Dagon

Rating:
Summary: Not Dagon, but why would it be?
Review: First of all to clear up some of the other misleading reviews on here, this movie is not based on Dagon at all, other than using the name "Dagon" It is clearly based on Shadow over Innsmouth.

With that out of the way I can say if you are Lovecraft fan, you will most likely enjoy this film. Although, I would also like to clear up the notion that this film in an accurate adaptation of HPL's Innsmouth. Certain elements are potrayed very well, like the escape from the hotel scene. It's not exactly right, but they tried, and its still quite effective. I think a more apropriate way to put it is it's Stewart Gordon's most acurate adaptation of an HPL story.

I really thought the creature effects were good. I know there was a mention of bad CGI in another review, but there is very little of that. All of the foam latex work is quite good. The location in spain is more fitting to old America than the NE cost of the US now, and is quite creepy.

Where this movie lacks is the charictors. Not that the acting is even that bad. But I don't understand why they were changed, when the ones in the story were much more interesting, and this is the main reason why this movie drifts away from the real story.

Overall a very entertaining movie!

Rating:
Summary: Good enough
Review: It is notoriously difficult to transfer Lovecraft to a visual medium, since so much of his horror is based on hints. How do you picture a "thing that cannot be?" we should probably be grateful for that - how would it be if the latest Hollywood flick drew its viewers insane (and not from boredom or inanity of the plot)?
Mr. Gordon takes one of the more visual of the stories, The Shadow over Innsmouth, and makes some modifications to it to fit the silver screen. Since the result is not an insult I give it a pass plus. The major change is that now the inhabitants have not made their unholy deal with Dagon, but directly with Great Cthuhlu himself! Who even honours us with a visit in the end, and surprisingly - it is one of the best images of Mr. C. I have seen, suitably detailed but we have only a fleeting glance, so a lot is handed over to our own imagination. The sequence has a good shock effect.
OK, why does the male lead so much act like Ash from Evil Dead? Well, again - I cannot stand horror films that take themselves to seriously, he gives a good comic contrast to the creatures of the town. Also, it actually makes his final transformation so much the more shocking.
Do not expect to be to frightened, but expect some good entertainment, bring a beer or two.

Rating:
Summary: Campy horror flick
Review: This may have been based on a classic horror novella, but it looked more like a cross between Dawn of the Dead and Lair of the White Worm. I give Stuart Gordon credit for making the most of what appeared to be a low budget movie. Some of the effects were credible, but the acting is so atrocious and the story so overdone that it takes a great effort to sit through this movie in its entirety. Nevertheless, if you are a horror movie addict you would probably enjoy it, if for no other reason than it is based on H.P. Lovecraft's Dagon and The Shadow Over Innsmouth. Lovecraft had a fertile imagination but Gordon is drawn too much to campy horror movies to make the most of these tales.

Rating:
Summary: Magnificent Horror Epic
Review: Awesome! Probably the best Lovecraft adaptation ever (in fact, it well Exceeds many of Lovecraft's written works) and probably the best film of director Stuart Gordon's career (famed for "Re-Animator", "Castle Freak", and other greats), "Dagon" is one of the greatest monster movies ever made as well. In a nutshell, two couples vacationing on a small private yacht run aground of a rock outcropping in shallow waters off the coast of Spain and have to try to make it to the small, antiquated fishing village visible on the coast. In the village, it becomes very quickly apparant that the inhabitants are...peculiar.

It's long been thought that any Lovecraft movie that attempts to actually show in detail entities like Chthulu or Yog-Sottoth would sabotage itself no matter how good the special effects were, because most of these beings are supposed to be literally indescribable, in some cases so indescribably alien and horrifying that just seeing one full on can drive a person insane. However, as all Lovecraft afficionados know, there are these, what are sometimes collectively called 'others', and then there are those beings who occupy an intermediary position between such 'others' on one hand and the human/animal kingdom on the other. By wisely focusing on these 'in-betweeners', the movie "Dagon" can actually show more than fleeting or partial looks at the creatures without falling into the paradox of visually 'describing' the indescribable. These 'in-betweeners' are shockingly realistic, more so than the movie's cover might have you believe, and leave one with the disturbing question of if these look the way the do, what exactly is the true nature of Dagon himself?

