#last voyage of the demeter

[my-name-is-not-kimmy]

[your-friendly-sleep-demoness]

the last voyage of the demeter is to dracula what rogue one is to star wars because you know that everyone is fucked before you even start watching but you still end up getting attached

[cappychino]

del Toro is giving me hope.. dracula daily people how are we feeling

[ezkezpez]

I am captain, and I must not leave my ship. But I shall baffle this fiend or monster, for I shall tie my hands to the wheel when my strength begins to fail, and along with them I shall tie that which He, It, dare not touch. And then, come good wind or foul, I shall save my soul, and my honour as a captain. I am growing weaker, and the night is coming on.

- Bram Stoker’s Dracula

1/? Illustrations

[quasi-normalcy]

Okay, but hear me out. It's a Deep Space Nine episode, first or second season; a scheduled freighter warps into the Bajoran System, but it's moving erratically; Sisko sends out some runabouts to catch it and tow it in, but when they do, they find that everyone is dead, exsanguinated, except for a single feral black dog, who runs out the airlock and disappears on the Promenade. Amongst its cargo are 12 crates of Earth soil, registry unknown. Odo investigates the murders and determines, with some understandable excitement, that they could only possibly have been committed by a fellow shape-shifter. Meanwhile, a dark, sinister stranger turns up at Quark's, looking for discrete passage to Bajor; Earth has become too civilized for him to easily ply his trade and he's hoping that he might more easily find...opportunities...on a war-torn planet...

[rosegardenpink]

i'm sensing two very different dracula vibes in this cineplex preshow tonight

[chansaw]

hey guys!!!! i’m going on a voyage on this ship called “the demeter” i’m so excited!!! i hope no vampires are secretly on board. wouldnt that be fucked up or what haha

[femslashspuffy]

For real though I think there is something special about a movie where, from before it even starts, you know that everyone is going to die. There is no saving them there is no help the history is written and they have to die. And yet you sit there anyways and you get attached to them anyways and you cry when it happens because we WANT to love something even if it's doomed and fated to die

[betta-be]

Big things happening in the dracula fandom. Went to the local theater to watch renfield and there's ANOTHER Dracula inspired movie coming out (the last voyage of the Demeter), along with re:dracula and all of us agreeing to reread Dracula daily again. Not that I'm complaining bring back big drac

https://youtu.be/6FgUUO9Ztd0

[edgar-allan-possum]

I think the animalistic portrayal of Dracula it looks like we're getting in The Last Voyage of The Demeter is interesting. It's like he knows he's not leaving anyone on the ship alive as a witness so he's not even bothering to pretend he's human.

[miraclesabound]

Spoiler-Heavy Review/Thoughts on "The Last Voyage of the Demeter"

The crowd at the theater grew to about 15, so still pretty quiet.

Short version is that I enjoyed this movie thoroughly, but it is truly gruesome. The entry will start below the cut with spoilery warnings, because even having read the book, there were some things that caught me off guard.

Warnings for this film include:

trafficking of a young woman as a blood bag/bride for Dracula

Use of racial slurs against both a Black and a Romani character

deaths of all animals on board, including livestock and a young boy's beloved dog - shown with full gore

death of three crew members by burning in the sun after vampiric possession, including the young boy (the captain's grandson)

One of those three choosing sunlight as their method of suicide rather than allowing themselves to fully turn into a beat.

In fact, no one dies peacefully - this version of Dracula is emphasized as truly beastly, relishing the fear of his victims.

I know we've all been rooting for the Captain (named Captain Elliot in this version), but the true protagonist is Mr. Clemens, played by Corey Hawkins. We never get his first name, but we learn that he's a Black English doctor making his way home from Bulgaria/Romania, and he offers his services to Captain Elliot when a previously hired hand refuses to touch anything marked with Dracula's symbol - the stamp of a black dragon.

Other characters include: Captain Elliot and his young grandson Toby, Anna, the young woman given to Dracula as a captive by her village, and the men of the crew, all of whom have sailed with Captain Elliot before.

Then of course, there's Dracula himself. I saw some reviews saying he's shown far too early in the movie - but it worked for me. We find out that Anna was locked in his coffin with him and was meant to sustain him for the whole voyage - so when we see Dracula, he's weak and wracked with hunger for losing his food supply when Clemens finds Anna and starts treating her. Since we see him like that early, there's room for him to grow to almost full power as he burns through the animals and then the crew.

I enjoyed just about every performance in the film, but Corey Hawkins (Clemens), Javier Botet (Dracula), and Woody Norman (Toby) were particular highlights. Clemens is your classic cynical scientist with a heart of gold, Dracula speaks less than you would expect but still has that taunting air, and Toby doesn't read as older than he's supposed to be.

As story beats go, I think I appreciated Anna's the most. I've said in my reread of Dracula that I wish modern adaptations did more with the people of Transylvania hating Dracula, and this version presented that in Anna's character. She's lived under Dracula's shadow as long as she can remember, even before her village elders handed her over, and once she's freed and recovered some of her strength, she's finally able to fight back. I'm a sucker for a character who knows they're doomed but still tries to do the right thing, and Anna is that in spades.

THE LIGHTING IN THIS MOVIE WAS ACTUALLY EFFECTIVE!!!! The daytime scenes were vibrant, and all the nights scenes are lit by an enormous full moon and several stars. It makes the shadow work less muddied than you might see in a more modern-style horror movie.

The movie ends with Clemens technically surviving, but still deeply traumatized and literally scarred - he and Anna scuttle the ship and jump overboard, but not until after Dracula has drunk enough from Anna to curse her and he's badly hurt Clemens' neck. Anna gives herself over to the sun so that Clemens can get to shore, and the closing scene is clearly a sequel hook as he hunts for Dracula in London - or perhaps the Count has already realized that Clemens is on his tail. This worked for me because the film stuck with Clemens. I kept expecting him to run into one of the core Dracula characters, and I'm not sure I would have liked that.

This is all a very long-winded way of saying that this was a film I truly enjoyed, and it is a LOVE LETTER to the book's thesis - the supernatural may have come out of hiding, but if we band together, evil may be halted - even for a little while.

Rating: 8.5/10

[marzipanandminutiae]

Barbie this, Oppenheimer that

where is the Last Voyage of the Demeter hype, I ask you

[cappychino]

Ok Last Voyage of the Demeter isn’t a perfect adaptation of the captain’s log but I feel like it captures so much of the original novel’s essence to make up for it. The slow corruption of health, happiness, and faith that Dracula’s victims suffer—the horrible desperation of finding a way to kill this monster amidst so much tragedy—and the creeping sense of dread that the world might not make as much sense as you thought it did.

That there are some things science and modernity can’t begin to explain, or kill.

[lorcanaloser]

I haven't seen a new movie in theaters since 2018 and last voyage of the Demeter is really making me want to break that streak but it's come out at a really awkward time for people who also want to support the various strikes. Is there any sort of way to double check if this movie was basically put together and sorted out before the strikes started?

[burn-4u]

I’ve had it with these motherfucking draculas on this motherfucking boat

[brennacedria]

Everyone in Dracula Daily and Re: Dracula: don't forget that Last Voyage of the Demeter will be out in the US on August 11th!

It's based on inspired by a single chapter of Dracula. Since we're not quite to that chapter yet I won't discuss the specifics, other than that it might be the best chapter in the book.

The trailer is under the cut, and that obviously DOES have spoilers for both the chapter's plot and for changes in the adaptation.

tl;dr: I can't wait for this movie