"THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE DEMETER (2023), which should have been titled ""Dracula's Voyage"" or ""Dracula: Blood Tide"" (as BLOOD VESSEL was taken and is also a vampire boat movie) was directed by Andre Ovredal. It is a movie all about one of the creepiest parts of the Dracula story: the voyage from Transylvania to England. In the book, the captain’s log details the slow decline and disappearances of his crew as Dracula attacks and drains them by night. The film plays out the captain’s log in full, adapting it to, basically, ALIEN on a boat."

In it, Clemens (Corey Hawkins), a doctor, joins the Demeter on its voyage to London. On the way, he discovers Anna (Aisling Franciosi) trapped inside one of the 50 boxes of earth being shipped to England. Within those boxes lurks Dracula (Javier Botet), who attacks the crew at night.

The $45 million film is a good monster slasher the likes of which we don’t see anymore with a period, mostly-in-one-location setting; great practical creature effects; gnarly blood and gore; willingness to endanger children; and willingness to have an unhappy ending. It’s atmospheric, well-acted, with creepy monster design and effects, and is just about all you might want from a monster movie.



#068 Clemens
Team: No Affiliation
Range: 5
Points: 30
Keywords: Villager, Scientist

5 10 19 2

5 10 18 2

5 10 17 2

5 10 17 2

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

They Need a Blood Transfusion!: Opposing characters cannot use Steal Energy on friendly characters adjacent to Clemens.

I don’t love THE LAST VOYAGE OF DEMETER as much as I should.

Some of that is because of the script. In terms of theme, the film can’t decide what it’s about—life vs. death, the weak vs. the powerful, or embracing humanity against inevitable doom. It’s too many things for any of them to stick, and they’re all told; not shown.

There’s also a major world logic issue that jars me out of the film. Clemens & Anna open one of the boxes of earth midway through the film, and Anna says, “We have found where the devil sleeps.” They identify where Dracula sleeps, but they do nothing about it. It’s maddening. Utterly maddening. For me, it made it impossible to focus on the rest of the movie because why aren’t they doing anything?!

I also feel like for what little good it is to have a non-stereotypical Romani character in Anna, she’s played by a White actress, and every other Romani person is depicted stereotypically. In the early drafts, Anna was Clemens' partner, and just a stowaway aboard the vessel, and that played well in the context of that draft. Here, the Romani people deliberately stuffed her into Dracula's coffin as a snack for the trip across the Atlantic. Problematic.

While the scares and blood aren’t bad, there’s also a repetitive quality to them. Dracula is always going to suck blood through someone’s neck, and that’s every kill sorted. There might be a little more violence here and there leading up to it, but it always plays out that way. Any variety would’ve been appreciated.



#069 Anna
Team: No Affiliation
Range: 7
Points: 30
Keywords: Villager, Mystical

5 11 16 1

5 10 17 2

5 10 17 2

5 10 18 3

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

I can sense him, and he can sense me: Opposing characters in speed or range of Anna who can use Steal Energy MUST target Anna before attacking other characters on your force.

In an earlier draft of the script (it languished in pre-production for over a decade), Dracula was not ever seen in full until the latter pages, whereas the film shows him in full by the end of the first act. You can sort of understand why—they’d hired Javier Botet, a famous monster actor, for the role, and with his striking physique and physical performances, it makes sense to show him off… but the problem is it establishes a connection with the monster that is Dracula too early, depriving us of mystery.

Debatably, it’s that connection that weakens many of the film’s jump scares, despite them having decent timing otherwise.

As a Dracula fan, I’m also disappointed that Dracula is presented more like Count Orlok from NOSFERATU (1922). He looks and acts like a monster, and while that’s creepy, 1) NOSFERATU was a plagiarism over which the Stoker estate sued and 2) “looking and acting like a monster” isn’t a quality I associate with Dracula. I expect head games, manipulation, subtlety. In the book, when Dracula leaves his castle, he’s as powerful as Jonathan Harker has known him, but in this film, he’s first scene as weak and debilitated. The film never shows him as a sentient being, which prevents the third act from having a truly dynamic angle or one that would more snugly tie in with Universal monster lore.

…although there is one extremely obvious easter egg in the film. For whatever reason, Dracula travels with the Wolf Man’s silver cane.

