Cinema Swapshop: Halloween II - Vampires

Jonathan Victoria • 29 Oct 2025 Features

Spooky season calls for spooky films…

Welcome to Cinema Swapshop, where our esteemed writers assign each other a movie to watch - preferably something they haven’t seen before - then regroup to share their thoughts.

No prizes for guessing that we’re celebrating Halloween, with this latest edition focusing on vampires - Ash’s favourite!

Ash: The Last Voyage of the Demeter (2023)

Credit: The Last Voyage of the Demeter | Official Trailer (Universal Pictures, YouTube)

It’s rare that I come across a vampire film that I haven’t seen, but this one somehow passed me by on initial release - as I think it did for a lot of people.

But it’s based on (a section of) Dracula, the O.G. vampire classic, it’s directed by the guy who did Troll Hunter and it has a cool-looking monster. What’s not to love?

Expectations

A schlocky monster b-movie, dressed up as a literary adaptation. Probably with a nicely claustrophobic atmosphere and a dash of paranoia thrown in for good measure.

Plot

The crew of the Demeter take on some mysterious cargo in Eastern Europe, bound for Carfax Abbey in London. They should have checked the manifest, though, because one of those big crates harbours a slumbering vampiric count…

Thoughts

I think I had some unfairly low expectations going into this movie. It seems like we’ve been getting a new Dracula adaptation every month for the past 60 years, and I was sure Demeter wouldn’t bring anything new to the table.

And while it’s not mind-blowingly original - it’s basically Alien on a Victorian cargo ship - it definitely does enough to differentiate itself from countless other versions. That’s mainly down to a fairly novel take on the big bad - Count Dracula himself.

Dracula here isn’t some debonair aristocrat. He’s not charming or seductive. He’s a pale, skinny creature that skulks around like a stray dog, jonesing for blood like an addict and picking off our crew of likeably salty sailors one by one.

The cast is good, too - a who’s who of character actors and horror regulars, like Liam Cunningham (Game of Thrones) and David Dastmalchian (The Suicide Squad). Corey Hawkins (Straight Outta Compton), as down-on-his-luck doctor Clemens, makes a dependably solid leading man, and Aisling Franciosi (Speak No Evil) is also there, although she doesn’t have much to do aside from vague warnings about the vampiric evil that plagued her village.

All in all it’s a decent monster movie! And it kinda makes me want to see a sequel that tackles the last half of Stoker’s novel, with this beastly Dracula marauding around London, Doctor Clemens hot on his heels.

Best Bit

When a grief-stricken Captain Eliot (Liam Cunningham) gives his dead grandson one last hug before sending his body overboard, only for the little nipper to wake up, teeth gnashing, and spontaneously combust in the sunlight, setting the poor captain alight. Gnarly.

Worst Bit

When our plucky heroes finally discover where Dracula has been hiding this whole time and then… do nothing about it. This could have been a much shorter movie if they’d just gone belowdecks during the day with a few wooden stakes.

Favourite Line

Joseph: A boat without rats - such a thing is against nature.

Fun Fact

Dracula’s unusual, much more monstrous look in this film was heavily inspired by the design of Count Orlok in Nosferatu (1922), itself an unofficial adaptation of Bram Stoker’s novel.

That original design also inspired the look of boss vampire Kurt Barlow in Salem’s Lot (1979). Hey, if it ain’t broke…

Verdict

This was a bit of a pleasant surprise! A solid monster movie take on a very old story, that manages to breathe some fresh life into a long-in-the-tooth character.

Johnnie: Sinners (2025)

Credit: Sinners | Official Trailer (Warner Bros., YouTube)

I was really excited to watch this one. I wanted to go earlier in the year when it was in cinemas but I had no-one to go with and this was pre-solo cinema-going Johnnie.

I love me some Michael B. Jordan and Ryan Coogler, especially together (which is almost every time Coogler makes a film), so I reckon I will enjoy it, even with it being classified a horror, my least favourite genre.

Expectations

Some great swing tunes, a bunch of good looking vampires and a stupendous Michael B. Jordan performance - although that is a given.

Plot

Twin brothers Smoke and Stack Moore return to their home in the Mississippi Delta from Chicago flushed with cash and decide to invest in a juke joint. While their opening night festivities go on, some uninvited guests are honing in on a target…

Thoughts

I'd heard a lot about how this film had a good first half then just an average second but I was hooked for the whole two hours.

I loved the music throughout and I think the casting was brilliant because the chemistry between everyone worked so well.

But most of all, I really liked the story it was telling of Robert Johnson, the master of blues whose largely unknown life spawned many legends, including that he sold his soul to the devil at a crossroads in return for musical success.

It’s not trying to create a new legend by introducing vampires to the devil imagery, but instead uses them and everything else as powerful allegory (of which I will refrain from going so heavily into).

As I previously stated and will always state, I’m not a fan of horrors. But this I enjoyed greatly. I felt like Coogler perfectly weighted the supernatural side with the rich story, making it a film I didn’t want to take my eyes off of, even during the scary monster parts.

Sidenote - Josh Allen really is a better man than us all, but just you wait until he's retired and not a reigning NFL MVP. Let's see how his resilience holds up in retirement when his wife is doing all kinds of nasty stuff to the Michael B Jordan’s of the acting world.

Best Bit

When Sammie is first introduced to the crowd and begins singing his tale. The vision of different cultures joining in to symbolise his unique talent that reaches deeper than surface playing, each culture representing a step that was taken to produce the soulful blues music that he plays, and the further steps in music and black culture that will be taken thanks to blues artists such as himself.

Worst Bit

Honestly, the credits - not because the movie was over but because Coogler made, in my opinion, the odd decision to have multiple mid credit scenes and the one last one at the end, all of which I think could’ve just been done at the end before the credits role - and probably could’ve done without the last scene.

Favourite Line

Delta Slim to Sammie: Blues wasn't forced on us like that religion. Nah, son, we brought that with us from home. It's magic what we do. It's sacred... and big.

Fun Fact

Director Ryan Coogler enlisted real-life twin brothers, filmmakers Logan and Noah Miller, to help guide Michael B. Jordan to an authentic performance while playing the Smokestack Twins.

Verdict

I really liked this film. All the imagery, the music, the story, it had me hooked. I’m not a horror fan at all but I could get behind more that are as compelling as this one.