“THE LAST VOYAGE OF DEMETER”, A THRILLER JOURNEY
Cinema Writer/Film Critic Efe TEKSOY; wrote the horror, thriller, and drama film “THE LAST VOYAGE OF DEMETER”, for America’s Los Angeles-based Internet Newspaper @alaturkanews.
DRACULA IS BACK
Directed by Norwegian filmmaker André Øvredal, The Last Voyage of the Demeter is an adaptation of “The Captain’s Diary“, a chapter from the 1897 world classic novel Dracula by Irish writer Bram Stoker. It chronicles the perilous ocean voyage of the merchant ship Demeter, from Transylvania to London, pursued by the legendary vampire Dracula. Bram Stoker, the famous writer of the Queen Victoria Era, based on previous literary examples, enriched Dracula with monsters and nightmares equipped with historical folkloric elements. However, the origins of the Vampire myth date back to ancient literature. B.C. “Fragmenta Historicum Graecorum” in Flegon’s Fragments from Greek History between 117-138 B.C. Between 200 and 245 BC, there were two vampires, one male and one female, named Filinium and Empusa, in Filaortratus’s Life of Apollonius of Tyana. With his literary genius and limitless imagination, Bram Stoker managed to turn a belief and superstition that had existed for hundreds of years into a contemporary myth, thus reshaping it by presenting an immortal masterpiece to Gothic literature. The film, which initially puts the audience on a gloomy and mysterious cruise, then exposes them to a tension that increases with the gradual emergence of the Vampire. Approaching the Dracula universe from a different perspective, the production gives the audience a kind of single-place fear with Jump Scare scares. However, with a scene that connects to the dark foggy streets of London afterwards, it gives the audience the good news that this tension will continue with a sequel story. The team started shooting on 30 June 2021 in Berlin, Germany, then continued in Malta and ended on 1 October. Some scenes were also shot in the city of Mdina in Malta’s Northern Territory. Stars; Corey Hawkins, Aisling Franciosi, Liam Cunningham, David Dastmalchian, Chris Walley, Jon Jon Briones, Stefan Kapicic, Martin Furulund, Nikolai Nikolaeff, Woody Norman, and Javier Botet.
BEHIND THE SCENES
– Oscar-nominated Swedish make-up artist Göran Lundström applied a 4-hour make-up to Spanish actor Javier Botet before each shoot for his creature costume.
Director Guillermo del Toro commented: “I enjoyed Last Voyage of the Demeter so much: gorgeous, lavish and savage!!”.
Bestselling horror writer Stephen King praised the movie in spite of some initial skepticism: “I was doubtful about The Last Voyage of the Demeter, but it’s a throat-ripping good time. It reminded me of the best of the Hammer movies from the Sixties and Seventies”.
In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Demeter is the Olympian goddess of harvest and agriculture, presiding over crops, grains, food, and the fertility of the earth. Although she is mostly known as a grain goddess, she also appeared as a goddess of health, birth, and marriage, and had connections to the Underworld.
Although the credits read “Based on the chapter ‘The Captain’s Log’ of ‘Dracula’ by Bram Stoker”, that is not entirely accurate. Chapter 7 of ‘Dracula’ is actually entitled ‘Cutting from ‘The Dailygraph’, 8 August (Pasted in Mina Murray’s Journal)’ and within that Chapter is a section ‘Log of the Demeter’. This section and parts before and after the section within Chapter 7 is what this film is more precisely based on.
THE LAST VOYAGE OF DEMETER
The film music was composed by Prime Time Emmy Award-winning American artist Bear McCreary; With its different perspective on the Dracula myth and its new story with an intense horror atmosphere, it offers a thriller that horror lovers will enjoy.
EFE TEKSOY
