Starring: Ezra Godden, Francisco Rabal, Rachel Merono, Macarena Gomez    Written by: H.P. Lovecraft (Short Story) and Dennis Paoli (screenplay)   Directed By:  Stuart Gordon

The Story:

I have never read any Lovecraft. There, I admitted it. Every time the Infernal Theater plays one of the adaptations of his works I'm at a loss be cause I don't know the source material very well. Sure, many people out there that have read Lovecraft's stuff email me and give me information, but I still know very little about the mythos of Cthulhu and the other evil god things Lovecraft wrote about. So before this movie I had never ever heard of Dagon.

Paul Marsh sure didn't know who Dagon is. But he sure will find out in this movie. Paul along with Barbara, his girlfriend, and Vicki and Howard, friends of his, are on a yacht off of the coast of Spain. You'd think they'd be all having a rip roaring good time....hey, if the sea's a rockin' don't come knockin'....but that's not the case. Paul keeps having eerie nightmares about the ocean and some weird chick. And he's totally obsessed with his stocks and money, much to Barbara's annoyance. To be honest, Paul's a dick. He's not a "bad" guy, but he's not very likable. Besides the fact that he's stinkin' rich I don't see what a chunk of fine babeness like Barbara finds in him.

The fun begins when a sudden storm whips up and the yacht crashes into a reef of the coast of the island village of Imboca. Vicki's leg becomes stuck in a hole that is in the hull and water begins to seep into the boat. Howard stays with Vicki while Paul and Barbara take the lifeboat to Imboca to get help. Imboca is dreary and grey, and the few people they spot hide behind shuttered windows. The couple go to the local church for help and meet the priest there, who strikes Paul as an odd fellow. I'd have to agree, especially since both he and Barbara notice that there are no crosses, or any Christian  accoutrements in the church, but there is a strange symbol. Still, the reason they're in Imboca is to get help for Vicki and Howard. The priest suggests that Paul and some local fishermen go to the yacht and help the pair, while Barbara gets the police. At first Paul objects to leaving her with this weird priest, but she says she'll be alright and he goes. To find Vicki and Howard missing from the sinking yacht!!! Returning to the island Barbara is also missing. Paul is directed to a small hotel to wait for her to return. But there's something odd going on, and he's too dense to see it.

Well, not really. Paul is upset and worried and scared. But the few people in Imboca that he's met so far are really strange. And the hotel is the dingiest, rattiest place in Europe, I'd wager. When Paul looks out of the window and sees the townspeople gathering outside he begins to realize that not only are these people weird, there's something seriously wrong here. They walk in a shambling manner....they all look...just not right...and they speak in almost inhuman voices. Maybe I shouldn't have called Paul dense. But I can't escape the idea that anyone else would have hidden or tried to get away from this place from the get-go. Paul doesn't even attempt to until its completely obvious that this crowd of freakazoids is coming after him.

You know, its a good thing when you can understand how terrifying something must be to the character in a movie. Paul is now on the run from a bunch of whacked out villagers and he has no idea why...he only knows they mean to do him harm. This is good as opposed to almost any other cheapo DTV horror flick where you don't really care if the axe murderer catches the protagonist. (Like SICK). Paul eventually finds a place to hide and meets an old fisherman named Ezequiel. Ezequiel seems to the only person in Imboca who's not all freaky looking and is relatively normal. Except for the fact that he's the town drunk. But he's crazy like a fox, as he explains that the villagers leave him alone because they think he's just a drunk old man. Ol' Ezequiel also tells Paul what's going on....

