THE LAST VOYAGE OF DEMETRA Almost in the foreground Van Helsing and a werewolf-like Dracula

Director André Øvredal’S Demeter’s last journey it was a hugely entertaining Hammer-style horror film. Unfortunately, it didn’t do very well at the box office. The story of the film focuses on one chapter of Bram Stokeris a classic horror novel, it is a unique story that follows the journey of Dracula as he terrorizes the high seas.

The film is “based on a single chapter, The Captain’s Log, from Bram Stoker’s classic 1897 novel.” Dracula. The chapter tells the story of the Russian schooner Demeter, chartered to carry private cargo – twenty-four unmarked wooden crates – from the Carpathians to London. The film will detail the strange events that befell the doomed crew as they attempt to survive the ocean voyage, haunted every night by a terrifying presence aboard the ship. When she finally arrived near Whitby Harbour, she was a wreck. No trace of the crew.”

Now we’re learning that the movie almost featured Van Helsing and a werewolf-like version of Dracula. Producer Brad Fisher shared the following information with Syfy Wire, saying that the werewolf version was changed after confusing audiences:

“People were very confused about this additional form that Dracula took. So we had to make the decision to listen to the audience and make sure that that confusion didn’t get the best of everyone.”

Makeup stylist Göran Lundström offered some insight into the appearance of this werewolf version of the character that was scrapped, saying:

“[Director] André [Øvredal] he didn’t want a hairy werewolf, he wanted a werewolf who lost his hair because he’s unwell. This would have been the second phase… [this] some kind of werewolf that looks really weak and gaunt, very asymmetrical and deformed.”

That would have been really interesting to see! In the film’s final scenes, audiences were given a tease of Dracula’s future, with Fischer noting that a version of a bar scene would include an appearance by Van Helsing. He said:

“We took a lot of different approaches to the story, but nothing that was very different from the movie we ended up with. We actually had an ending for quite a while. The scene in the tavern was Clemens’ [Corey Hawkins] he is approached by a strange and dark guy, who starts talking to him, seems to have some knowledge of the experiences he has lived and introduces himself as Van Helsing. Then we left it there.”

Although these fun little things were ultimately not used, The Voyage of Demeter it ended up being a great horror movie. If you haven’t watched it, you should!