Dagon (2001)

Simply Perfect

Great Film overall

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

A Brilliant Conflict

Dagon film review (6/10) Setting the scene The scene setting is pretty obscure from the outset starting with a real shock perhaps like a real horror should. Well at least a glimpse of that all important action from the film climax to entice you in. This film sucks you in with a firm tug from the outset. The locations for scenes are very pleasant and scenic which makes the film seem like more of an odyssey that a dull studio affair. The characters are clear from the word go with a straight forward introduction of a limited number. Relationships are included with romance which is always good to see (especially in a horror before something happens to your favourite). Main body The romance quickly fades as a characters mental state is seriously challenged by scary thoughts. After the initial shocker things settle to almost a crawl for a long time. This is perhaps where the rating comes down and the story needs a little injection of enthusiasm or humour. Perhaps the lack of drama with effects results in a flat period. For whatever reason you have to struggle through to retain enjoyment which is a shame after the great opening. The concepts and story-line is good however so would have been nice to be driven forward with a little more imagination for costumes and creature mobility. Music The music is fairly dramatic, if limited and does not resonate fear like it should for a good horror especially during the climax of the film which it would really benefit from. The music is far from exciting and not very memorable. Ending If you make it to the last half an hour you get your first hit from complex sides and relationships which make everything more interesting and exciting. For the last 30 minutes the characters gel and the acting really comes through in a more positive light. The main characters bonds are truly tested and the pace dramatically picks up. The emotions are evidently lacking where they should be, yet abundant where needed. All sorts of fight scenes, escape scenes, gore and turmoil explode out to finish things nicely. This almost makes up for the dull centre and closes things out in the correct way for the beginning shock to " reveal all" like a good ending should. This does however mean that a sequel may be quite impossible to create as a continuation. Summary A well thought out, imaginative story with good acting in parts. A great opening and conclusion with a little boredom and drawn out plot in the middle. With adaptation the film if remade has the potential to be amazing due to simplicity and themes. Needs to be shorter or more dramatic in the middle.

Lovecraft fans be warned – DAGON is a very loose adaptation of his Shadow Over Innsmouth, changing much of the action and containing little of the atmosphere that Lovecraft painstakingly created in his works. Saying that, this is a very atypical movie which makes great use of Lovecraft's themes and ideas, but bizarrely alternates between scenes of pure horror and other moments of outright comedy. The mixture is uneven but the result is worth a look; an action-packed and eventful thrill-ride of a film with great costumes and make-ups and a fantastic setting. The setting (despite its relocation to Spain) is one thing that director Stuart Gordon and his associates got exactly right and they deserve praise for their efforts.Not everything about this film is good. The extremely spooky and weird inhabitants of the town are incredibly played for laughs instead of menace – the result is weird but the audience's reaction mixed. At least Gordon works in a sense of uneasiness into the characters – especially the creepy hotel clerk played by veteran performer Jose Ruiz Lifante (THE DEVIL'S KISS), who steals the show in his cameo appearance. It's great to see Lifante back on screen after his appearance two decades previously in such classics as THE LIVING DEAD AT THE MANCHESTER MORGUE and his presence is a lovely touch. Also appearing is veteran Spanish actor Francisco Rabal, who sadly died shortly after production. Unfortunately for the viewer, his poor English makes it hard to understand a word of what his character says, which is doubly unfortunate as he is the guy who explains the plot to us! It doesn't really matter, because this film's script isn't a strong point. What is strong is the visual impact, from the scenery and the effects. There are some strong scenes of gore and gruesomeness which are pretty hard-hitting, including a totally surprising face-pull which pushes the boundaries of good taste to the limit. Unfortunately the creature effects (created by CGI) are less even and rather laughable in places, but work if you're in a kind mood. The film ups the exploitation value by including a fair amount of female nudity, especially prominent in the ritual sequence which ends the film on a high.The acting ranges from okay to good in the most part. Lead Ezra Godden actually starts off pretty bad and wooden as the film progresses, but as the danger increases he comes into his own and makes an impact as the hero. The basic template of the film is all action, a big long chase scene, which has its strengths and weaknesses. A strength is the driving suspense and excitement in some sequences – the attack in the hotel is devastatingly effective, for instance. Unfortunately such attacks soon become fairly repetitive, lacking the drive that made the film so gripping initially. Thankfully things pick up for a strong finale and are heightened by an effectively spooky score. Generally this is an uneven movie but one definitely worth a look for Lovecraft followers, as it's a lot closer to his spirit than many other so-called adaptations.