Decades ago Imboca was in dire straits....its a fishing village and the fish weren't coming in. The townspeople prayed and prayed for God to help them, but still, hey, they weren't getting enough fish. Then a sailor named Combarro arrived and told them that in his travels he found out about Dagon....a god that would answer their prayers. Naturally the clergy in thee town didn't like that, but Combarro said he would Dagon to Imboca and he did, using some kind of ritual summoning magic. And Dagon delivered the goods! Fish suddenly were plentiful and not only that....gold washed up on the shore! Imboca was rich! (Though you wouldn't know it by the dingy look of the place) The people stopped worshipping God and started worshipping Dagon. Combarro killed the priest and made the church into Dagon's image. No one but Ezequiel, who was a little boy at that time, and his parents seemed to mind. The rest were all into Dagon worshipping. But there was a horrible price. The people changed...as Paul can see now, they have gills, and other deformities. Dagon was somehow turning them all into some kind of fishy aquatic mutants. (You'd think when the first guy sprouted some fins they'd rethink the whole denouncing God stuff....I mean, damn, didn't this seem unnatural to anyone?) At first Paul tells Ezequiel he's full of baloney, but when he meets Uxia....who surprisingly is the girl he's been having crazy dreams about...he starts to get the idea that the old man isn't crazy. That revelation comes a bit too late, though. Paul is captured and finds himself locked up with Vicki, Barbara and Ezequiel. Vicki's leg has been bitten off and she's hysterical....Ezequiel tells them that Dagon "f***ed" her. I might have missed something, but I get the idea that Dagon is into procreating with mortal human women. Whatever...the experience left Vicki with one leg and a shattered spirit. Barbara makes Paul promise to kill her if that looks like the fate she has in store. The captives almost escape when the villagers come for them, but don't quite make it. Vicki kills herself rather than be a plaything for Dagon. Paul and Ezequiel are hauled off and chained up while Barbara is made ready for sacrifice. Paul has to watch in a grisly scene where the weirdo priest slices off the old man's face. Paul apologize to Ezequiel as they kill him....if the old man had just stayed drunk and not helped him, he wouldn't be getting all cut up now. Paul manages to free himself though, and kills the priest. Then he goes to rescue Barbara.

Armed only with a can of gasoline and a lighter, Paul barges into the sacrificial ceremony and starts torching the fishy villagers. Uxia, who turns out to be the High Priestess of Dagon, begs him to stop. apparently its supposed to Paul's destiny to be her lover. But Paul ain't havin' it. He's a bit too late to save Barbara, though. I gotta admit, the end of the movie was other than I expected and I don't want to spoil it for you if you haven't seen it. But if you absolutely must know just highlight the next few lines with your mouse cursor. Barbara is lowered into the water, screaming and kicking as Paul lights up the villagers. She goes under, but Paul makes it to the winching mechanism and raises her back up...but in the few minutes she was under, I guess Dagon had his way with her. Her eyes are vacant and she just mutters to Paul "Kill me...you promised.". Before Paul can unchain her though, Dagon (who is a big ass sea monster) swirls up from the pit and bites her, leaving only her two bloody arms on the chain. Then the villagers swarm Paul and kick the [unwrite] outta him. Uxia intervenes and an old man....her father....tells Paul that he is his son. This guy slept with his mother years ago and he is really Uxia's half brother, destined to be her lover. Uxia explains that he was once handsome for a human, but now he's a fish guy like everyone else. and Paul notices that he's beginning to grow gills on his abdomen. Disgusted he tries to set himself on fire, but Uxia grabs him and hurls the both of them into the water. The last we of Paul he's swimming away with her, apparently having a change of heart about being a fish guy.

I can tell you now, my droogies, that the ending of the movie seemed rushed. The revelation of Paul's fate came out of the blue and it seemed tacked on. I'm sure in the written version is was handled better, at least I hope so. Because in the movie it almost felt like they made it up as they reached the end. Still, I can't say Dagon is a bad movie. Lovecraft fans will probably be in two camps...those that like it because its Lovecraft (or an adaptation of his stories) and those that hate it because its probably a lot different than the written version. But if you're like me, just a guy wandering through Movie Hell, you might like it.

Best Lines:  “You make me remember my father and my mother...and who they want me to be....muchos gracias mi amigo.” -Ezequiel says his farewell to Paul.

"But there's a catch! It has to live the rest of its life as some half-assed fish in the sea!"- Paul's reaction when Uxia tells him that Barbara's sacrifice to Dagon will produce an immortal child.

 Are you kidding me?

1.) Paul's idea of removing the lock from the hotel's bathroom door and trying to attach it to the door of his room was...well, kinda smart. But only if you're McGyver or the friggin' Flash. During the whole sequence I was sitting with the Infernal Demons shouting "Just jump out of the window!"...which he ended up doing anyway.

2.) Imagine this....you're hiding from some people chasing you, and you run into a bedroom. There's a beautiful girl in the bed and she shoos the pursuers away before they find you. Then she begs you to stay with her. Now, many people would probably not listen to the calling of the little fireman and attempt to get some hot monkey love, and I would agree. That's probably a bad time to think about humping the girl. But if you did, like Paul, imagine the sheer horror of pulling back the sheets and finding out she doesn't have legs, but instead, slimy fishy, scaly tentacles! Ick! The hot chick has tentacles! Man what a let down! 

