Film Review – The Last Voyage of the Demeter

There have been many takes on the 1897 novel “Dracula,” with Bram Stoker’s tale of vampirism and letter-writing launching the imaginations of filmmakers for a century. What’s different about “The Last Voyage of the Demeter” is the focus of the adaptation, with the screenplay (by Zak Olkewicz and Bragi Schut Jr.) not reviving the book as a whole, but merely concentrating on a single chapter. It’s a grand embellishment of Dracula’s trip to England, with the material trying to build nearly two hours of movie with the thinnest of inspirations. “The Last Voyage of the Demeter” (which was shot two years ago) certainly plays like a feature without much to do, pushing director Andre Ovredal to somehow create suspense out of a simple tale of survival, and one with a known conclusion. There’s early hope that the endeavor might somehow explain its very existence during the bloated run time, but Ovredal doesn’t have that kind of touch, sticking with a draggy Hammer Films tone that provides little suspense and zero frights. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com