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Note: The following interview was conducted before the SAG-AFTRA strike began on July 14, 2023.
Universal’s The Last Voyage of the Demeter sets sail for theatrical release this Friday, August 11, 2023, bringing to life “The Captain’s Log” from Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
André Øvredal (The Autopsy of Jane Doe, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark) helms the adaptation, which stars Corey Hawkins (Kong: Skull Island, “The Walking Dead”) as Clemens, a doctor who joins Demeter’s crew.
The cast includes Aisling Franciosi, Liam Cunningham, David Dastmalchian, Jon Jon Briones, Stefan Kapicic, and Nikolai Nikolaeff, with Javier Botet as Dracula.
Ahead of the film’s release, Bloody Disgusting spoke with Hawkins about his character and the intense challenges of filming a practical effects-driven horror movie on the high seas.
It wasn’t just his character that appealed to Hawkins when coming aboard this production but the unique approach to Dracula as well. The actor explains, “I tend to go and do bold things; that’s the intent. When I think about what I’m stepping into, I don’t walk into projects blindly. So, I knew the responsibility, but part of that is also the allure to me is that it is intimidating. Let me see what I can do with this. Let me see how this would look in my hands. And the challenge of being able to take on Dracula.”
Hawkins continues, “I’ve gotten to take on some pretty cool monsters in other films and stuff like that but in a leading capacity to step into this. It just was a cool opportunity that I saw. But also, this chapter of Dracula just lends itself to that. This is what you want to see on the screen. It’s like we all know the story before he gets to London and after he gets to London, but what the hell is up with this ship? Everyone’s like, what is going on? He didn’t just pop up there and fly there. He couldn’t. There’s lore and myth to all of that, and we touch on a few of those things in the film, and it was just a really cool opportunity to jump back into that and bring Dracula back in a way that’s surprising.
“It’s new; it’s different. It’s unnerving. It’s not what everyone’s used to with Dracula, and I think that’s why people have been leaning in.“
(from left) Clemens (Corey Hawkins) and Anna (Aisling Franciosi) in The Last Voyage of the Demeter, directed by André Øvredal.
Clemens’ profession becomes invaluable in The Last Voyage of the Demeter, but how he ends up on the ship causes friction between the characters. That he’s viewed by many as an outsider makes him well-suited to take on Dracula in many ways. That was at the forefront of the actor’s mind when approaching the horror of it all.
Hawkins explains, “That was a big thing in conversations with me and Andre. I kept harping on the fact that I think that Dracula and Clemens, they’re not cut from the same cloth, I’ll tell you that much, but they are both outsiders in this world, and Anna [played by Aisling Franciosi] is an outsider as well. Of course, she’s the one who has the most forethought, reminding everybody what is actually the evil that’s there. But no, of course, no one listens to her. But I think Clemens and Dracula see something in each other, or they get to a point where they recognize the other in each other. That’s the thing that we love about horror, right, is that it’s something outside of ourselves that we don’t quite understand and we probably never will. It’s unattainable. And so we go and beat ourselves up and watch these films because we love that. We lean into that as this is human nature. I think it’s just done really well. And that’s credit to Andre, the producers, and this incredible crew and cast.”
Much of The Last Voyage of the Demeter was filmed as practically as possible. This means that the actors constantly got drenched as they filmed on sets. To clarify further, production notes explain, “For the exterior of the ship, including the entire deck, a full-length version, complete from stem to stern with massive working sails, was constructed on site at the Malta Film Studios. At 214 feet long and 38 feet wide (65.27m x 11.5m), the Demeter was the largest ship ever constructed in that studio’s famous horizon tank, which faces out onto the Mediterranean.”
(from left) Corey Hawkins and director André Øvredal on the set of The Last Voyage of the Demeter.
In other words, for many of the intense action-horror sequences that take place on deck, the cast and crew are actually getting pummeled with water.
Hawkins breaks down what filming on the Demeter set was like: “Ask anybody who had to stand on that boat and run around and act during that time. I mean, it was just during that sequence it was challenging. I say all this, but it was great. It is a privilege to be able to do that. That’s why you sign up to do a film like this. But those sequences were intense. I’m talking late, late hours. Also, in Malta at the time, they do these fireworks. It was literally those two weeks. Different parts, or towns, of Malta challenge each other to firework duels, and it goes back centuries. It was just this beautiful show of culture. But we were also trying to film this movie, and we’re doing these sequences, and next thing, it’s like fireworks in the background, and we’re like, okay, got to start over. Long takes in the freezing cold, and the water cannons literally will blow you off your feet and over the boat if you’re not careful. But we had a great crew and great people down there just waiting for me to fall in the water. It was fun.”
Hawkins comes to The Last Voyage of the Demeter as a huge horror fan, and he promises that the film delivers on the terror.
“I’ve always been a horror nerd, but it goes back to my previous obsession with ‘Walking Dead.’ So, being able to be a part of that and then now this film landscape is really cool with such iconic IP, and yeah, it’s a scary movie. It’s a scary movie,” Hawkins teases.
He elaborates, “Here’s the thing… when we’re shooting it, everything is so practical. Because the sets are built to perfection and accurately, the heights and the historical parts of these boats, we built them to scale and the lighting; we would walk on set, and you literally don’t know what’s around the corner. It’s spooky. It’s a ship. The creaking, all of the noises, and our boat creaked and everything just like it. It’s unnerving. It really is. It was great to have the opportunity to jump into that. And it freaks you out a little bit when you sit with these characters on this boat.
“You don’t know what’s over your shoulder when watching it.”
