Dagon: Stuart Gordon

The world deserves a first-rate cinematic adaptation of H. P. Lovecraft's work. Stuart Gordon's Dagon is an admittedly valiant attempt at bringing his work to life onscreen...but it falls flat. The film is based on The Shadow Over Innsmouth, a story wherein a man travels to a small Massachusetts town and discovers that its inhabitants have become half-human, half-fish monsters that worship the Assyro-Babylonian god Dagon. Only in this film, the New England setting is swapped for coastal Spain. The switch to Spain was made because Gordon wasn't able to get financing for the film in America. But I think that the absence of a New England setting hurts the film, making it distinctly less Lovecraftian. It's obvious that Gordon put a lot of love into this film. But the terrible CGI, weak makeup, and occasionally terrible effects ruin the atmosphere that is so essential for a Lovecraftian story. I know that Gordon could do better. Back in 1985 he made Re-Animator, a film with revolutionary zombie special effects, for almost a fifth of Dagon's budget. And really, there were only two scenes that warranted any advanced special effects. The first was a scene where a mermaid who controls the town glides across the floor. Did that have to be animated with a computer? Did Gordon forget about prosthetics? The second was when Dagon shows up to eat somebody. The effect is so laughable that it belongs on the SyFy channel. What I want to know is...was showing Dagon really that essential? Wouldn't it have been better to go the Jacques Tourneur route? There are some genuinely terrifying moments, especially an extended sequence where the main character tries to keep a horde of fish...uh...zombies...out of his hotel room. But the rest of the film seems rushed and sloppy. It's a nice try, Mr. Gordon. You just showed too much.

6/10