is a very good story, indeed.
Is an almost perfect “base under siege” story.
Granted: we may have seen that before.
The idea is hardly original.
But The Last Voyage of the Demeter is a very well told take on the concept: one with some very good performances.
David Dastmalchian, as Mr Wojchek, does a very good job.
Liam Cunningham?
Is wonderful: and plays Captain Elliot with rarely equalled authority.
Corey Hawkins, as the passionate Mr Clemens?
Is utterly breathtaking: and has an impeccable London accent. I should maybe not be surprised, there. Washington-born Hawkins is a graduate of New York’s Juilliard School: the US equivalent of RADA, and one of the most prestigious acting schools in the English speaking world.
I suspect his flawless London accent is a result of training, a good voice coach, a lot of talent … and the determination to do a good job.
It was so convincing, I was genuinely surprised to find Hawkins is American!
I can only hope we get to see more of Corey Hawkins: the man has ability.
~≈🧛🏿♂️≈~
So …
What did I think of The Last Voyage of the Demeter?
What did I think of this film?
There’s possibly a lot more I could add: things that are relatively trivial.
How on Earth do you pronounce ‘Demeter’?
I always pronounced the name as DIM-eater, with the stress on the first syllable.
But the cast? Say it as de-MEAT-er: with the stress on the second.
Personally, I’m not going to worry about it!
Will there be a sequel?
I don’t know
I don’t know think the original Dracula novel would allow for it.
Whilst it shows Dracula’s escape, whilst the crew deaths: the film ends in a way that leaves the possibility open, and that Clemens seems keen to defeat the villain.
There may be better base under siege films.
But?
There’s very few that spring to my mind, right here and now.
Frankly?
Given that, and the quality of the performances?
Watching The Last Voyage of the Demeter means you’re not wasting your money.
The Last Voyage of the Demeter.★★★★
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