Dagon

Just watched Stuart Gordon's DAGON. Having enjoyed Gordon's 80's genre outings Re-animator, Bride and From Beyond I was looking forward to this latest opus.

Now the problems I have with the film aren't insurmountable but they do take away some of the enjoyment. Firstly Ash in evil dead was cool, that's a given but the guy in this (Ezra Godden) is like Ash lite and I never really bonded with him as a character basically coz he didn't have any. It starts with a really nice sequence that bodes well for a H.P Lovecraft adaptation but the middle third soon degenerates into a half assed prolonged chase . Now I was starting fidget just a touch but I thought I've paid for this it's got to get better and you know what? It does. WAhhaaay.

Once the Dagon Mythos is shown as back-story Told by an old fisherman in a ridiculously thick accent the Great Old Ones atmos kicks in.

The last third pulls the film up by it's Lapels from mediocrity to pretty damn good. I'll not spoil it but let's just say there's Boobies, Blood, Monsters, and one of the most painful gory protracted deaths I've seen in a long time.

This was like a welcome throwback to the early 80's when Ironic teenagers hadn't yet nudged and winked the credibility out of the genre.

Start of the movie is awful. You are greeted with dated CGI and very irritating main characters. Then at 20-30 minutes in, when you already lost almost all hope for this movie to be good, movie surprisingly turns into a thrilling and adrenaline filled survival horror for good half an hour. It's not scary or anything, but it's weird, creepy and even stylish at moments. From there on you are left with last third of the movie which is for sure better than the beginning, but still not what you would necessarily call good. "Dagon" is a movie surely made with love and care for Cthulhu mythos, but it doesn't completely hit the mark. I give it 6.5/10 and I recommend it only to the genre fans and Lovecraft fans, but to the latter I say, don't expect complete faithfulness to Lovecraft's work and style.

This movie is based more on "The Shadow Over Innsmouth", "The Festival" or "The Stange High House in th Mist" than on "Dagon". Still, this sort of strange tale tends to fall into a certain pattern and if you enjoy this movie, you may find that you like Lovecraft's tales also. This movie captures the atmosphere of many of these stories and presents some of their weird concepts as well as any I have seen. It also plays sort of like an adventure serial, so it dosn't hurt that the hero is played in the manner of Harold Lloyd. There is plenty of comedy and gruesomeness, and the question of whether human self-determination or monstrous outside forces are stronger gets asked, in a nice graphic, non-preachy way. My only complaints are the "orchestral crash" which accompanies some of the shock effects, and the fact that aside from one showing in Hollywood two days ago, this movie seems destined only to be seen on the small screen in North America!

I love Lovecrafts work, I grew up with them and yes I'm fully aware that's probably not the best reading material for the young!

It's prime material for movie adaptations, but they always tend to be terrible. Sure there have been exceptions like Necronomicon (1993) and the Re-Animator franchise but for the most part they've been plain awful.

Dagon is a rare exception and is fantastic on near every level. Spanish made it tells the story of two couples of after a boating accident are forced to seek help at a nearby island which holds a horrific secret.

Cue the great visuals, strong performances and a near flawless story. I watched this immediatly upon release and have thankfully had the chance to watch it multiple times since then. It's a pure unadulterated horror nightmare which I think is highly underrated.

It looks Lovecraft, it feels Lovecraft, it IS Lovecraft.

The Good:

Looks great

Mostly loyal to the source material

Genuinely atmospheric

The Bad:

Could have done with being a tad longer

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Proof! The problem is the filmmakers not the material

Movies are just better with tentacles

I'm not a huge Lovecraft fan. Don't get me wrong, the man was a master - but that's the problem I have with him. He simply wrote too well. His mutant fish fixation has always upset my equilibrium, and his tentacled Monster Gods still give me nightmares. Maybe, as a Pisces, I was subconsciously insulted, I don't know...but I've never sought out either his written works or the films based upon them. So, it was with little enthusiasm that I watched "Dagon" one cold, rainy morning. I wasn't sorry.

This film could probably be easily lost in the deluge of direct-to-video slashers with unimaginative plots and stale gore effects, which is a shame because it is neither stale nor a slasher. Based on a short story (which runs no more than five or six pages, if memory serves me correctly) "Dagon" is a cold, slithery, unnerving tale set in one of those isolated seaside towns that Lovecraft loved so much to write about. A boat accident sends a young couple ashore seeking help for their stranded friends. There have been warnings already, in the shapes of underwater nightmares suffered by the young man; a huge, submerged stone disk, a mermaid with a vampire's mouth, etc. The town's listless inhabitants soon reveal themselves to the terrified young couple - white, slimy gills and fish black eyes make their appearance, and by the time they do, it is too late.

There's a beautiful syren with mesmerizing eyes and an unfortunate case of tentacles, a bloody sacrifice above a stone pit, a sick face-ripping scene, a self-immolation and a twist ending. "Dagon" is hardly a throwaway slasher flick - its a dark, nasty, twisted fairy tale with neither a happy nor an unhappy ending. People with fish phobias probably would do well to steer clear, but this is a very well done little film that deserves better attention.