I'm sure that's gonna pay off in the sequel that will undoubtedly be made.



#070 Dracula
Team: No Affiliation
Range: 0
Points: 150/100/50
Keywords: Vampire Brood, Monster, Mystical

9 13 19 5

9 12 19 5

8 12 18 4

8 11 18 4

| | | |

7 11 18 3

7 11 18 3

7 11 18 3

| | | |

6 11 18 3

5 10 18 3

5 10 17 3

5 10 17 2

KO KO KO KO

“He’s been rationing us…”: Stealth. // Steal Energy, and when Dracula uses it, he may heal above his starting line. If he KOs an opposing character, heal him 2 clicks instead.
”This is a doomed ship.” Hypersonic Speed & Giant Reach: 2.
“That thing has wings!”: , Blades/Claws/Fangs, and Flurry.
“I have no idea how to kill it.”: STOP. Regeneration.

Despite THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE DEMETER’s modest $41 million budget, it foundered at the box office and with critics. At the time of writing, it has only made $14.9 million, owing largely to its foreign distributor closing without warning. It is unlikely to ever be anything more than a cult favorite.

It will also be the second Universal Dracula movie to fail in 2023.

And that's all for now, folks!

Big thanks to everyone who hung out and chatted movies and clix!

ComicJunkie
No-Name
Superherojhn
Battletank
Slade Wilson
AdmiralB
squinch99
brennan4
TheQuestion
PsychoHippie
niceguyrob
toomanybatmans

And big thanks to everyone who took the occasional glance at all my mad ramblings. It is deeply appreciated.

We'll return to this thread with Robert Eggers' NOSFERATU and Derek Cianfrance's WOLFMAN... unless Universal gets cold feet about either of them.

See ya later!

This was a super fun thread to keep up with!

As always, the dials and commentaries were great, and there were a lot fun conversations to be had.

It was fun to revisit some old classics I hold a lot of love for and to get some new films recommended!

Looking forward to whatever you work on next!

Many thanks for all that, man! Haha I tried to send you rep, but it send early and probably looked like gibberish.

Glad this was a fun time talking Heroclix and movies! We're all super passionate about Universal monsters, so it was fantastic hashing it out with all of you.

We didn't talk much about it, but I SUPER recommend the ARE YOU AFRAID OF THE DARK UNIVERSE podcast series. Universal may have killed the Dark Universe with its first installment, but the podcast hosts have resurrected it into something truly special and gripping. Without exaggeration, a few of their pitches have been my favorite movies of the last couple years.

Surprise, we're getting another Universal Dracula movie this year!

(allegedly)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Untitl..._Monsters_film

I guess that could be interesting.

I kinda feel like it should be the Gill Man's time to shine. Or not shine, since he comes from The Black Lagoon and all. Has he ever gotten a remake/modern retelling?

Haha we now have a trailer. It looks like M3GAN 2.0.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PsP8MFH8p0

Have you seen THE SHAPE OF WATER? It was originally conceived as a reboot for Universal before they got cold feet. Del Toro filed off the serial number and released it as its own thing.

Universal is currently releasing comics through Robert Kirkman's company. They just wrapped a Dracula series and are on the verge of releasing one for the Creature.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/mo...ic-1235786821/

Beyond that, holy crap, do I ever recommend Are You Afraid of the Dark's reinvention of the Black Lagoon. One of the hosts basically turned it into PAN'S LABYRINTH in south Florida.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrpAq-jmChw&t=2s

Is ABIGAIL a “Universal Monster” movie? Well, up until 2-3 months from release, it was known as “Untitled Universal Monster Movie,” it was based on DRACULA’S DAUGHTER, and it contained… …so I’m counting it.

Is ABIGAIL a good Universal Monster movie? That depends on you.

Did you like READY OR NOT?, the directing duo Radio Silence’s previous movie? It’s got a similar tone, pace, and basic set-up to that film. So dramedy thriller with enough blood to drift into gore comedy. Seriously, vampires make a MESS when they die in this.

Do you like Dan Stevens? If not, a sincere wtf to you, good person. Dude's gonna go to prison for how often he steals entire damn movies. Do you like Kathryn Newton? If not, I get it. She’s a very CW kind of one-note and only seems to work in movies that play to her can’t-not-be-plucky and ever ecstatic look in her eye. Do you like Melissa Barrera? I think she’s great in this and in her Scream appearances, and it’s deeply racist of Hollywood to have blacklisted her for calling out the atrocities in Gaza.

