I think more people should take a small section out of other novels and adapt them into their own movies. It is a banner idea. It could mean that all the deleted Quidditch stuff in Goblet Of Fire could make for its own film. Yeah, I said it. But, in the meantime, let’s talk about that one time Dracula was on a boat, and it’s not a cool Saturday Night Live song either.
This was surprisingly good, despite the premise. from the very beginning, we see the titular ship floating to land, and someone goes to inspect and finds everyone is dead on board. So, we know up front, all those people we meet on the film, either they jump in the water, take a lifeboat, or die, because we’ve been give the end at the beginning. This poor ship, which features mostly a cast of unknowns, save actors like Woody norman, who are cannon fodder for the most legendary vampire of all time. You do forget that their efforts to stay alive is quite hopeless, because their acting is solid, and this direction is surprisingly much better than I expected.
The sense of dread over this film never leaves, since you are told at the beginning there are no survivors, and you see things on board like a young boy (Norman), and a dog. Listen, it’s not just a dog. I’m a fan of Woody Norman, since his breakthrough in C’mon C’mon and he’s predictably a scene stealer here as well. The other scene stealer, at least for me as a blind film critic, is the audio description, which did a really exceptional job describing not just Dracula, but the gory details. This is more thematically scary, though there are jump scares, and gore is present. So, the audio description had work to do, and it certainly rose to the task.
I did catch this on Paramount Plus with Showtime, where it had audio description. I know this seems belated, and I don’t know why it took so long for an underperforming vampire film from last summer to hit Paramount Plus, but that’s just the streaming world we live in.
Final Grade: B
