Dagon - DVD

*** Major Spoiler Alert *** Stuart Gordon's Dagon is an intense and unique film based mostly on H.P. Lovecraft's The Shadow Over Innsmouth and his much shorter work entitled Dagon. This is really epic material in a strangely soaked Spanish environment. A Lovecraftian cult worshiping the underwater deity Dagon have taken over a small town on the Atlantic coast of Spain. A sailboat on pleasure cruise ends wrecked there. They will not be leaving anytime soon. Now situationally this is a fairly obvious menu. Gordon does, at one point, dive off the gory edge, but this is a Stuart Gordon film after all. Meanwhile the chase through dripping dampness of the town is really a pulse quickener. What makes this work is the danker than dank waterlogged environment and the extraordinarily emotional relationship of Dagon's daughter played in a one of a kind performance by Spanish actress Macarena Gomez to our trapped nerd, played by Ezra Godden. Macarena plays the part of tentacled siren princess with real fish-eyed believability. She was given instructions by Gordon (whose previous Lovecraft works include From Beyond and Re-Animator) to keep her eyes from blinking. When in the end Uxía (Gomez) craves Paul (Godden), whom she calls Pablo, she calls out to him with such an urgent imploring sad doomed yet loving tone in her voice she becomes perhaps the ultimate mermaid nightmare: Her eyes filled with wells of tearful salt water, her robes of gilded Symbolist splendor. She reveals the dark secrets of the unholy sect. Uxía: Pablo, it is your destiny... We had different mothers, but the same father... We are children of Dagon. Your dreams. Remember your dreams, Pablo. They brought you here. Paul: No. They were nightmares. They weren't real. Uxía: Every dream is a wish. Paul: Somebody help me! What's happening to me? Uxía: You are my brother. You will be my lover - forever. The tone Macarena hits here is the crescendo of the entire film, that sense of hopeless beauty and tragic certainty. I don't agree philosophically with the fatalism of that black romance, but who hasn't felt that temptation to give into it. And as Paul sets himself on fire and plunges into the sea Uxía follows. And together they descend into the depths of the tentacled God Dagon's realm. One feels the drowning, yet liberation. Yet we know to follow is to be annihilated. I can't think of another film to present the darker aesthetics aspects of the antique Symbolist dream so vividly. For those with strong stomachs yet sensitive hearts I strongly recommend Dagon.

I caught this on the SciFi channel and have yet to see the DVD. Judging from what I saw, however, I have to say that this is definitely a must for true HP Lovecraft lovers. I coerced my wife and youngest daughter into watching it and judging from their reactions, the movie was fairly spooky. I can't say I was spooked because I know the plot line only too well. What surprises and pleases me the most about this movie is how well, how *faithful* the flick was to the original story--which is 90% "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" and maybe 5% of "Dagon", a minor work of HPL that I've read but can't recall all that well. There's a bonus to the movie that is also surprising--the updated parts (modern technology such as cell phones, etc.) are blended seamlessly into the movie and augment the atmosphere. As the other reviewers note, this is a Grade B movie, however. The special effects aren't state of the art by any means and if that's all you care about, you might as well find a different flick. It's the little things that matter, in this film. The fact that the hero, Paul, is classic Lovecraft in manner and appearance. He even wears a Miskatonic University sweatshirt! HPL's horror of foreigners and foreign languages, of the ocean, of anything slimy, of mold, of damn near anything a respectable but decaying Rhodey aristocrat would find yucky, is perfectly obvious in the movie. The plot, though updated to take place in Spain, rather than in New England, is remarkably faithful even to the long narration by the one townsman that remains fully human. As in the original, Paul has narrow escape after narrow escape--indeed, quite a bit of the movie is Paul getting chased by limping, shambling, crawling monstrosities in the dark. Even the ending is faithful, which is a must for the plot line to make the slightest sense whatsoever. In point of fact, the movie has more tension in it than the story, simply because the artificial frame of the narration, so often employed by HPL, is done away with, thus establishing a sense of immediacy that Lovecraft never really achieves. Purists of Lovecraft generally rate "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" up in the top five of the best of Lovecraft, along with *At the Mountains of Madness*, "The Color Out of Space", and "The Dunwich Horror", and it should be. And this is probably the best movie ever done from Lovecraft's work. Browning>>>

