Movie Review: Dagon

With any movie purporting to be based on Lovecraft there is for the aficionado a sense of dread in the background of all viewings of the latest attempt to film the basically unfilmable. Thus it was when my friend called me up and told me he had seen a new HPL movie in the store entitled Dagon.

Contrary to what the title suggests the movie is actually loosely based on the Lovecraft story “The Shadow Over Innsmouth” not “Dagon” which immediately starts the alarm bells ringing and the fact it is set off the Spanish coast ( the movie was actually a Spanish co-production ) is another notch against it, to go crazy in metaphor mixing. All these forebodings are not helped by the creative team for the movie ( Director Stuart Gordon and Co-Producer Brian Yuzna ) who are responsible for the less than fantastic Re-Animator, which is at least based on the story of the same name and although I personally have a soft spot for the tale ( written like so many of Lovecraft’s works from a dream ) it is one of his lesser pieces and an odd choice to develop into a motion picture.

So I think it is fair to say that I sat down to watch “Dagon” with a less than open mind.

My fears were not allayed by the opening scenes ( after a good introduction with a creepy underwater dream sequence ) wherein the main characters, who personality wise are perhaps best described as “wankers” and exactly the sort of fodder one wishes to see killed off in a horror flick, are introduced. This is the beginnings of a seemingly endless succession of terrible clichés, ill-thought out scenes and inane moments which I will not labour over. The plot, with more than a few deviations and outright liberties, follows at least the basic structure of Lovecraft’s original Innsmouth story and the climax is actually more from the eponymous tale ( if one allows a generous helping of “artistic” license) than cut out of the air. In short Dagon is a flawed film and certain far from an ideal re-creation of Lovecraft’s work. But is it enjoyable? Most certainly.

Let us focus on some of the positives. The creepy weirdness of the folk of Imboca ( the substitute Innsmouth in the movie ) and their deserted town is well done as is the drunken Zadok Allen character. The titular monster is kept largely imaginary yet having a certain effect when he (it?) puts in the briefest of appearances, the ending is true to the original tale and most importantly Lovecraft’s overall spirit of malignity and the sense that good will not triumph in the end ‘just because…’ is certainly present. The use of direct quotes from his work likewise adds a grandeur that perhaps such dross doesn’t really deserve.

It is certainly both more visceral and sexual than anything Lovecraft wrote ( I don’t recall people being skinned alive in the original tale ) and the final scenes could come straight from a pulp era cover with helpless damsels and ritual sacrifice but oddly as a whole the movie works, if you accept from the beginning that HPL has gotten his standard Hollywood hacking.

So to conclude Dagon is a better than average foray into the ideas and world of Howard Phillips Lovecraft, far from a masterpiece but a cut above the standard of such films which generally range from disgraceful to awful.

This review was submitted by Duncan.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 1st, 2005 at 7:00 pm and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.