"The Last Voyage of the Demeter" and "The Boogeyman"

Let's look at two summer horror movies that happen to both feature David Dastmalchian in a supporting role today.

"The Last Voyage of the Demeter" has a promising premise - it's based on the section of Bram Stoker's "Dracula" describing the vampire's sea voyage to London on a ship called the Demeter.  I wonder why no one has tried to make this film before - a ship is a great setting for a classic haunted house or monster scenario, because the characters are all trapped there with nowhere to go.  However, the long period this film spent in development hell points to a lot of complications behind the scenes.   

André Øvredal, best known for "Trollhunters" and "The Autopsy of Jane Doe" takes up the challenge with a mostly Scandinavian creative team and a very diverse cast.  The crew of the Demeter includes Captain Elliot (Liam Cunningham), his young grandson Toby (Woody Norman) as cabin boy, first mate Wojcheck (David Dastmalchian), and Joseph (Jon Jon Biones) the cook.  Our main protagonists are Clemens (Corey Hawkins), a black doctor who has signed on as a sailor, and Anna (Aisling Franciosi), a stowaway discovered a few days into the voyage.  The film's version of Dracula (Javier Botet) is barely humanoid, and very much in monster mode.

The result is a very predictable, but very watchable period monster movie.  The premise is played straight, to the point where the first act could have come from a completely non-supernatural maritime adventure movie.  I appreciate that the film lets the crew be memorable personalities, even if we don't have the time to get to know them all, upping the stakes and the tragedy of the situation.  The horror is also genuinely horrific, with scenes of immolation and gruesome kills that may be upsetting for sensitive viewers.  All the creature work with Botet as Dracula is a treat, and the atmosphere of dread is excellent.

Clemons as a POV character, unfortunately, is a major problem.  I think the character as written is pretty decent, but something about Corey Hawkins' performance kept taking me out of the movie.  I didn't believe for a second that he was in any danger, despite the movie repeatedly proving that no one was safe from Dracula, and his final confrontation with the fiend is positively dire.  He shouts that he's not afraid of Dracula, but displayed no sign of being afraid of Dracula at any previous point in the movie.  And it's a shame, because we get some strong performances from the rest of the cast, especially Cunningham, Franciosi, Dastmalchian, and Norman.  I think the film is still worth the watch, but this could have been significantly better.

I probably would have skipped "The Boogeyman," except it's based on a Stephen King short story that I read many years ago and have not been able to forget.   It was about a man named Lester Billings whose three children are systematically targeted and killed by a classic bedroom closet monster.  I thought it worked as a great allegory for child abuse and trauma, as Lester grappled with his guilt and cowardice with the help of a therapist.  It also worked great as just pulpy entertainment, with a nasty twist ending. 

So I'm sad to relay that the film version of "The Boogeyman" has the dullest possible take on this story.  The focus is not on Lester Billings (David Dastmalchian), but his therapist Will Harper (Chris Messina), who is struggling with the recent loss of his wife.  Harper's teen daughter Sadie (Sophie Thatcher) and younger daughter Sawyer (Vivien Lyra Blair) are both grieving and vulnerable, which draws the attention of the supernatural boogeyman.  The film plays out like a standard monster movie, with the girls having various nocturnal encounters with a creature they keep glimpsing in the shadows.  Will Harper is very much a secondary character, and Lester is really only there for some exposition.  None of the thornier themes about parenthood and abuse are present at all.  Instead, it's just your average, basic monster schlock with jump scares and fake outs you'll see coming from a mile away.

This is a shame because the caliber of the cast is pretty good, the monster doesn't look too shabby, and the source material has a lot going for it.  Sophie Thatcher does a fine job of carrying the film, while Messina is stuck with the blandest role I've seen him in all year.  There's just nothing interesting here after the opening scene, where we watch the Boogeyman sneak up on a baby while using a deceptive human voice to distract it.  Does this unnerving ability come into play at all in the rest of the film?  It does not.  Would anyone have noticed if they replaced the boogeyman with a large dog in the last act of the film?  Yes, but only because it probably would have been scarier. 

 

---