The Last Voyage of the Demeter, Directed by André Øvredal, written by Bragi Schut Jr. and Zak Olkewicz. Starring Corey Hawkins and Liam Cunningham. USA/UK/Germany/Malta, 118 minutes, IIB. Opens Oct 26, 2023. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Halloween may not be a significant observance in Hong Kong, but for horror buffs there’s no better reason to fire up a good chiller or venture out after dark to see what’s lurking in the theaters. There’s a lot out there this year: Kelvin Tong’s Confinement, Emma Tammi’s game adaptation of Five Nights at Freddy’s. The Exorcist: Believer lands as a true sequel to William Friedkin’s classic 1973 possession thriller. Saw X and local shocker It Remains are still playing in the local theaters. Add to that Norwegian director André Øvredal’s spin on the greatest of western monsters: Dracula.

The Last Voyage of the Demeter is, admittedly, not a Dracula story, though it is directly related. The film is adapted from just one chapter — “The Captain’s Log” — from Bram Stoker’s classic novel. In it, the eerie goings-on and crew disappearances aboard the cargo ship Demeter are chronicled by its captain and recounted in the local newspaper. The film is as much survival epic as supernatural horror. When so many book-to-film adaptations are criticized for being too brief or too long, or focused on the wrong characters or wrong events, Øvredal’s choice to really zero in on one small part of the larger story is pitch-perfect. 

Øvredal emerged as a cult favorite horror auteur on the strength of films like Troll Hunter and The Autopsy of Jane Doe, both clever spins on classic tropes (the monster slayer, the haunted house). In Demeter, he’s fighting on two fronts: the idea that this is just Alien on a ship, and the fact that we know how this ends before it starts. 

The Last Voyage of the Demeter, Directed by André Øvredal, written by Bragi Schut Jr. and Zak Olkewicz. Starring Corey Hawkins and Liam Cunningham. USA/UK/Germany/Malta, 118 minutes, IIB. Opens Oct 26, 2023. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Luckily, Øvredal is less interested in the destination than the journey. The Demeter sets out from Bulgaria with a mysterious cargo and a crew led by Captain Eliot (Liam Cunningham, Game of Thrones) and his first mate, Wojchek (David Dastmalchian, The Suicide Squad). Also tagging along are Eliot’s grandson Toby (Woody Norman) and a doctor who needs passage, Clemens (Corey Hawkins, In the Heights). Before long they find Anna (Aisling Franciosi, The Nightingale), whom they think is a stowaway. Shortly afterward the livestock and crew start showing up dead and horribly mutilated. By the time the Demeter limps into Whitby, it’s a ghost ship.

Of course, we know Dracula (regular creature actor Javier Botet) is in the cargo hold. Øvredal opts to follow the path of Werner Herzog’s ghoulish Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979), rather than Christopher Lee for his famed Hammer series, or Frank Langella’s charming count in Dracula (1979). This Dracula is gleefully vicious, lurking in the ship’s dark corners and skittering over its creaky beams. The Demeter is as much a character as any of the humans, and the tactile production design by Edward Thomas allows for the creeping dread to slowly spread. Every hanging rope, unfurled sail and flickering lantern is a threat, and the creature the crew has only glimpsed in passing could be anywhere. Øvredal ratchets up the tension by adding the howl of storm winds to the gloomy visuals, and deploys special effects strategically to better exploit the claustrophobic space for maximum effect. 

If co-writers Bragi Schut Jr. and Zak Olkewicz fumble the ball a bit on characterization — only Hawkins’ Clemons and young Norman have any real identity — they can be forgiven. The cast works wonders with what they have, and watching the rising terror and confusion is what The Last Voyage of the Demeter really is all about. Despite its minor flaws, this is a classic, old-world chiller rooted in gothic horror’s best, spooky traditions. Just in time for Oct 31.