Making a good film adaptation of an H.P. Lovecraft movie is hard. This movie tries but doesn’t quite succeed. It’s not bad, it’s very watchable, but not great as either a horror movie or a Lovecraft adaptation, in my opinion just missing the mark. I give it a lot of credit for effort though. The film is loosely based on Lovecraft’s story “The Shadow Over Innsmouth,” though instead of being set in the creepy coastal New England down of Innsmouth it is set in the creepy coastal Spanish town of Imboca (and is not a period piece story, as this film came out in 2001 and seems to be set at that time). The film centers on the character Paul Marsh (played by Ezra Godden), who starts out the film dreaming of a beautiful mermaid (played by Macarena Gomez) near some mysterious underwater ruins. He wakes up, finding he is back on a sail boat with his girlfriend Barbara (played by Raquel Merono) and their older friends Vicki and Howard. A sudden storm blows up, the ship wrecks against some rocks, and Vicki is injured. With Howard staying with Vicki, Paul and Barbara go to the seaside village they can easily see from the sail boat by an inflatable boat they have on board. The town appears to be deserted, has a big-time creepy vibe, it is driving rain, but look, in the abandoned church with Strange Symbols, they meet a very helpful priest with webbed hands (!) who offers to stay with Barbara while Paul accompanies some local fishermen in their boat to try and retrieve Vicki and Howard. At that point the four people are in the clutches of the creepy townsfolk, and isn’t long before they are all either on the run or captured (or on the run and captured) in a Lovecraftian town of Deformed Mutant Villagers, a Dark Past, and Demonic Rituals to Summon Otherworldly Monsters. It isn’t a bad film and it definitely tries. The positives include Ezra Godden’s performance as Paul Marsh, very relatable, believable as an everyman doing his best in strange situation, sometimes scared, often brave, showing real ingenuity, and with plenty of Come On! type moments. There seems to be a real reverence for the Lovecraftian source material (not the racist bits, but the cool monster, creepy town, and dark ritual bits). We see the mermaid again, the actress playing her very beautiful and the role not particularly Lovecraftian but one I rather liked and was much more interesting than I thought it would be. There is a lot of exposition in one scene but I appreciated how it was done in a flashback, so points for that. The creepy, rainy, scary town was well done, perfect for the film. There is some CGI at the end and while it isn’t great it isn’t horrible and we don’t see it long. Some of the make up at times was kind of eh but sometimes it could be quite good. There is a costume in the third act that had strong Big Trouble in Little China vibes and I liked that. A few of the mermaid scenes were actually quite beautiful. The bad, the movie meanders a lot as Paul gets in and out of trouble in the village in the middle act. Some of the other reviews note bad acting. Some I chalk up to language issues (the actress who played Barbara, Raquel Merono, did not appear to be a native English speaker and I thought did fine but the language issue was there) but the acting I had the most trouble with were the creepy townsfolk, who looked at times like costumed random extras from a suburban residential area press ganged into a movie; they did their best but it wasn’t always great. There were scenes in Spanish and I couldn’t always get an English translation of what was being said, though I don’t recall this ever being enough to make it impossible to follow the overall plot. One character’s accent was extremely thick and I had to turn on subtitles to understand his English at times, though overall I liked the character and the actor. Though overall I liked the Paul Marsh character, the movie seemed to shy away from making him quite as humorous as he could be, almost as if the actor was game and could handle it, but the writer, director pulled back. I don’t think a lot of tweaking would have been needed to make it a more humorous (but not campy) film. At times the movie could be pretty gory. Also there is a fair amount of female nudity too (rear and topless shots) thought they didn’t seem gratuitous (one in a ritual scene and also some mermaid related toplessness). Not a bad film. If you are a Lovecraft fan you know it is slim pickings as far as movie adaptations go so I would say check it out. It is also the last film role of Francisco Rabal, an actor who appeared in a number of films including Sorcerer.

I originally saw this movie back in 2001 as an 8 year old. My older teenaged brother had gotten home from work late at night and he rented the movie. He had no TV in his room and went into me and my other brothers room to watch it with us. It ended up being one of the scariest movies I ever saw. But at that time I didn't know the title because he never showed us the VHS and I didn't catch the title screen at that time. The film stuck with me for years until finally as a teen myself I discovered HP Lovecraft and researched movies based on his work. I came across "Dagon" and put two and two together and after all those years finally found out the title of the film that scared me the most as a child in a good way. But I have to admit I didn't watch the film again even after that UNTIL NOW as a adult during these tough times. I was reading again at age 26 about HP Lovecraft movies after the amazing 2020 adaptation of 'Colour Out Of Space" starring Nicolas Cage and again rediscovered "Dagon" and ended up ordering the collectors series Blu Ray during the lockdown. I wanted to watch it with my Horror fan parents who I am staying with at these difficult times. But they wanted to watch it days later. So I waited. Finally came Tuesday Night and we watched the remastered movie. They liked it, I LOVED it even more as an adult after all these years. It is the second best HP Lovecraft adaptation in my opinion after the recent "Color Out of Space". I love Re-animator but I hold this movie above that classic Stuart Gordon film honestly. Even the dated CGI effects that were used minimally in "Dagon" didn't get to me. In fact the appearance of Dagon near the end with CGI actually looked scary even to this day. The film is still as creepy and terrifying as I remembered as a child. Obviously I appreciate and understand it more now. Yes I know this is a adaptation of "Shadow Over Innsmouth" but titling it "Dagon" makes sense since Dagon plays a big part in the story. The humanoid fish people AKA "Deep Ones" are so creepy and so Lovecraftian its insane. The way they walk and the sounds they make still chill me to the core. The lead actor does a great job in a "Ash" from Evil Dead type way. The female leads are also likeable even the gorgeous villainess. The side character Ezequiel is also a standout as he puts everything into perspective for the audience as to what is going on in the scary village. Once the film gets going when they arrive at the village the Lovecraftian elements are relentless. So creepy its unbelievable. Though the Blu Ray remaster looks and sounds great its best to watch this with the subtitles on. I love it and am glad I spent the 30 bucks on it. One of the scariest creepfest movies ever. Yes the day after I watched it again as an adult the director Stuart Gordon passed away. It was such a shock. But if you're new to the late director and are looking for movies from him to watch I'm pretty sure the most mentioned films are the also great "Re-animator" and "From Beyond" but take it from me. This one is his most loyal and creepy film adaptation of HP Lovecraft. Watch it in the dark with the volume up. Like RL Stine would say "Viewer Beware, you're in for a scare".....

