‘The Last Voyage of the Demeter’: New Featurette Reveals the Works Behind Dracula!! Check It Out!!

The Last Voyage of the Demeter seems like the perfect fit for the upcoming spooky season. There’s an old ship, a curse, storms, and Dracula himself, the likes of which we haven’t seen before. The movie chronicles the events on a schooner, which is tasked to carry twenty-four unmarked wooden crates from Transylvania to London. While the voyage seems just like any other, soon horrific events start to unfold as the crew strives to survive.

Fragile and desperate are not the first two words we would associate with Dracula, but that’s how director André Øvredal describes his version, in a new featurette. By the looks of trailers and images, extensive work has gone into creating this terrifying version of the blood-sucking creature. Speaking of the character, the director said, “I wanted our Dracula to look different, more animalistic, more feral, like an addict… he needs his blood.” Adding, “I want him to feel like he is fragile in a way also desperate and dangerous.”

The Mix of Performance and Prosthetics Bring Dracula to Life

To this effect, Dracula in the movie has been created with the help of practical effects and prosthetic makeup. Creature performer, Javier Botet is under all the makeup and, Øvredal calls his performance “amazing” adding, “he gives so much life to the character on the set.” Sharing his excitement to play Dracula, Botet said, “It’s a lot of hours, makeup, but it’s amazing how it looks.”

Adds, Goran Lundstorm, creature effects supervisor, and lead makeup artist of the feature, explains the use of prosthetics, “every millimeter of his head is covered, and then we overlap, it’s like a puzzle.” The overall look is menacing and unlike any previous iteration of the character. “Sometimes it’s hard for me to stay like five hours in makeup before starting hunting people, but everything [was] worth it,” says Botet. And the combination of makeup and his performance certainly has had an effect on his fellow actors as Corey Hawkins, sums it up, “He’s just so good, the way he moves, the way turns his neck…it was so frightening.”

The movie casts Hawkins as Clemens, a doctor who joins the Demeter, Aisling Franciosi as Anna, an unwitting stowaway, Liam Cunningham as the captain of the Demeter, David Dastmalchian as Wojchek, the first mate, and Botet as Dracula. Further, rounding off the cast are Jon Briones, Stefan Kapičić, Nikolai Nikolaeff, Woody Norman, and Martin Furulund, along with Chris Walley as Abrams and Nicolo Pasetti as Deputy Hirsch.