The camera angles chosen are brilliant, such as the over-the-shoulder shot of the main male character as he's looking out the window and sees 'them', letting the viewer feel more as if they're experiencing the events themselves than watching someone else experience them. Having one of the characters apparantly very capable of escaping the situation at one point but unable to do so because his girlfriend has disappeared somewhere nearby, is very effective too; somehow in this case it comes off a lot scarier than having the characters trying to escape but unable to - to have someone capable at this one point of escaping but having no choice but to choose not to. All the characters are very believable and 'real', including the old homeless man who seems to be one of the few residents of the village to be less....different. It may sound like I'm giving too much away here, but most of what I'm referring to occurs early on; there's a lot more going on than I plan to mention.

Released a few years ago with minimal public awareness, right before the big horror boom hit, this title has sadly remmained a relative unknown. If released today with good advertising, this could have been as big as "The Ring". "Dagon" is as essential a part of a horror collection as "Star Wars" is of a space adventure collection.

Rating:
Summary: A good movie that doesn't quite live up to its potential
Review: This movie is hardly innovative in its approach and execution, but as horror films go, it definitely accomplishes what it sets out to do: deliver one heck of a creepy feeling direct to your spinal column. Remarkably, it is able to do this without whiz-bang special effects and an egregiously bloated budget. One of the greatest accomplishments of this film is to demonstrate that a filmmaker with vision can overcome financial obstacles to get their ideas on the screen. Films, like the ills of society, cannot be improved by throwing money at them.

WHO SHOULD WATCH THIS:

Unlike many other so-called "horror" films, this one is actually scary. Not so much at first, though. A viewer will probably turn off the TV and go to bed without any pervading sense of dread. The insidious nature of this film is that the horror-effect will gradually grow well after you have returned the DVD to the rental store. Gradually, the tendrils of terror seep into your brain until you realize that you can't stop thinking about this film. Then, one night, you wake up in the darkness of your room, too afraid to use the bathroom. This is a payoff the creative minds behind the likes of Freddy, Jason, or Michael Myers have not been able to achieve for quite along time.

WHO SHOULD AVOID:

In spite of the low budget, this movie has some unabashedly violent imagery that is not for the squeamish. Hard-core horror fans will have no problem with it, but their dates might. There are also some scenes of containing nudity and sexual situations that may offend those lacking in prurient interests.

READ THE ENTIRE REVIEW AT INCHOATUS.COM

Rating:
Summary: WHY..
Review: Why, I ask. Why was this move even made? Now I am a movie fan of all genre's, but "Dagon" was by far the worst movie I have even seen! I did by this move after I watched it, for one reason. No movie collection is complete unless you have the worst ever made! But non the less, I wouldn't even give it a star but I had to choose a 1


Rating:
Summary: Dagon is a worthy rental
Review: Those of you who love the man will universally agree that there just isn't enough H.P. Lovecraft in the world, especially in cinema. Most of the movie versions made, that have been in some way remotely influenced by a short story or novella, have been less than inspiring. Noteworthies include Unnamable I and II, The Dunwhich Horror (with Dean Stockwell), Horror Hotel (with the great Christopher Lee) and of course the Reanimator series. Dagon falls closer to noteworthy, but misses the mark. I guess the thing about Lovecraft is that he was a very dry, but verbose writer; his stories had slow build-ups that tended to end in horrific, often-mind blowing climaxes--hence the problem of translating his ideas to the big screen, as few people have the patience to watch a scary movie that slowly builds to an intellectually and sensually gratifying climax. So, producer Yuzna and director Gordon have sacrificed much of the exposition moved "The Shadow Over Innsbrook", the story much of this movie hails from, and have turned Dagon into a cat and mouse game of chase for most of the movie to keep the tension and suspense going. The idea of the Old Ones, so central to the Lovecraft mythology, is barely mentioned and thrown in too quickly at the end of the film to really appeciate the horrific consequences of selling out to a race of beings older than anything on the planet. Ezra Godden does a decent job as the lead, Paul, a stockbroker caught with three other friends in a mysterious storm and forced to seek help in a nearby Spanish town. The residents are quite creepy, and the dream sequences are woven into the storyline very appropriately. There is also a flashback scene which is one of the best parts of the film. Overall, Dagon will satisfy the horror buff in anyone who loves this genre, but whether this movie leaves you pondering and thinking about it five minutes after you put the DVD back in its case is a different matter.