The Last Voyage of the Demeter: Medium-well stake

The Last Voyage of the Demeter (2023) • View trailer

3.5 stars (out of five). Rated R, for strong gory violence

Available via: Movie theaters

By Derrick Bang

This is a genius idea for a horror film.

 

Bragi F. Schut and Zak Olkewicz’s script expands upon a portion of a chapter from Bram Stoker’s Dracula, wherein newspaper clippings detail the strange case of a Russian schooner that runs aground at the Yorkshire seaside town of Whitby, during a ferocious late-night storm. The sole person aboard is the ship’s captain, dead two days, and lashed to the wheel.

 

Larsen (Martin Furulund) desperately tries to light a lantern, amid a raging rain and wind
storm. Alas, he won't like what the illumination ultimately reveals...

His recovered log book recounts the strange and ultimately horrifying events that took place on the Demeter, after it left the city of Varna a month earlier, bound for London.

Schut and Olkewicz take us aboard the doomed vessel, granting faces and personalities to the crew — most of them well played by the multinational cast — while, um, taking some license with Stoker’s version of his malevolent vampire.

 

There’s no way this Dracula could subsequently move about London in the guise of an ordinary-looking man. But Schut, Olkewicz and Norwegian director André Øvredal aren’t required to adhere religiously to Stoker’s 1897 classic; their goal is simply to frighten the hell out of us.

 

They succeed, to a degree; the atmosphere, gruesome shocks and period authenticity are excellent. But Øvredal is too self-indulgent; his lethargic pacing works against the story’s suspense. He should have let editors Julian Clarke, Patrick Larsgaard and Christian Wagner do a better job. This pokey two-hour horror flick would have been far scarier if, say, 20 minutes shorter.

 

Instead, each fresh burst of gory violence is telegraphed by a mile (and Bear McCreary’s ear-splitting synth score doesn’t help).

 

The story begins as the Demeter takes on its final cargo: a series of large wooden boxes, one of them bearing a dragon seal that prompts a strong response from a newly hired hand, who resigns on the spot. He’s replaced by Clemens (Corey Hawkins), a well-spoken doctor seeking travel to London. First mate Wojchek (David Dastmalchian) warns that this “dandified” fellow better pull his weight, but the ship’s captain (Liam Cunningham) has good reason to accept his presence.

 

Once at sea, Clemens proves remarkably capable; he also befriends the ship’s cabin boy, Toby (Woody Norman). These two are by far this story’s most interesting characters, with whom we immediately bond; both are well played by Hawkins and Norman.

 

Among his various duties, Toby has been placed in charge of the ship’s animal cargo (future meals for the crew, while at sea). The boy is assisted by Huckleberry, his faithful black Lab.

The Vault: Definitely worth opening

The Vault (2021) • View trailer

3.5 stars (out of five). Rated R, for profanity

Available via: Netflix

By Derrick Bang • Published in The Davis Enterprise, 8.13.21 

We must acknowledge that complex heist films are utterly preposterous, involving improbable insider knowledge, unlikely coincidence and impossible split-second timing.

 

That doesn’t make them any less fun.

 

Having already navigated an impressive series of obstacles, our heroes — from left,
Thom (Freddie Highmore), James (Sam Riley) and Lorraine (Àstrid Bergès-Frisbey) —
are stunned by what comes next.

Director Jaume Balagueró’s entry in this engaging genre is a multi-national production involving five writers and 10 production companies, half of which display their insufferably arty logos before the film begins. Normally, so many cooks would be a recipe for disaster, but Balagueró somehow keeps an iron grip on this menagerie.

The caper also involves a twist I’ve not previously encountered: an objective so mysterious — the eponymous vault — that our protagonists have no idea what they don’t know about it … and yet must crack it.

 

But that’s getting ahead of things.

 

The setting is roughly a decade ago. Professional marine salvage expert Walter Moreland (Liam Cunningham) and his longtime partner James (Sam Riley) have just concluded a decades-long hunt for the remains of a 17th century ship, half-buried on the ocean floor off the coast of Spain. Moreland knows that the booty includes a set of coins used by the ship’s captain, Sir Francis Drake, to reveal where he buried vast treasures that he plundered during his career as a privateer.

 

Treasures that the British government wishes to retrieve, since Drake had a tendency to cheat his Elizabethan sponsors (so this story would have us believe). Ergo, Moreland has been getting clandestine assistance from a shadowy MI6 operative (Famke Janssen).

 

Alas, before Moreland can search the many recovered chests for the coins, his operation is intercepted by the Spanish Coast Guard. Since he lacks a legal salvage claim, the Spanish government seizes everything and locks it in an impregnable vault, somewhere within Madrid’s historic Bank of Spain. The nature of this vault, reputed to be the world’s most secure, has remained a carefully guarded secret for 70 years.

 

Elsewhere, 22-year-old Cambridge University engineering student Thom (Freddie Highmore) has just become a media sensation, courted by all manner of tech corporations, thanks to the ingenious manner in which he averted what could have become a major environmental crisis. Thom is a think-outside-the-box improviser with little interest in corporate fealty; he’s more intrigued by solving “impossible tasks” for their own sake.

 

Which makes him ideal for Moreland’s purposes.