Dagon - La mutazione del male

Dagon tells an incredible story of terror , marine monsters and including fantastic touches. As it packs horror ,suspense , plot-twists, tension , chills , thrills with sensationalistic scenes . A shipping accident off the Galician coast of North of Spain sends the starring named Paul (Ezra Dodden) and his sweetheart Barbara (Raquel Meroño)to the decrepit fishing village called Imboca looking for help. As night falls, people start to disappear and things not quite human begin to appear. Paul finds himself chased by the entire people of Imboca . There he meets an old fisher named Ezequiel(Francisco Rabal) and a strange young girl (Macarena Gomez). Running for his life, Paul uncovers Imboca's dark secret but he is taken by the secret sect . The villagers worshipping the God Dagon and his unholy offspring are on the loose in the place .

Based on two short stories by the undisputed expert of the terror H.P. Lovecraft titled ¨Dagon¨ and ¨The shadow over Innsmouth¨ . The picture packs thrills, chills , terror , fantasy and lots of blood and gore . Furthermore , unrelenting twists and turns as when the starring discovers that the truth will not set him free instead it condemns him to a waking nightmare of impressive horror . B-entertainment with a fairly suspenseful and horrifying story about an ancient fanatic religious cult of followers of Dagon. This tale about a young couple who is involved into a twisted intrigue begins well and grows more and more until a downbeat finale . Good makeup on the freakish half-human creatures by DDT that subsequently won Academy Award for ¨Pan's labyrinth¨ . Dark and colorful cinematography by Carlos Suarez and atmospheric musical score by Carles Cases that includes Galiacian sounds . The flick is finely produced by the chairman of Filmax and Castelao Productions , Julio Fernandez who along with his brother Carlos Fernandez are two successful producers and experts on Horror genre , producers of hits as ¨The machinist¨ ,¨ Fragiles¨, ¨Darkness¨, Rec 1, Rec2 and many others. The picture is compellingly directed by Stuart Gordon who along with Bian Yuzna are important American filmmakers expert on terror cinema , both of whom working for Castelao , Fantastic Factory or Filmax . Rating : 6 , acceptable and passable film , though contains some flaws.

A man, his girlfriend and their two wealthy friends get caught in a storm off the coast of Spain. The man is forced to go to shore to seek help, but stumbles across a town with a legacy both dark and treacherous.

As I've said before, Stuart Gordon is the undisputed master of H. P. Lovecraft adaptations, this one coming from the short story "Dagon" and one other tale (to flesh it out). He captures the imagery perfectly -- the storms, the fear of the water, the importance of an arcane faith (without making it cheesy) and of course the tentacles.

The acting is quite good, especially from the star (who was also the star of "Dreams in the Witch House")... Ezra Godden, I believe his name is (forgive me if I'm wrong). He plays a much nerdier character than in "Dreams", so much so that I might not have even noticed it was the same actor. The other characters are also good. All of them. The bum, the girlfriend, the townsfolk... I have no complaints.

The scenery was very drab, and I mean that in a good way. It was a dirty, isolated town that really portrayed the feeling of helplessness. I read in another review that Gordon moved the story from New England to Spain to capture this feeling, as modern America really has no such place left. Spain seemed natural, and fit the theme perfectly. Besides, an ancient cult does tend to have more of a "European" rather than "American" flavor to it (unlike witches, which are right at home in America).

I really have to protest about the CGI in this film, though. Some scenes use amateur computer graphics, which come across looking cartoonish. This upsets me any time I see it in a film, but even more so with Stuart Gordon. I have seen what he can do with old fashioned makeup and special effects. I've been impressed. Why has he resorted to this technique? While I would say this is the least of the Gordon-Lovecraft films I've seen, it's still a fine job. It's probably the only film you'll ever watch where you find a fish attractive. Well, besides "The Little Mermaid", of course. Ariel's pretty dang sexy.

I love Lovecrafts work, I grew up with them and yes I'm fully aware that's probably not the best reading material for the young!

It's prime material for movie adaptations, but they always tend to be terrible. Sure there have been exceptions like Necronomicon (1993) and the Re-Animator franchise but for the most part they've been plain awful.

Dagon is a rare exception and is fantastic on near every level. Spanish made it tells the story of two couples of after a boating accident are forced to seek help at a nearby island which holds a horrific secret.

Cue the great visuals, strong performances and a near flawless story. I watched this immediatly upon release and have thankfully had the chance to watch it multiple times since then. It's a pure unadulterated horror nightmare which I think is highly underrated.

It looks Lovecraft, it feels Lovecraft, it IS Lovecraft.

The Good:

Looks great

Mostly loyal to the source material

Genuinely atmospheric

The Bad:

Could have done with being a tad longer

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Proof! The problem is the filmmakers not the material

Movies are just better with tentacles

This movie is based more on "The Shadow Over Innsmouth", "The Festival" or "The Stange High House in th Mist" than on "Dagon". Still, this sort of strange tale tends to fall into a certain pattern and if you enjoy this movie, you may find that you like Lovecraft's tales also. This movie captures the atmosphere of many of these stories and presents some of their weird concepts as well as any I have seen. It also plays sort of like an adventure serial, so it dosn't hurt that the hero is played in the manner of Harold Lloyd. There is plenty of comedy and gruesomeness, and the question of whether human self-determination or monstrous outside forces are stronger gets asked, in a nice graphic, non-preachy way. My only complaints are the "orchestral crash" which accompanies some of the shock effects, and the fact that aside from one showing in Hollywood two days ago, this movie seems destined only to be seen on the small screen in North America!

Start of the movie is awful. You are greeted with dated CGI and very irritating main characters. Then at 20-30 minutes in, when you already lost almost all hope for this movie to be good, movie surprisingly turns into a thrilling and adrenaline filled survival horror for good half an hour. It's not scary or anything, but it's weird, creepy and even stylish at moments. From there on you are left with last third of the movie which is for sure better than the beginning, but still not what you would necessarily call good. "Dagon" is a movie surely made with love and care for Cthulhu mythos, but it doesn't completely hit the mark. I give it 6.5/10 and I recommend it only to the genre fans and Lovecraft fans, but to the latter I say, don't expect complete faithfulness to Lovecraft's work and style.