Dagon (film)
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| Dagon | |
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| Directed by | Stuart Gordon |
| Produced by | Julio Fernández Brian Yuzna |
| Written by | Short Story: H.P. Lovecraft Screenplay: Dennis Paoli |
| Starring | Ezra Godden Francisco Rabal Raquel Meroño |
| Music by | Carles Cases |
| Distributed by | Lions Gate Films |
| Release date(s) | October 12, 2001 (Sitges Film Festival) |
| Running time | 98 min. |
| Language | English, Galician |
| Budget | $4,800,000 |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Dagon is a 2001 horror movie directed by Stuart Gordon and written by Dennis Paoli. Despite the title, the story is based more on H.P. Lovecraft's novella The Shadow Over Innsmouth (1932) than his earlier short story titled "Dagon" (1919).
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[edit] Cast
- Ezra Godden .... Paul Marsh
- Francisco Rabal .... Ezequiel
- Raquel Meroño .... Bárbara
- Macarena Gómez .... Uxía Cambarro
- Brendan Price .... Howard
- Birgit Bofarull .... Vicki
- Uxía Blanco .... Ezequiel's Mother
- Ferran Lahoz .... Priest
- Joan Minguell .... Xavier Cambarro
- Alfredo Villa .... Captain Orpheus Cambarro
- José Lifante .... Desk Clerk
- Javier Sandoval .... Ezequiel's Father
- Victor Barreira .... Young Ezequiel
- Fernando Gil .... Catholic Priest
- Jorge Luis Pérez .... Boy
[edit] Plot
Two young American tourists, Barbara and Paul, seek help in a small town called Imboca on the coast of Galicia in Spain after their boat becomes shipwrecked. However, the inhabitants turn out to be far from friendly, and, as they discover, not even human, apart from one drunken tramp, Ezequiel (played by veteran Spanish actor Francisco Rabal - in what turned out to be his last role). He tells Paul how the denizens of the town have overthrown Christianity in favour of the fish god Dagon, who has brought them wealth from the sea. Since that time they have mutated into fish-like forms and are in obedience to the beautiful mermaid-like Uxia. Eerily she has appeared to Paul in his dreams even before they meet and she saves him from being murdered by the locals. However, her plans for him...and for Barbara...unleash horror beyond all imagination.
[edit] Details
The plot presents several differences from Lovecraft's original story, such as:
- The setting is switched to Spain from the town of Innsmouth on the coast of Massachusetts. (Boca in Spanish means mouth.)
- The story is updated to modern times, with the appearance of devices such as mobile phones and laptop computers.
- The number of main characters is increased.
- The origin of the villagers--in the Lovecraft story, they are the offspring of human interbreeding with sea creatures called Deep Ones--is never really explained in the movie. Also, their design is much exaggerated (with tentacles instead of arms or legs and so on).
- The villagers' habit of skinning and wearing their victims' faces. Stuart Gordon based this on research he had done about the ancient worshipers of Dagon, who wore fish heads.
Dennis Paoli wrote the screenplay back in the '80s, but he and Stuart Gordon never managed to get the movie off the ground. In early 2000, Brian Yuzna founded the Fantastic Factory division of Filmax and called them back to finally shoot the movie. The original draft was more faithful to Lovecraft's short story, being based in New England.
