The fantasy genre has always been in a bit of a rough spot. It's one that's rich in ideas and themes but never really portrayed properly on the big screen. If you ask someone for a list of fantasy films, it's likely that they'll only really be able to think of a handful of them, and of course one of those will be the trilogy of The Lord of the Rings. It can be a bit disappointing to see genres so rich in ideas but gone overlooked, with such potential within their atmospheres and worlds created. With Universal owning much of most famous monsters created, sometimes they try to do something with them here and there, sort of attempting to throw out a cinematic universe of their own, while both being late to the party and seemingly stuck in purgatory. But sometimes we see a release that manages to to attempt to broaden the stories surrounding these monsters that most definitely do not get enough attention. Going into autumn and of course Halloween, it should be the general season to start seeing a few more attempts within the fantasy genre. Ghouls, goblins, magic, and maybe a few monsters here and there. The Last Voyage of the Demeter happens to be the first I have noticed so far. And an interesting attempt at a modern fantasy film that tells an early story of Dracula.
While I love the fantasy genre for all its potential, there's no doubt that Hollywood struggles with figuring out how to present it visually. Many films suffer from the same few problems: cheap special effects which ruin the immersion, diversion from the original story in the books, and one of the worst offenders: the total butchering of characters. This neglect of the genre has resulting in me almost having the lowest expectations possible prior to going into the films, always expecting something to be drastically wrong. It's a bad way to go about looking at films, for sure. But it also results in some unexpected surprises upon the release of something that actually isn't terrible. While I didn't read the reviews for The Last Voyage of the Demeter, my general conclusion of the film was that it actually wasn't terrible. In fact I'd place it just above average for managing to go two hours with holding my attention.
This is a simple film, so don't worry about spoilers.
The Last Voyage of the Demeter
The Last Voyage of the Demeter is to be considered an introduction, or prequel, to the story of Dracula. Placed upon a ship, the creature breaks out and hunts its unexpecting crew in the night, as they slowly discover the reality of what is taking place as things rapidly go south. This is pretty much the full extent of the story, and it takes place for the most part upon a ship of the name Demeter. This means the film takes place almost entirely aboard a ship, giving us a look at just one small location as the individuals are trapped by the vastness of the sea that surrounds. If you have read my posts in the past, I have mentioned a lot that films that take place within one general area are something I highly enjoy, but admit that are a difficult thing to pull off due to their nature of recycling through locations and requiring a lot of engagement with the audience to ensure they don't grow bored. I've seen many films which do this idea well, and a few that have tried and failed. I would place The Last Voyage of the Demeter in the positive category, for its ability to roam throughout the few locations of a ship, showing the claustrophobia its characters feel as the tensions begin to rise.
I'd say this is mostly where the thrills come from in the film. It isn't a film that likes to go super wild with showing its monster. But it does give enough to us for the audience to feel both aware and satisfied. To hide the special effects use and build atmosphere better, a lot of the film takes place at night. Of course, for a vampire story this makes sense. But from a filmmaking perspective this also can be utilised to hide set builds, special effects that may seem cheap, and focus on lighting to convey depth to the scenes. Fortunately, it wasn't a film that felt too dark in its attempts to hide things. And in these moments are often the most action, where the creature of early Dracula comes lurking out and hunting. His design is pretty good, less humanoid and more something with bat features. I quite liked it instead of it showing a simplistic human looking individual. It looked pretty good, perhaps not entirely clear that it's a vampire even. At points, I kept forgetting what this film was actually telling the story of, thinking it was just a monster going rogue. Admittedly, I did no research on the film prior to watching, nor am I familiar with its source material. Though I did read after that it doesn't follow it too closely.
While the film has quite a lot of strengths, I feel it was let down by a group of characters that didn't seem too authentic. Not quite the types we'd see aboard a ship, with knowledge of how a ship operators. That is to say they felt too model-like and tidy. In some of the costumes, it truly looked like a character was wearing a regular beanie hat that you could find in any clothing store during the colder months, not really specific to any year and certainly too new looking to show signs of wear. This happens a lot in modern fantasy films and shows, as clothing looks far too new and tidy to be believable. Of course that isn't to say all characters should look like ragged peasants, but for those who tolerate the roughness of the sea during all seasons, one might think they wouldn't wear new clothing, not would their work clothing look so clean.
To add to this, the film attempted to give us a general protagonist, but it didn't feel very interesting. After all, the main character of such a film is certainly not a member of the crew, but the monster. But the film wanted us to have the perspective of a regular individual, but never really gave us a reason to be interested in them. While it is clear that the story needed someone else to follow, I just don't think it managed to follow the right person. One of the most interesting characters felt like the captain of the Demeter, perhaps a result of just having more dialogue, of which it felt mattered to the story due to his importance aboard the ship.
As far as things go, I think the film wasn't bad at all. It could've been better, but for what it is, I'm quite surprised. It is clear the film had a decent budget, and that budget went to all the right places: the technicals over fancy actors, mostly. The performances were fine, and the actors themselves did a good job. It is just a shame that the characters themselves didn't get enough depth, purely because they were destined to get picked off and purely existed for that reason alone. But everything else? It wasn't bad at all. Decent cinematography, enough of the monster, and a story that I think worked with the runtime it had. Weaknesses here and there, but generally a decent fantasy film to prepare for the autumn atmosphere and upcoming October month.
