The movie was directed by André Øvredal, whose earlier credit embrace such intriguing horror-related efforts as “Trollhunter,” “The Post-mortem of Jane Doe,” and the underrated “Scary Tales to Inform within the Darkish.” This time, he’s attempting to determine inform a narrative by which everybody within the viewers will probably be forward of the characters on the display at just about each given level. He accomplishes that primarily by focusing closely on visible type, making a moody and haunted environment all through—even in the course of the scenes set within the daytime—that’s each eerily stunning and simply plain eerie. “The Final Voyage of the Demeter” is without doubt one of the better-looking horror movies to return alongside shortly. The cat-and-mouse video games between Dracula and the crew are staged in a way that means a seafaring variation of “Alien,” with Øvredal milking scenes for max stress earlier than culminating in some nasty enterprise.
Keep in mind, a few of that enterprise is certainly fairly nasty—the visualization of Dracula proven here’s a significantly grotesque and demonic variation, the scenes of slaughter are undoubtedly gory sufficient to earn the “R” ranking, and never solely does the one character you’re conditioned to count on to someway keep away from a ugly demise find yourself struggling simply that, however additionally they accomplish that greater than as soon as. The performances, particularly those from style MVP Dastmalchian, Franciosi (so efficient in “The Nightingale”), and Botet, are all sturdy and convincing, which helps to lift the emotional stakes to make up for the shortage of shock.
There are two factors the place the movie stumbles a bit. Though the comparatively gradual and measured pacing employed by Øvredal to generate suspense is generally efficient and preferable to the quick-cut method others may need taken, just a few scenes right here run on too lengthy for their very own good. Additionally, the movie—Spoiler Alert!—indulges in some of the irritating components of up to date horror cinema, a remaining scene that exists solely to arrange future films if this one does properly on the field workplace.
And but, the remainder of the film works sufficient in order that these flaws don’t damage issues too badly. “The Final Voyage of the Demeter” might not be a basic within the annals of Dracula cinema alongside the traces of the Terence Fisher’s Hammer manufacturing “Horror of Dracula,” Werner Herzog’s model of “Nosferatu the Vampyre,” or Francis Ford Coppola’s “Bram’s Stoker’s Dracula.” However it’s a good, well-made, and typically downright creepy tackle the story that each horror buffs and common moviegoers can recognize in equal measure.
In theaters now.