Why the fixation on what was likely to be a sub par movie?
Well ever since seeing Bram Stoker's Dracula more than 30 years ago, I've had an affection for the gothic stylings of the Dracula story. Francis Ford Coppola's film may have been where my beloved wax stamp fetish was born (for more on that phenomenon, read here), and it still remains within my top 100 on Flickchart, its many delights overcoming possibly a few weaknesses. (I say that mostly to throw a bone to the BSD haters out there. Honestly, I love the thing from start to finish.)
Since that first dalliance with Dracula, I've seen a dozen other versions of the character on screen, if you are to consider even parodies like Dracula: Dead and Loving It. It may be more than that. They don't let Dracula rest for very long. The Last Voyage of the Demeter is actually at least the second Dracula movie of 2023, the first being the fun romp that concentrated on his familiar, Renfield.
But no Dracula movie I've seen has said boo about what happened on the count's journey from Transylvania to London.
Andre Ovredal's film is based on the log from the Demeter, the ship that transported him and showed up with its cargo intact but its crew missing (presumed dead). The details of that sea crossing may get some prominence in Stoker's actual book, but they don't in any movie I've ever seen. And I can't really tell you one way or another because the one Dracula-related thing I haven't done is read Stoker's book.
We need more than a hand wave about what happened upon that ship. It's rather significant.
So here's the plot as I know it to be:
1) Dracula summons Jonathan Harker to his castle in Transylvania to discuss real estate in England.
2) Dracula develops a fondness for Harker so keeps him enslaved to his succubae.
3) Dracula develops even more of a fondness for Harker's fiancee Mina, who reminds him of his own dead wife.
4) Dracula decides he most go find Mina in London.
5) En route, Dracula fucks shit up on a boat for two weeks. (Emphasis mine.)
6) Dracula continues his pursuit of Mina.
WHAT? I need to know more about #5.
The Last Voyage of the Demeter to the rescue.
It's the same mentality as taking the Hamlet Cinematic Universe and squeezing out the play-then-movie Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, only its with the Dracula Cinematic Universe. Take a relatively minor part of the story and plumb it for all the wonderful content it's worth.
And I did end up finding this content to be pretty wonderful. To tell you more about it, though, first I must issue a giant SPOILER WARNING.
It's interesting watching a film and being introduced to a bunch of characters, all of whom you know are going to die.* (*It's possible that not all the characters die, but my current analysis does not require me to tell you who if any survive.) It's like the opening of United 93. You are saying goodbye to them even as you are meeting them. These guys ain't going to make it.
As you are meeting the characters, the gruffness of a particular few guarantees their demise. But then there are some really sympathetic characters that you can't imagine going down to a Dracula bite, such as the doctor played by Corey Hawkins, the stowaway played by Aisling Franciosi or the young boy played by Woody Norman.
Let's start by talking about that young boy. Did you heed my spoiler warning?
He's extraordinarily sympathetic, one of those kids whose purity emanates from him in his big pleading eyes that temper optimism with worry. He's a good candidate to leave the boat on a life raft, right?
Nope. He totally buys it.
In fact, he's one of the first characters to go, which is a really bold choice. Oh, he doesn't go until you've gotten a chance to get to know and cherish him for at least 50 minutes, at which point, him getting bitten is shocking. But then you think "Well, he's not dead, maybe they will bring him back with a blood transfusion or something. He might be undead but they were already using a blood transfusion on the bitten stowaway."
Nope. He totally burns in the agony of the sun, and you watch his charred corpse sink to the bottom of the ocean.
It's just one of the ways this film goes there on things you wouldn't expect, steering into the horrors of this doomed ship rather than steering away from them.
The burning scenes -- it happens with three characters in total -- always surprised me for the way they lingered, to show us what it really might feel like to burn to a crisp. This is no mild Dracula outing meant to entice Stoker fans of all ages.
Some other things I really liked:
1) A crucifix? Ha. To underscore the bleakness of their circumstances, writers Bragi F. Schut and Zak Olkewicz have a character attempt to ward off the monstrous incarnation of Dracula you see above -- which is really his only form in this whole movie -- with a crucifix on a chain. Does it work? Hell no. The captain played by Liam Cunningham (of Game of Thrones fame) raises the dangling cross and shouts "I renounce you, devil!" several times. This does not even break Dracula's stride. Seconds later he's munching the captain's neck.
2) The doctor played by Hawkins is, in many ways, an example of color blind casting, since most would say there was little historical likelihood that anyone in Stoker's novel would have had black skin. But instead of the movie just pretending his race doesn't enter into it, the fact that he's Black is touched on several times and adds context to some of his motivations. The social positive of casting actors of color is one thing, but when you can fit an actual thematic subtext of race into a story about a vampire tearing a ship's crew to shreds, that's one better.
3) There didn't need to be a Titanic-style secondary antagonist. In Titanic, which of course I love, it's not enough that the ship is sinking, there also has to be a crazed Billy Zane firing shots at you. Here, despite their gruffness, there's no character that is trying to undermine the common good of fighting off the vampire, and with only one very minor exception, each shows courage when that is called for. I found this to be a valuable sense of optimism within all the bleakness.
The Last Voyage of the Demeter exceeded my expectations in all regards. Now all that stalking really seems justified.
No comments:
Post a Comment