Did I like it? Meh. If ABIGAIL was meant to be this year’s M3GAN -and it was- it had too slow a set-up, too little humor, and too meaningless of themes to be remembered. As a horror-thriller-comedy, it’s a fun, blameless way to pass the time and is at least more coherent than RENFIELD.

Did audiences like it? ABIGAIL scored well with critics and audiences, but bombed at the box office on a $25 million budget. I blame a script that doesn’t go for the throat and the production overspending on casting. That means Universal has turned out another failure of a vampire movie, and another false start in their DARK UNIVERSE (likely. Had ABIGAIL been successful, it conceivably would’ve been a retconned first). They’ve gotta be nervous about NOSFERATU’s (2024) chances!

Meanwhile, horror fans are wondering what’s going to happen with Leigh Whannell’s WOLFMAN (2025), his second Universal Monster film after 2020’s perfect INVISIBLE MAN. Will the two movies connect? Will Universal stop spending on horror misfires?

Guess we’ll find out.



#071 Abigail
Team: No Affiliation
Range: 0
Points: 50
Keywords: Vampire Brood, Kid, Monster, Mystical, Past, Teen

7 11 18 3

6 11 18 3

6 11 18 3

5 11 17 3

5 10 17 3

4 10 17 3

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

I Like to Play With My Food: Sidestep, Steal Energy, Super Senses. // When Abigail hits an opposing character, put a Puppet token on their card. Abigail may use Mind Control on characters with a Puppet token regardless of range and line of fire.

First, have to shout out the solid wordplay. Bet you were real proud of that one lol.

Second, I completely forgot about this movie releasing. I can't believe I'm saying this...but I think I'm just tired of vampire movies? We're long overdue for another solid non-vampire monster movie. Here's hoping I'm over that in time for Blade. Whenever that finally comes out.

I'll probably give this a watch at some point, but none of the trailers did anything to pull me in. Concept seemed a little fun, but it really just struck me as M3GAN with Vampires. And that one didn't do anything for me either.

That dial on the other hand, I love those puppet tokens! That's a really fun way to handle vampire-y mind control

Good stuff. Glad to see it still going.

haha many thanks for all of that, friend! Sometimes the words present themselves too easily to be ignored.

I don't blame you for the vampire ennui. Universal is certainly pushing them hard enough, and there's always a new one going into production somewhere. I'm pretty pumped for Ryan Coogler's vampire-hunting movie starring Michael B. Jordan, but that's mostly because of both men's extraordinarily high batting average.

I wish it was easier to recommend ABIGAIL. It doesn't have M3GAN's tight pacing or topical themes. When it starts going -midway through the film- it admittedly gets pretty fun... but if M3GAN wasn't your speed and you're getting bored of vampires, I just don't think this thing will satisfy you.
Many thanks, friend! It's been a fun ride keeping up with Universal's Monster movies, and we'll continue to do so with this year's NOSFERATU, next year's WOLFMAN, and whatever comes next!

So here's some fun news!

https://deadline.com/2024/08/james-w...ie-1236037274/

Remember that brief period where James Wan was in talks to direct a Trench movie for DC? If so, you've got a better memory than I do!

But hey, yeah, that almost happened! ...and I strongly suspect the script for The Trench is getting repurposed into the upcoming Creature From the Black Lagoon movie.

Wan and frequent collaborator Leigh Whannell are incredibly consistent filmmakers in terms of horror story formula. I suspect this movie will be about an upper middle-class family moving into casually the nicest house you've ever seen, only to be tormented by a monster that lives nearby.

Why do I also mention Whannell? Well, he's still directing the upcoming Wolfman movie, and judging by the pitiful Halloween Horror Nights promo poster, it looks indistinguishable from his other updates-on-haunted-house movies. https://x.com/insideuniversal/status...%7Ctwcon%5Es1_

Mostly-teasing cynicism aside, Wan & Whannell are good choices to helm Universal's flagging monster series, considering how successful their Conjuring and Insidious movies have been! They are the big names in low-budget, high-performing horror and that kind of formula is what Universal desperately needs right now for their Dark Universe monster movies.

