"Dagon" certainly stands a cut above the rest when it comes to film adaptations of the works of H.P. Lovecraft. However, like pretty much every other attempt, Stuart Gordon and company also manage to fail in creating anything other than a Lovecraft-inspired B-grade horror movie. With this film, it is truly a shame. Unlike some of the utterly unwatchable adaptations that have been done, "Dagon" manages to, in places, bring an authentic-feeling Lovecraft mood and look to the screen. The in-town locations are, by-and-large, wonderful. Using a Spanish location and Spanish language was a great idea. The Actors playing the priest and the old man are excellently cast. Also, Gordon and company get high marks for the scenes where the true, horrible nature of the townsfolk is merely hinted at or teased. However, all of the successful teasing and hinting is for naught if you eventually show some guy in a big rubber monster mask, oozing slime all over the camera. Two great character actors are wasted if your central hero is so dreadfully written. And it is odd that film makers would be so inspired by Lovecraft's stories to make films (or are they inspired by the potential $$$$ in Lovecraft's name?) and yet end up either not noticing the strengths of Lovecraft's storytelling or purposely abandoning it. How can one admire a story enough to bring it to film and not admire its strengths? Lovecraft is all about the tease, about not showing, about what we can imagine from just a glimpse beneath the mask being far more terrifying than what we can gather in an extended shot? Example: the first glimpse that the movie's hero gets through a cracked door of mutated father character. The hints of inhuman deformity do wonders towards creeping the viewer out, forcing them to imagine a horror far worse. But then Gordon and company end up *showing* us the father's full facial deformities in a long, extended shot full of latex and rubber squid parts. This is bad storytelling. This is bad filmmaking. This is not Lovecraftian in the least and it throws away any former success in hinting at it. The hint is far, FAR more effective. It's like a striptease versus hardcore pornography. Lovecraft is the striptease and while other horror storytellers may revel in disgusting details, in the pornography of horror, it was never H.P.'s style. So either Gordon didn't trust Lovecraft's work and thought vainly that he could improve upon it or the man was simply too daft to grasp the complexity of Lovecraft's horror to begin with. I cannot say which I hope is the case. Other issues that bug me about "Dagon" include the romantic angle and the *action-man* crap. Lovecraft's stories almost never feature a romantically involved secondary character. In fact, if there *is* a Lovecraft story that features a man involved with a normal woman in a romantic way, I am not remembering it at present. There certainly is no mention of a romance in "Shadow over Innsmouth" and it is simply not an aspect of the Lovecraftian tale. To give a Lovecraft hero a romantic interest is like giving one to Sherlock Holmes--it simply isn't a part of the picture. So, shame on Gordon and company for giving us such an ugly horror movie cliché. Really, from where did they gain their true influence for this picture? From Lovecraft or from every other bland horror movie ever thrown up on a U.S. screen? Blah. Also, all of the action in the film is distressing. Is this Evil Dead or is this Lovecraft because I saw a helluva lot of running around with guns, fire, and whatnot? Lovecraftian horror is not about running around with guns and blasting stuff. To slap his name on a film like that is simply insulting. That combined with the profanity... really, in what Lovecraftian tale does H.P. Use the F word? Which one? Because I don't think I've read that particular story. At times, with gun in hand, the central character in Dagon says everything short of "I've come here to chew bubble gum and kick ass..." *sigh* And why must these tales always be transported from their atmospheric, early 1900's settings to modern day? What purpose does this serve? Given the look of the locations used in `Dagon,' to have it set in the 1930's would not have required an enormous amount of additional work or funds. In closing, the film is fun and perfectly acceptable so long as you expect nothing more than a B-grade horror film-and even as a Lovecraftian horror film, it's better than most. But anyone claiming that this is the great, true Lovecraft film that we've been waiting for all these years is simply out of their mind. This film is fair, but that's it.
Dagon
(2001)
Dagon - The Lovecraft film that Lovecraft fans have been waiting for?
25 September 2002