The Last Voyage Of The Demeter's Dracula Was Inspired By Nosferatu's Silent Character

"The Last Voyage of the Demeter" takes a deep dive into the fateful events of "The Captain's Log" chapter in Stoker's novel and the carnage the crew of the Demeter schooner suffers while transporting a crate containing Count Dracula (Javier Botet) from Carpathia to London. Liam Cunningham stars as Captain Eliot, while David Dastmalchian plays his first mate, Wojchek. The film also stars Corey Hawkins as the ship's doctor, Clemens, and Aisling Franciosi plays Anna, a mysterious stowaway whom Dracula has nefarious plans for.

Opting for makeup effects rather than CGI to create Dracula, André Øvredal called upon Javier Botet, whom the director cast as the Big Toe Corpse in his 2019 horror thriller "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark." Since Øvredal's "Scary Stories" collaborator Guillermo del Toro also cast Botet in "Crimson Peak" — and the actor has also worked for James Wan — the director had complete confidence in bringing him aboard the Demeter to play Dracula.

"He is the character. I had to lean a lot on him because it's such a specialized thing to be able to portray characteristics and humanity and monstrosity at the same time through sometimes sheer body language, through a minimal mimicking of facial expressions that is also hidden by latex and whatever," Øvredal explained. "It's a grueling experience for him on set to do all this in the middle of rain scenes, with the boat rocking and all nine yards. He's a trooper, both as an actor and as a team player, working through these endless nights of filming physically hard scenes for him to do."