And hey, Whannell's INVISIBLE MAN has been the best Universal Monster movie in over 20 years, so there are lots of reasons to be optimistic!

Thanks to Dracula’s design in THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE DEMETER and the upcoming NOSFERATU remake by Robert Eggers, the milestone silent film, NOSFERATU: A SYMPHONY OF HORROR (1922) has been grandfathered in as a Universal monster title.

An infamous rip-off of Dracula when the German production company couldn’t get the rights to the novel, F.W. Murnau’s NOSFERATU tells a fairly similar tale to Dracula— one that plays as fast and loose with the novel as much as most of the other films do. In it, Thomas Hutter (the film’s Jonathan Harker), a German real estate agent, goes to Transylvania on the behalf of Herr Knock (Renfield), where he meets Count Orlok (Dracula), who becomes attracted to a picture of Ellen (Mina Harker). Thomas barely escapes Orlok’s castle and returns home. Meanwhile, Orlok comes to Germany on a plague-ridden ship, and upon arriving, spreads the plague in the form of rats. Ellen, studying a book of the occult Thomas found, tricks Orlok into sucking her blood long enough for him to forget the dawn and to burn to death.

The film is a deeply impressive work of cinematic storytelling even today, with its clear choreography; excellent makeup & performances, especially by Max Schreck as Orlok; and its experimental editing. Its biggest deviation from Dracula is in its fixation with Orlok as a plague and how German society crumbles under the effects of a deadly epidemic— a narrative decision attributed to the Spanish Flu pandemic that spanned from 1918-1920.

NOSTERATU 1922 has enjoyed the same kind of cultural cache as Dracula, continually referenced in pop culture (including in Horrorclix and Heroclix's Undead set) and spawning a few remakes and related films, two of which are most noteworthy.

Werner Herzog’s NOSFERATU THE VAMPYRE (1979) continued his tumultuous collaboration with actor Klaus Kinsky, who played the role of Orlok. Herzog’s film follows the events of the 1922 film closely until Orlok’s arrival in Germany. There, the vampire’s plague takes the form of a lurid bacchanal recalling the mania and delirium of a Jodorosky film like EL TOPO or HOLY MOUNTAIN, replete with more live animals than the original film.

In 2000, E. Elias Merhige directed THE SHADOW OF THE VAMPIRE, a fictionalized telling of NOSFERATU 1922’s production, the twist being that Murnau (John Malkovich) made a deal with Orlok (Willem DaFoe), a real vampire, to star in his film —a deal that’s seeing members of the cast and crew bled dry nightly. Vaguely bloodier than its 1979 predecessor but more obviously sexual, it’s… fine— more intriguing for its premise than for any theme or idea contained therein. Malkovich is good in it, and I don’t usually enjoy his performances.

(Fun fact: at least two of those are free on YouTube if you want to check them out for yourself!)

Critically, the ending of all major adaptations of NOSFERATU— in which a young woman’s bloodletting tricks the vampire into dying (scenes that are progressively more sexualized with each adaptation) feel disconnected from each film’s larger thematic goals and explorations of the plague (1922) and madness & revelry (1979). It fits a little more with SHADOW OF THE VAMPIRE’s Faustian bargain, but even though Orlok desires Ellen, it all feels somewhat thin.

My hope is that Eggers’ NOSFERATU (2024) takes as many liberties as Del Toro’s PINOCCHIO (2022) did, and uses loose narrative framework of the original film to find a more bitter and damning ending, one that’s more cohesive with the story’s thematic goals— even if the ending winds up being the same as past films. Considering Eggers’ previous thematic masterworks like THE WITCH (2015) and THE LIGHTHOUSE (2019), I think there’s lots of reason to be optimistic.



#-001 Count Orlok
Team: No Affiliation
Range: 0
Points: 40
Keywords: Vampire Brood, Animal, Monster, Mystical, Past

7 11 19 2

7 11 18 2

6 11 18 2

6 11 18 2

6 11 18 3

5 11 17 3

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

Plague of Rats: Sidestep. // Willpower, and when Count Orlok fails with it, generate 1 Rat Swarm bystander.

#-001b Rat Swarm
Team: No Affiliation
Range: 0

5 10 16 1

Infesting Germany: Poison.