3.) After Paul is captured and reunited with Barbara and Vicki (along with Ezequiel) The old man tells them that the villagers must kill them because they know the secret of the Imboca and Dagon. But only Paul knows the story Ezequiel told him. Barbara and Vicki don't know and dialogue supports that. (Well, maybe Vicki knows something, but Barbara even says she must have been drugged when she starts rambling about Dagon) Hell, Barbara should have just said "I don't know anything about a secret, so why don't ya let me go?". Probably wouldn't have worked but when you're gonna die anyway, what's the diff?

4.) What I find even more troubling is when Paul runs from Uxia. He encounters a guard at the door and Paul surprisingly gets the better of him. Yet in hero-fashion after Paul has the all clear to finish the guy off the guard struggles with him yet so more. Listen, my droogies, for Dante is gonna school ya,,,,if you are ever in a remote village and being chased by mutated, crazed residents and you get the better of one of them in one on one combat.... KILL THEM! Don't  give 'em a chance to recapture you. Frack, they're trying to kill Paul, yet he doesn't just snuff this guy when he has the chance to make a clean getaway? He should have snapped the freaks neck like a Slim Jim and swooped.

5.) At the beginning of the movie Barbara and Paul have a little spat because Paul is so obsessed about his business and work that he's not enjoying his vacation. Barbara throws his laptop into the sea and Paul goes nuts. What a dimwit. He's got a beautiful girlfriend that's basically oozing "Kiss me you fool" all over him and he's worried about work? He's already rich! What's he afraid of...that if he hops in the sack with Barbara it'll cause another Great Depression?

6.) Whoa! In their ill fated escape attempt, Barbara kicks ass! She does some kung fu moves on one guy!

Nudity and Sex: Barbara is seen nude, Vicki gives us a quick glance of boobies and so does Uxia.

Huh?:

Paul must have a high tolerance for bull[unwrite]. When he first goes to his hotel room, its a filthy mess. I mean, toilet bad. There's mold and filth everywhere in the room including the bed. I've been in abandoned rat infested buildings that were cleaner. Yet Paul only stammers around a bit frustrated and sits in a chair grumbling about it. Hell, If I went anywhere and was given a room that bad I'd have one foot up the manager's ass within five seconds. Now if the manager was a demon worshipping super strong fish guy, I'd have some problems, but only a fool would stay in that room.

Let this go down in history as the first movie in the Inferno where I actually saw a dude beat the crap out of another dude with a cell phone.

You know that rare feeling you get when a character in movie actually does act just like you think you would in a similar circumstance? its a very RARE feeling, since well, everyone is different. But when Paul tells the evil Priest "Come on mother f***er!" and knifes him, the only thing I thought was "You go boy!". He didn't do the wussy ass "I can't kill you because then I'd be bad too" cop out. Paul killed the dude with malice and intent.

Ezequiel is a puzzle to me. He's lived in Imboca his whole life and has witnessed the horror that Dagon has caused. Yet the villagers leave him alone because they think he's just a harmless, crazy old drunk. Now in the last fifty or so years why didn't Ezequiel just freakin' leave? He could have simply stolen a boat or overpowered one of the mutated village fishermen and taken a boat. And come on, even if Imboca is an island, its gotta get resources from somewhere. Fuel, food goods, etc. He could have hopped a ride with one of those boats to the mainland. The villagers couldn't kill every delivery guy or government worker visiting Imboca...it would only cause more people to come there and investigate.

Paul begs the weirdo priest to let them go....he offers him 10 million bucks! The priest tells him they have more money than that in Imboca anyway. (If they do why does the place look like such a crap-hole?) At first I thought, what a jack-ass....thinking he can buy his way out of trouble. But then I thought that if I had ten million bucks and some crazy fish worshipping nutjob villagers were gonna kill me...hell I'd say the same thing. (But once they let me go I'd cancel the check. I'd need the money for the nuke I'd drop on Imboca.)

The Final Judgment: Dagon gets three Devil heads. The Inferno would give more, but the end....well, the end of the movie kinda shaved off some points. Still, its worth a rental and not to bad to watch if you like horror movies. Be warned though...it might put you off of your seafood for awhile.