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Dagon
Stuart
Gordon's latest H.P. Lovecraft adaptation, Dagon, is
an odd throwback to the heyday of '80s horror. This is not
the insult some would take it to be, nor is it a glowing rave.
Dagon exists in an odd twilight between "not bad enough
for straight-to-video but not good enough for a Halloween
theatrical release."
It might,
however, make for some okay Halloween viewing for the true
horror geek who often sighs in front of the horror section,
"I've seen all of these."
Way back
when horror was the flavor of the day, a day when geeks didn't
have the internet to discuss upcoming movies and the like,
they had Fangoria. Sure, we still have it now, but back when
Freddy and Jason were still active threats and not just franchise
jokes, one could pick up Fango on any supermarket magazine
rack, right next to the Redbook and the Dynamite. Dagon
is a pure Fango movie.
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Peaslee
gets "surprised from behind."
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While
it's no Re-Animator (Gordon's classic Lovecraft picture),
Dagon has its moments. Set in a Spanish fishing village,
the film starts with four yuppies on a boat. The main yuppie,
Paul (Ezra Godden), has been plagued with nightmares about
a mermaid with a mouthful of sharp teeth. Of course a storm
comes up and the tiny ship gets tossed.
When Paul
and his girl, Barbara (Raquel Merono), go ashore to get help
for their shipmates, they find that creepy kind of town that
happens when the residents stop their good Catholic ways and
start sacrificing outlanders to a dark sea god who promises
riches and immortality.
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Hmm...villagers...torches...
who
could misread the signs?
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So Dagon
is kind of a Children of the Corn with water and tentacles.
The picture features a nice creepy atmosphere and a decent
sting or two, but Godden comes up lacking as the hero of the
story, and the plot moves along in fits and starts. For the
most part there is a lot of running occasionally interrupted
for some exposition just as the film starts to get messy.
Much of
that exposition is delivered by Francisco Rabal (to whom this
film is dedicated). Rabal could best be described as somewhere
between Sean Connery and Ernest Borgnine, but Spanish.
Lovecraft
fans will probably dig the picture, but then again any Lovecraft
fan has probably already seen this picture. So for the casual
video renter or the horror fan I don't quite wave you away,
but if you're looking at the horror shelf and you've seen
all the big boys up there, then give Dagon a shot;
you might be a little surprised.
Find
Dagon at Amazon.com
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