Dagon
Been on a Lovecraft binge again. Started out with Dagon, a Spanish-American collaboration that despite its name, is based on Shadow over Innsmouth instead of Dagon. It's directed by Stuart Gordon, who has adapted several Lovecraft-stories to the big screen, including his biggest hit, Re-Animator, which debuted in 1985 (and was my first encounter with Lovecraftian horror as a young boy).
Dagon has multiple things going for it, but unfortunately it's dragged down by sub par acting and an overall cheapish feel (nothing wrong with low budget, but here it results in crappy CG-effects).
The good parts is Gordon's respect for the source material. It follows Shadows over Innsmouth closely, but it adds several elements that feels right at home with the Lovecraftian mythos, which among other things, includes the logo/emblem for The Esoteric Order of Dagon, the cult that worships a Deep One. This logo is actually used in the video game The Sinking City, which is based on pretty much every story by Lovecraft, and forms a big part of its narrative around EOD. That is pretty neat.
Dagon has a strong and spooky atmosphere, good makeup on the fish people in the village (the makeup team later won an Oscar for its makeup in Pan's Labyrinth) and some surprisingly solid gore effects. So far everything is good.
The downside is the acting. We're talking C-tier acting here and it's extremely off putting hearing these actors and actresses deliver the dialogue without any emotions at all. It's strange that Gordon directed all of the acting this weak considering he did a good job in Re-Animator and Castle Freak getting the campy tone of it pretty spot on. Most of it is attributed to Jeffrey Combs being a terrific actor but Gordon should have demanded better takes by his actors. Some scenes are just pure cringe.
Dagon is the weakest Lovecraft adaptation to date, but it is still a must see if you're a fan of his works. It packs enough goodies from the mythos to instill some sense of awe and it got lots of freaky gore and weirdness to hold you through to the end. This, combined with a cool story that draws inspiration from Lovecrafts most famous works, makes for a movie that earns its spot in the vast sea of other adapted works from this wonderful and strange horror author.
