“Demeter” Almost Had Van Helsing, Werewolf

After many years stuck in development, the Andre Øvredal directed horror film “The Last Voyage of the Demeter” finally made it into cinemas in 2023. The film was a spin on Bram Stoker’s “Dracula,” turning the chapter about the transportation of crates (and Dracula’s body) from Transylvania to London into an “Alien” style onboard slasher monster movie.

Whilst the production design and style of the period horror were commended, overall reviews were negative towards the film – calling it bland, not scary and boring. Recently spoke to producer Bradley J. Fischer about the film, looking back on how it went. He revealed the film originally had a cameo fans of the story will recognise: “We went through a lot of different approaches to the story, but nothing that was wildly different than the movie that we ended up with.

We actually had one ending for quite a while. The scene in the tavern was Clemens [Corey Hawkins] being approached by a strange, shadowy dude, who starts talking to him, seems to have some knowledge of the experiences that he went through, and introduces himself as Van Helsing. Then we kind of left it there.” Fischer and makeup artist Göran Lundström also said Dracula transformations included a werewolf one, but test audiences were left confused by that change so they cut it: Lundström: “[Director] Andre [Øvredal] didn’t want a hairy werewolf; he wanted a werewolf who’s lost his hair because he’s not well.

This would’ve been the second stage … [this] really weak looking, gaunt kind of werewolf thing and very asymmetrical and deformed.” Fischer: “People were very confused about that as an additional form that Dracula took. So we had to make a decision to listen to the audience and make sure that that confusion didn’t get the better of everyone.” Corey Hawkins, Liam Cunningham and David Dastmalchian co starred in the film which ended up grossing just $21.8 million from a $45 million budget..