ThiefHott Too much of everything

Zandra The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Logan By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Francene Odetta It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Paul Magne Haakonsen I have watched "Dagon" for the third or fourth time already now, and the movie still keeps being enjoyable. You just need to let some years pass in between every time you sit down to watch it.I am a big fan of the writings of H. P. Lovecraft and have watched many of the movie adaptations of his stories; some good, some not so good. "Dagon" from 2001, actually is a rather enjoyable adaptation, and as such it is also a good movie.It is quite clear that writer Dennis Paoli wrote the script for this movie based on at least two of H. P. Lovecraft's stories, that being "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" and "Dagon", of course. And this combination actually does work out quite well.The story told in "Dagon" is about a young man and woman whom are sailing off of the coasts of Spain when their ship is run ashore and badly damaged by a freak storm. Seeking refuge and help in the small fishing village on the coast, things take a turn for the worse as the reclusive villagers harbor a dark secret.Storywise then "Dagon" is nicely paced, and the characters are fair enough.However, I don't understand why writer Dennis Paoli and director Stuart Gordon opted for having the movie take place in a Spanish coastal village. That just made very little sense, unless they were trying to branch out and say that the influence of Dagon and the Great Old ones reach out to all corners of the Earth.As for the cast, well the lead cast were doing good enough jobs, and it was nice enough that they opted for performers that were not huge stars and thus influenced by previous performances and characters. However, lots of the Spanish cast were not great at speaking English, which resulted in moments where it was quite difficult to understand what they were saying, and parts of the dialogue were just lost due to weird pronunciation and thick accents."Dagon" did not boast a myriad of special effects. I will say that the practical effects in bring the changes from human to Deep One was good enough; here I am thinking of the cosmetic make-up and prosthetic special effects used to give them a fish-like quality, such as gills, bulging eyes or even tentacles. The CGI effects used in "Dagon" were not overly great, and it was actually painstakingly obvious that it was CGI, because it had that fake feel to it.This is, luckily, a movie driven by the story and the sense of dread that it build up throughout the course of the story. So the poor CGI effects only inflicted a minor dent on the overall movie.The ending of the movie, was actually quite predictable, and also rather campy and cheesy. I do believe that "Dagon" deserved a more crafty and fulfilling ending.Of course, this movie is nothing in comparison to the actual written works of Lovecraft, but it is still a very entertaining and adequate adaptation of his writings.

Tor Johnson-Lugosi I wanted to like this one, especially after Stuart Gordon's RE-ANIMATOR and FROM BEYOND, both of excellent revamps of HPL. But this Dagon is over-lit, generic "big" music, and overall not very atmospheric. Jeffrey Coombs would have compensated for this, he's got screen presence. Instead this hero is a dorky doof better suited as a Friday the 13th victim - you just want this goof to get it - and we sure don't need to see him making out with a hot girlfriend for the first 10 minutes. It's reminiscent of the endless Italian horror cheesers of the 1980s, more adolescent than adult. A shame.Read the original HPL - that story literally oozes gloom; the film version just drips.

gulag *** Major Spoiler Alert ***Stuart Gordon's Dagon is an intense and unique film based mostly on H.P. Lovecraft's The Shadow Over Innsmouth and his much shorter work entitled Dagon. This is really epic material in a strangely soaked Spanish environment. A Lovecraftian cult worshiping the underwater deity Dagon have taken over a small town on the Atlantic coast of Spain. A sailboat on pleasure cruise ends wrecked there. They will not be leaving anytime soon.Now situationally this is a fairly obvious menu. Gordon does, at one point, dive off the gory edge, but this is a Stuart Gordon film after all. Meanwhile the chase through dripping dampness of the town is really a pulse quickener. What makes this work is the danker than dank waterlogged environment and the extraordinarily emotional relationship of Dagon's daughter played in a one of a kind performance by Spanish actress Macarena Gomez to our trapped nerd, played by Ezra Godden.Macarena plays the part of tentacled siren princess with real fish-eyed believability. She was given instructions by Gordon (whose previous Lovecraft works include From Beyond and Re-Animator) to keep her eyes from blinking. When in the end Uxía (Gomez) craves Paul (Godden), whom she calls Pablo, she calls out to him with such an urgent imploring sad doomed yet loving tone in her voice she becomes perhaps the ultimate mermaid nightmare: Her eyes filled with wells of tearful salt water, her robes of gilded Symbolist splendor. She reveals the dark secrets of the unholy sect.Uxía: Pablo, it is your destiny... We had different mothers, but the same father... We are children of Dagon. Your dreams. Remember your dreams, Pablo. They brought you here. Paul: No. They were nightmares. They weren't real. Uxía: Every dream is a wish. Paul: Somebody help me! What's happening to me? Uxía: You are my brother. You will be my lover - forever.The tone Macarena hits here is the crescendo of the entire film, that sense of hopeless beauty and tragic certainty. I don't agree philosophically with the fatalism of that black romance, but who hasn't felt that temptation to give into it. And as Paul sets himself on fire and plunges into the sea Uxía follows. And together they descend into the depths of the tentacled God Dagon's realm. One feels the drowning, yet liberation. Yet we know to follow is to be annihilated.I can't think of another film to present the darker aesthetics aspects of the antique Symbolist dream so vividly. For those with strong stomachs yet sensitive hearts I strongly recommend Dagon.

steevandkay I have just watched this film for the second time, so that means I like it, enough to buy the DVD. There are so many big-budget and even-bigger-budget films out there that are utter rubbish, insult the viewers' intelligence and waste their time & money. Its a genuine pleasure to see this small budget production, and a Spanish one at that, showing the big boys a thing or two. I agree with a previous poster's comments about Hollywood being too scared to touch this material, which is a real tragedy. Such imaginative writing deserves the bigger budget treatment. Firstly I am a real fan of H.P.Lovecraft's work and to best appreciate the film, you'd probably be well advised to read some of his work, particularly in this case, "Shadow over Innsmouth" and "Dagon", both in the excellent volume: "Necronomicon". Lovecraft's writing has a claustrophobic, nightmarish and dreadful feel and the film captures these attributes admirably. The film spends a lot of time in pursuit of the "hero" by nightmarish creatures who, alone would pose but a slight threat. Its their strength in numbers and perseverance that creates the real fear factor, and vain attempts to hide and subsequent discovery and flight are genuinely scary. Add in the constant rain and flooding, used to great effect in "Bladerunner" and "The Hitcher", the decrepit feel to the village and you have a superb backdrop to paint on the action. The actors may not be A-listers but they do a decent enough job and Macarena Gomez's countenance is striking. Special effects are also decent enough considering the budget, and there is a mild sexual undertone too which is in keeping with the popularity of more current productions like "Game of Thrones" and "Sparticus". There is one gory scene that in my opinion interrupts the progressive feel to the action. In summary I'd say another underrated low budget triumph, I would liken to the original "The Wicker Man". Watch it and I am confident you will have seen worse. In my opinion a lot worse.