Starting out on a sailing yacht with another couple, on a beautiful day, skinny and whiney Paul (Ezra Godden) and his sexy girlfriend Barbara (Raquel Merono) are relaxing belowdecks while the boat is anchored off a quaint Spanish Village. Foul weather blows in *very* suddenly in a gorgeously filmed scene, huge dark clouds rising up over the little seaside town. The sailboat is pushed into the rocks where Vicki is pinned belowdecks. Paul and Barbara must take the dingy to shore to seek help. The town filmed here is very cool; narrow, climbing streets and alleys between tall villas and not a soul to be seen anywhere. Until they find the church, but this is no ordinary church. The symbols inside are unrecognizable, and the priest behaves quite strangely. Fortunately, Barbara speaks Spanish and convinces the priest to help. Paul goes back to sailboat where there is no sign of their friends, and Barbara goes to local hotel to wait, where she is promptly abducted by the hotel clerk and the priest. Paul checks into the filthy hotel, and things start to get weird when the townsfolk come out to play; and here is where the fun begins. Eerily determined, they stagger and creep through the streets in search of Paul. Paul runs into an old man named Eziquiel (Francisco Rabal), who tells him a strange tale of the beginnings of the odd little church, and of course Paul believes he is mad. With Eziquiel's help, Paul searches for Barbara, running into all kinds of trouble. I don't want to give away any of the juicier, more tingly parts of the movie, but suffice to say that my hunger for monsters, grotesqueries, blood, creepiness, and action was sated. One fine face peeling scene is quite noteworthy and worth the movie in and of itself. He finds the beautiful woman that he had been seeing in his dreams, Uxia; who embraces him and teaches him the mysteries of Cthullu, whether he wants to hear them or not. Most of this movie was filmed around Barcelona, Spain, and has some very beautiful scenery shots, along with gorgeous old castle-type buildings and villas...plus some creepy filthy places that remind me of my first apartment. This is truly a great horror flick, with wonderful monsters and lots of blood, a creepy atmosphere and an ending you won't want to miss. I recommend viewing this tasty, blood coated treat as I did, with your cuddly stuffed Cthullu and Shoggoth, along with Harm the Bunny, at your side. Enjoy!

This is actually the second time I saw this movie, and it did not hold up so well without the wine accompaniment we enjoyed the first time around. It gets off to a promising start and Gordon does a great job capturing the "Innsmouth Look" as well as the setting. In that regard it's the best Lovecraft cinematic interpretation I've seen. However, after the first act or so, it feels like we just keeping getting the same redundant story beats over and over. No real character or plot development, just the same characters in the same circumstances/action sequences with minor variations, but no real escalation, so I was no longer invested by the end which thus fell pretty flat. Still worth seeing for the visuals, though. Hence the 3 stars.

Hard to find good Lovecraft movie adaptations, but this is certainly one. Lovecraftian style or general Cthulhu mythos inspired stuff, sure, but actual movie adaptations of direct lovecraft work is tricky to find. Obviously it's not EXACTLY the same as it's source material," the shadow over insmouth", but it's one of those "changes what it can, keeps what's needed" adaptations. The CGI is certainly a product of its time, but thankfully it doesn't use it often. Great makeup effects on the villagers and it does a wonderful job of setting the atmosphere for the town.

Definitely has a lower budget feel, but the production design and love for the Shadow Over Innsmouth story that they managed to do with it, and with a Spanish small town twist to it, was simply awesome. Ezra Godden that plays the protagonist was one of the best parts along with Macarena Gomez.