Adding a new spin on the Dracula mythos is no easy task; we are watching Nicolas Cage take a swing at it with his latest film Renfield and horror filmmaker Andre Øvredal also has something in store with his upcoming film The Last Voyage of the Demeter.
In a new interview with horror outlet Bloody Disgusting, Øvredal teases what to expect from what he describes as a mix of Dracula, a haunted house movie, and Ridley Scott’s Alien.
“It’s definitely meant to be a horror epic. It’s a big journey across Europe from Varna to the English coast, and it’s a haunted house at sea, like Alien on the ocean in 1897, but with Dracula as the alien. That’s the feeling we were going for. It is a bigger, broader story for a horror movie,” says the filmmaker. “In addition to just being scary on a very classical level, I also think it has existential horror based on what you also already observed, that there are other elements on that ship.”
Øvredal went on to tease how he planned to use Dracula while taking the route of the classic Alien to add new layers: “I thought that was one of the most original aspects to the story. When it’s so focused on just this journey, making that into an Alien on the ocean kind of tone, and the enemy is just unknown to these characters. They’re just a crew on a cargo ship, taking some boxes to England and some other freight. To see Dracula from their point of view as a monster that’s invading their world and they cannot escape was absolutely one of the biggest appeals of the whole script. I mean, on a very core level.
The director behind horror hits like Troll Hunter, The Autopsy of Jane Doe, and the criminally underrated Mortal teases that this film will offer something unexpected for viewers.
“We’ve put a lot of effort into making the movie as unpredictable and as varied as possible in certain aspects. I always wanted to be very close to what the original text was, and I tried to embrace that as much as possible when making the movie. Of course, there are liberties taken because it’s just that’s the way it works. It’s a different medium, but I think we’re still very close to Stoker’s intent, the feeling, and the story. Generally, you’ll recognize many, many solid, clear plot points from the original text.”
Based on a single chilling chapter from Bram Stoker’s classic novel Dracula, The Last Voyage of the Demeter tells the terrifying story of the merchant ship Demeter, which was chartered to carry private cargo—fifty unmarked wooden crates—from Carpathia to London.
Strange events befall the doomed crew as they attempt to survive the ocean voyage, stalked each night by a merciless presence onboard the ship. When the Demeter finally arrives off the shores of England, it is a charred, derelict wreck. There is no trace of the crew.
The Last Voyage of the Demeter stars Corey Hawkins (Straight Outta Compton), Aisling Franciosi (The Nightingale), Liam Cunningham (Game of Thrones), David Dastmalchian (Dune), Jon Jon Briones (Ratched), Stefan Kapicic (Deadpool), Nikolai Nikolaeff (Stranger Things) and Javier Botet (It).
The Last Voyage of the Demeter arrives in cinemas on August 11th.
Originally published April 17, 2023. Updated April 18, 2023.
