This movie has been a long time in the making. Bragi F. Schut wrote the first screenplay for The Last Voyage Of The Demeter in 2002, and the project has been on a cursed ride through development hell ever since. Directors like David Slade and Neil Marshall, and actors like Noomi Rapace and Ben Kingsley have been attached throughout its 20-year sailing, and it’s finally come into port under the captaining of Trollhunter director André Øvredal, who has a keen eye for outstanding visuals that blend practical and virtual effects. That’s clear here in the trailer, where it’s all too easy to feel like you’re on board the damned ship, rocking and fearing for your life.
The story is an expansion of the “Captain’s Log” chapter in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, wherein a crew is chartered to bring mystery cargo from Carpathia to London. Bad news about what’s inside one of the boxes.
It’s a sequence Dracula fans will know well that was brought to especially potent life in the 2020 British series Dracula, but it’s an intriguing idea to stretch the events further and focus so much on the people aboard as they face an unstoppable evil.
The Last Voyage Of The Demeter (spoiler right there in the title!) stars Corey Hawkins, Aisling Franciosi, Liam Cunningham, and David Dastmalchian. It hits theaters August 11th.