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.
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.