Hey folks, Harry here... Last night I was lucky enough to experience a tad of DAGON myself. I was lucky enough to see two rather creepy as hell extended trailers for the latest from Stuart Gordon. There was an icky feel to the coastal city, the fish faced people... rightly disturbing... There was a fellow with no legs on a running board, holding two bricks in his tentacles pushing his way through the cobblestone streets. There was a wet and slimey dankness to the footage and there was terror in the eyes of the two stranded visitors... But overall... it looked real good. Lovecraft Horror could very well be my favorite, because it is the type that Hollywood doesn't seem to love. It's the type they, in their dimness, do not finance. Here's Wez with an advance look at the film as a whole... DAGON will be playing at the Stiges Film festival in Spain soon enough, where we'll hear more I'm sure.... Here ya go....
Dear Harry,
I was lucky enough to see a rough cut of Stuart Gordon's DAGON a few months ago, and am happy to report that it's (in my opinion) the director's best, and creepiest film since FROM BEYOND. Though there is a bit of jolting gore that gives the late Francisco Rabal a send-off that won't be forgotten anytime soon (and one that the actor's collaborator Luis Brunuel would probably admire), DAGON works because its of its effective use of moody restraint.
Indeed, you could describe DAGON as Lovecraft-noir, an atmosphere that's constantly rain-swept once the action gets going, with the unfathomable lurking just outside of the door. Without giving away too much plot, a ship wreck off the Spanish coast sends a guy and his girlfriend (forgive me if I can't remember their names) to a fishing village where all is not what it seems. Soon enough it's night, and the fish-people come out of the closet to pursue our hapless heroes.
What comprises much of DAGON is an effectively suspenseful run-and-duck between the lead and the village inhabitants who could best be described as an amphibious answer to the Chainsaw clan. Never before has Stuart Gordon's eerie atmosphere been used to such bone-chilling effect, and DAGON shows what this director can do when given a budget for an outright horror film. Like RE-ANIMATOR, Gordon never fails to shock with the sadomasochistic use of the humor form, not to mention its reproductive possibilities. But far from throwing guts into the camera, the violence in DAGON is mostly key to the story, one shock after the other making you wonder how much worse things can get for the hero while ratcheting the suspense and shocks up to an almost unbearable degree.
Like FROM BEYOND, Gordon conjures a nightmarish world filled of monstrosities lurking beyond our vision. It's the kind of mythic horror that makes for the best Lovecraft films. And while DAGON isn't quite THE SHADOW OVER INNSMOUTH, it certainly is the next best thing- a project that fans have been waiting years for, and won't be dissapointed with.
Wez
