It’s no secret that The Last Voyage of the Demeter takes inspiration from Ridley Scott‘s classic Alien. Inspired by the chapter of Bram Stoker‘s Dracula which tells of the titular count’s journey across the sea from Carpathia to England, the unique adaptation will see the vampire crawling throughout the ship and hiding in the misty darkness, waiting to feast on its crew when the time is right. Director André Øvredal wanted to evoke the feeling that Dracula could strike from anywhere–not unlike how the Xenomorph operates–particularly when the lights go down. A new featurette shared exclusively by Fandango highlights that almost magical terror from the eyes of the cast and crew behind the film.
The video highlights all the ways The Last Voyage of the Demeter builds its terror. Øvredal wants it to be “the scariest depiction of Dracula ever told” by preying on not just the lingering fear that comes with the Count’s name and the mythology surrounding him, but also the mystique of what happened on the Demeter. Although Dracula is near-universally recognizable, the Demeter represents a lingering mystery with the only thing known for certain being that horrific things happened aboard the ship. This is also a very different Dracula–he’s desperate to get to England to have plenty of victims to feed on and as soon as the lights go out, he begins prowling the ship.
For Øvredal, the Alien inspiration was a big reason why he came aboard. The change in setting from the Nostromo and all of its little passages for the Xenomorph to pop out of to the Demeter with its dark cabins and the ocean mist making vision worse at night made it an especially intriguing take for the director. Since the film is set in 1897, there’s also little defense for the crew from the winged monster’s violence, only heightening the terror as they have no place to run when he’s on the hunt. Liam Cunningham, who plays the ship’s captain, says this Dracula is “the perfect monster” as it hides amid the rainy and foggy darkness while Corey Hawkins, the film’s star, calls the scenes of the Count’s silhouette lighting up amid the thunder and lightning a “magical” type of horror.
Who Else Sets Sail in The Last Voyage of the Demeter?
Aside from Cunningham and Hawkins, The Last Voyage of the Demeter also features Aisling Franciosi and David Dastmalchian among its stars while Javier Botet, a man with no shortage of experience playing twisted horror movie creatures, embodies the monstrous Dracula. Dastmalchian previously spoke to Collider‘s Perri Nemiroff about how excited he was to be a part of the film and specifically how much he loved working with Øvredal for both his knowledge of Stoker’s classic tale and his penchant for taking “big swings” with his horror films. “He took a huge swing with this film,” he said at the time. “I think it’s gonna scare the crap out of people, but it’s also gonna be one of those movie experiences that transports you to this other place.”
Rounding out the cast are Jon Jon Briones, Stefan Kapicic, Nikolai Nikolaeff, Woody Norman, Martin Furulund, Nicolo Pasetti, and Chris Walley with the duo of Bragi F. Schut and Zak Olkewicz writing the screenplay. The Last Voyage of the Demeter sets sail on August 11. Check out the featurette below.
via Collider