Dagon

Vacationers get to close too close to a remote village and find themselves in a fishy situation.

A 2001 film of Elder Gods Unleashed based upon the works of H. P. Lovecraft. Stars Ezra Godden, Francisco Rabal, and Raquel Meroño. Written by Dennis Paoli. Directed by Stuart Gordon.

As a rule, if H. P. Lovecraft is the movie’s source material, the movie in question will most likely suck. It’s one of those Great Cinematic Truths. He’s worse than Stephen King in that regard. For some reason film makers pick the most complicated of his tales to try to adapt. Which they try to do so on a shoe string budget, when that only makes matters worse.

Assuming, of course they don’t turn it into some sort of slasher flick. Naturally.

Dagon does its companions in the sub genre one better. It throws out its source material and instead uses a different Lovecraft work. That it then becomes a rather decent adaptation after that is amusing enough. But let’s let that observation stand to one side for a moment.

The main problem with Dagon is that too often the plot hinges on the cult being a special kind of idiot at key moments. To list examples risks spoilers, but we’re going to live on the wild side here. We’re going to give a couple of examples.

First, the vacationers get to wander free on reaching the village. On the occasions when the cult has them in their power and no need for subtlety, they don’t act. They even let allow one of the vacationers time for a nap before attacking.

Which is hospitable. But stupid.

Second there’s one escape sequence that doesn’t quite gell. While it’s a chaotic moment, hiding behind a display rack that doesn’t cover much up shouldn’t work. What’s more, as the cultists all dress the same, you’d have thought the hider would stand out even more.

After this brush with Spoiler Country I’m going to rope the review back from the edge. Let me add for a future point that I couldn’t escape the feeling there was plot padding. More time could have used on fleshing characters out, making them more likable.

Saying that, I realize a Lovecraft story with fleshed out characters is a bit of a rarity, if it exists at all. Thing is, if you are moving away from the source, moving from the weaknesses is always the best option.

Not as bad but still a problem is that the whole film needed a more nightmarish air to it. Something more of unreality, more like what The Void brought to the table. Everything seemed too vanilla to me. Even the nightmares.

Then there is the CGI work. Or rather didn’t work. It’s not a fair carp to complain about such things, especially since a.) the film comes from the early days of the art, and b.) the reviewer gets irritable at people making fun of Godzilla special effects. Every time CGI cropped up in Dagon, though, I found myself tossed from the film.

Still, for these faults I found Dagon worked quite well. Despite my impression of padding in the film, I felt a nice degree of dread through out. No doubt this comes from the Director Stuart Gordon and Screenwriter Dennis Paoli. Neither are strangers to Old Providence, with Reanimator and From Beyond under their belts.  While those films aren’t great adaptations by any means, they are at least worthy Horror flicks. Dagon here if by far the most faithful adaptation of the three, coming the closest to the original work.

The one it adapts, I mean. Not the one it steals the title from.

On this the practical effect are well done, especially in the… well, that’s too much in Spoiler Country . We’ll say the tentacle scene and leave it at that. It makes me wish for less CGI and more of that.

Helping matter are the actors, who all display the same level of competency. Of particular note are the two cult leaders, who give off a nice level of madness during their scenes. It’s good B movie quality.

To start wrapping things up, Dagon for all its faults is one of the best Lovecraft adaptations out there. Not very faithful to the text, but better than most flicks bearing his name.

Wish I liked it more.

Most of my problems are Cullen Carps. For instance, Ezra Godden (who isn’t at all bad here) for some reason reminded me of Eddie Deezen once too often. Those not familiar with the name, Deezen played quite a few annoying nerd characters in the Eighties. Beverly Hills Vamp is a prime example. It’s hard to root for a character when you spend half the time hoping Cthulhu will step on him.

When that bizarreness wasn’t happening, Godden was reminding me of another actor, namely Genre Legend Jeffery Combs. And not in a good way, either. As good as Godden was, I couldn’t help but think how much better it would have been with Combs in his place.

Actually, it’s hard to think of a movie the presence of Jeffery Combs wouldn’t improve.

More crippling to my enjoyment of the film is that the liberties it takes don’t quite work for me. Saying which one broke the proverbial camel’s back spoiler wise, so I can’t go there. Let me say instead that it made me appreciate the original story more.

My personal opinion aside, more adaptations like this one would help Lovecraft’s name. Filmwise, mind.

Dagon for all its faults is one of the best Lovecraft adaptations out there (1.5 points). Not very faithful to the text, but better than most flicks bearing his name.

Since I didn’t like the original that much before this film that might be a good thing. For judging Dagon, though, it isn’t. I didn’t leave the flick hating it, or even disliking it. I just don’t care much about it (1 point).