'Dagon' is one of those films where I watch and yet still can't really make up my mind about. I didn't hate it. It has its good points, yet overall there didn't really seem like there was enough story to flesh it out (even to its quite average ninety minute runtime).It's about an American couple whose boat gets shipwrecked off a remote Spanish island. When they get to shore they find the locals are hardly the hospitable types. It kind of reminded me of 'The Wicker Man,' i.e. outsiders who are up against the whole of a town.My main problem with the film was that very little happens. Once the couple arrive on the island, they're quickly separated and we're left with just the man. Pretty much the whole of the middle part of the film is him being chased from one dark and creepy location to the next. He's all on his own and doesn't really have anyone to interact with, therefore we don't really get to know him that well and know that he's going to make it out of each area, simply because the film would end if he didn't. He does meet one local, but the old man talks with such a strong accent I actually had to put the subtitles on to understand him! Seriously, if you were watching Dagon on DVD, you could skip a few chapters in the middle and you wouldn't miss anything 'story-wise,' just a few creepy scenes here and there. The atmosphere is one of the plus points. The story is nicely creepy and the monsters are well done. It's just a pity not much happens for the majority of the movie.The last act is a bit more dramatic and they've saved some of the best gore for last, but it's too little too late to turn what could have elevated an okay film to a really classic one. Bottom line, it's okay, but because there's so little story, I probably wouldn't watch it again because I can remember everything about it.

In "Dagon", Paul and his girlfriend, Barbara, go on a trip to Spain, but after suffering an accident with their boat, they end up stranded in a gloomy harbor port called Imboca. After a series of incidents, Paul becomes separated from his girlfriend, so he goes on a search all around the town to find her. For some reason, the villagers from Imboca are out to get Paul, but he manages to escape the angry horde. Through the story of a homeless guy named Ezequiel, Paul learns that several years ago, there was a fish shortage in the town of Imboca, which caused a lot of despair among the villagers. One day, an evil sailor introduced the townspeople to a new god called Dagon and forced them to abandon their catholic religion. Dagon eventually brought a lot of wealth to the town, but in return, he demanded live sacrifices and women to breed with him. Progressively, Imboca became a dark and isolated place, inhabited by fish-like creatures, which live to worship their beastly god. During Paul's search, he comes across a strange "girl" named Uxia, who is also the high priestess of the Order of Dagon and she seems to be in love with him. Paul decides to continue with his search, unaware of the fact that the townspeople, led by Uxia, want to offer Barbra as a sacrifice to Dagon.Director Stuart Gordon offers a dark and even depressing atmosphere in this film that deals with the classic theme of innocent people stranded in a deserted place, where they meet a gruesome fate. While the story is simple, as it mostly features Paul escaping from the angry villagers, it manages to provide an hour and a half of genuine horror with dignity, avoiding never ending fillers that lead to nothing. In some way, I suppose "Dagon" may sound similar to a zombie flick, but in this case, it seems like the angry horde actually has something personal against Paul, which makes the whole thing more intriguing, since we don't get to know why, until the very end. Paul's quest becomes exciting, as we get to see the mysteries surrounding Imboca slowly unraveling. My main satisfaction with this film is due to the perfect location, because I believe that the filming locations are very relevant in these types of horror films, where the setting usually works as another character that interacts with the rest. The fictional town of Imboca (which is actually called Combarro) makes the perfect horror scenery for this nightmare-like story; it looks frightening, even depressing, and it is always raining heavily throughout the entire film, which makes things even more difficult for the main character. Aside from the Combarro landscapes, we see a decaying hotel that seems to have been deserted for a long time, which gives a feeling of uneasiness and discomfort. Abandoned places always seem to provoke distress, because they give the feeling that they are cut out from the rest of society, the modern civilized word and its false securities. The Spanish architecture of the houses and mansions are somehow more unpolished and rustic than the architecture that we normally see in American horror films, and I find this rusticity to be also frightening, as it gives me the idea that the people from this place have some kind of a ferocious nature and aren't exactly tamed. As for the bizarre villains, which in this case are mostly the townspeople, I thought this was a great achievement; the idea of merging humans and sea creatures as the main antagonists is perfect. These characters hardly ever talk, they mostly make strange noises, they walk around in a weird animalistic way, and most of them cover their pale fish-like faces with scarves and the rest of their bodies with black hooded raincoats. In a way, it reminded me of a zombie film, since these villagers move together in a horde without a mind, chasing the only humans in the town, because they want something from them. Of course, I have seen my share of zombie films and while I can enjoy them from time to time, I found these strange fish-like creatures to be more interesting and scary. The music in "Dagon", composed by Carl Cases is also very fitting. We mostly get to hear the same music throughout the entire film, in which a woman and a chorus of men chant a darkly appealing melody that helps to create a mystical and depressing atmosphere. Of course, I don't think "Dagon" is the perfect film. My main problem with this film is the bad CGI; not only because it looks extremely cheap and amateurish, but also, because it is completely unnecessary. This film could have been much better without this horrible CGI, and while I cannot say that this ruined the movie for me, it cheapens it considerably. I have another criticism concerning the dialogs. Though "Dagon" mostly doesn't provide humor, unlike some of Gordon's previous horror films, I'm sure some of the dialogs in this film are supposed to be intentionally funny, and while I chuckled like it was intended, I find the humor to be out of place in a film like this. Based on "The Shadow over Innsmouth", this film is mostly regarded by Lovecraft fans as a noble effort that actually remains true to the atmosphere and structure of his story. In any case, Dennis Paoli, who writes most of the scripts for Gordon, deserves recognition as well, since "Dagon" doesn't take everything directly from Lovecraft's story. The film deals with a few recurring Lovecraftian elements, such as the impossibility to escape fate, religion and non-human influences on humanity, among others.