A scary thing happened on the way to the Movie Forums - Horrorcrammers

I can't remember how I felt about Hooper's version, or how faithful it is, but I know the original is one of the best of all those classic sci Fi movies.

I haven't seen all of the original Invaders From Mars but I enjoyed the remake.

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Can anybody post here? Or do I need to go through some type of hazing?

It's open to anybody, and by that, I mean...

The hazing ritual is having to put up with my vague, one sentence reactions to direct-to-streaming horror movies nobody’s ever heard of.

Just finished Enys Men and mulling it over.

Just started The Haunted Palace and it's very Corman.

The Last Voyage of the Demeter -

The trailer for this movie excited me because in the Dracula adaptations I've watched, only the before and after of the voyage is on screen. Also, Renfield notwithstanding, it was nice to see someone attempt something unique with this story for a change. While it didn't fulfill my expectations, I had a pretty good time with it. During the trip, which is the final one for Captain Eliot (Cunningham), the livestock die mysteriously, and later, so do some of the crew. A doctor seeking passage, Clemens (Hawkins), investigates, but he also has to contend with the crew's doubts and prejudices.

The movie ultimately does not do anything novel with its premise and is content to follow in the footsteps of other "monster in a confined space" movies like Alien. With that said, it does things worthy of praise, such as not showing the monster that often à la Jaws, and despite knowing the ending, it still surprised me in terms of who lives and who dies. Giving weight to the argument that the best acting occurs in confined spaces, the performances are all memorable. Cunningham's sentimental captain and Dastalmachian's doubtful would-be successor shine like they always do, but I was the most impressed with Hawkins. I like his supporting work in BlacKKKlansman and In the Heights and was satisfied to realize that he can nail a lead role as well. Composer Bear McCreary also once again proves he's one of the best in the business.

What makes this a pretty good movie instead of a great one is not its reliance on convention so much as its plot holes. For instance, after the crew learns one of a vampire's weaknesses, it's a bit implausible that they don't try hard enough to exploit it. Regardless, I had a good time, and it's worth checking out if, like me, you will watch or read nearly anything with vampires and/or that's set on a ship. Oh, and I may be proven wrong if it ends up being a hit, but it's nice to finally see something that's not yet another attempt to set up a franchise or a cinematic universe in this day and age.

Have you read Dracula?

The chapter set aboard the Demeter is pretty wonderful and bleak and disturbing.


Also, you all need to watch Nanny so we can discuss it.

Only seen adaptations, m'afraid. Good to know it is a chapter in the book. I assumed it was an original story since the ones I've seen don't show what happens on the boat.

Dracula is a quick and easy read and has some wonderfully disturbing moments in it. I think I read it casually in like a week or two. While the epistolary format at first feels like it might be cumbersome, it really isn't. The chapter about the events on the Demeter are taken from a journal from one of the crew that is discovered when the boat finally lands in England. It's like a stand-alone short horror story that pops up in the middle of the events of the novel.

Nosferatu (1922) has an incredible scene on the ship. Just an incredible horror film all-around.

Having read the book and seen a lot of the movies, Demeter is a fine addition to the "genre". With no cape-and-tux Lugosi but something closer to Stoker's loathsome shape shifter, I liked it. It's like a chapter inserted into the beginning of the book, the rest of the story being a post-log. It takes it's place on my vampire list along with Bram Stoker's Dracula (the movie of course).

Oh yeah...the old 1922 Nosferatu is just so darn weird and those silent movie conventions make it even more weird.

I’ve read Dracula a couple times now. It’s one of my favorite books. It’s got some fun horror camp to it that makes it so entertaining. No movie has done the book justice yet.

I feel like you do see an abbreviated version of the Demeter in some adaptations of Dracula*. I'm reading the book now, and have gotten through the Demeter chapter, and feel like I had seen it in some form in the movies at some point. It's just, usually compressed down to under 15 minutes (if that) in the films.
Like, I seem to recall in the Universal version, you do get Dracula picking people off on the boat(?). I think other versions abbreviate it (and I think this might have been one of the Nosferatu films), by getting a scene of the captain tying himself to the wheel, and getting a voiceover from the last day of his log summarizing the situation (how people started disappearing/etc, and now he's the last one left).


*: I think I saw four different versions last year, so they kind of blurred together in their similarities.

I been rewatching and reconsidering William Friedkin's movies, idk what happened in the 90's; after making back-to-back-to-back masterpieces he just fell off and made a string of completely forgettable movies. Sorcerer is brilliant? Why don't we talk about this more?


Still, I humbly suggest Friedkin's Bug (2006), a weird little claustrophobic thriller that takes its time but eventually goes completely off the rails. Fair warning, this gets intense and legitimately disturbing once it gets going.

Also, it's wild that in the book Dracula is defeated by a Texan with a Bowie knife. wat.

I haven't gotten to the end yet, but is it basically how it plays out in FCC's version?


I'm now trying to remember how all of the versions I watched last year, how they ended (Universal ones, ended with them staking him in the crypt, I think. I didn't rewatch either Nosferatus, but they end with him being too absorbed drinking from Lucy, to notice the sun rise. I'm blanking on the Jess Franco version and Guy Maddin's (I just remember more the metaphor for capitalism). I haven't watched the Jack Palance one nor... there's another one from the 70s, I think I own as well).

There was a British one from the ‘60s, Horror of Dracula maybe? Where the dude jumps off the table and pulls the curtains down to bake Dracula in the sun.

I just got a flash from the past. I think I did see that one at some point in my life (probably as a teenager on afternoon tv.)
I don't have enough recollection as to which version that was or who was in it.