Feedback from the Austin Screening of Stuart Gordon's telling of H.P. Lovecraft's DAGON!

Hey folks, Harry here... Stuart Gordon is no longer here in Austin, but DAGON still is. IF... If you want to see this wonderful H. P. Lovecraft adaptation on a big screen, as it was intended... Then check out Drafthouse.Com for ticket availability for the Alamo Drafthouse. I'll be writing my own review of this film tonight, but here's a taste of the fervor that this film inspires in the Lovecraft faithful. Here you go...

Hola all. I am writing this under the strain of madness, the voracious teeth of insanity gnawing at my skull. I fear that by morning I shall be no more, that this town shall be no more, for “Dagon” has been unleashed, albeit within the confines of a single ritual. I write this to share with you the sheer horror that the depths of human depravity have conjured, that if one day it escapes again, that those who may read this manuscript might stave off this brooding madness, and see, as I have, the beauty of the Ancient Ones.  

Oh, yes, Dagon, despite its affect upon my fragile sanity, was a thing to behold. A Beautiful horror. A thing of such malevolent pulchritude that words alone cannot describe it. It was as if Mighty Cthulhu himself had blessed this black mass and offered us, for a scant 95 minutes, a taste of his very presence.  

Of all my years researching those that shall not be named, of all my late night deciphering of the sketches and diagrams of the Mad Arab, of all my ponderings into the infinite ether above, I had never imagined it so crystalline before me. I never thought it possible. Such a thing could not exist.  

Dagon exists. Oh yes, and it is grand.  

This black mass began in our church, the local house of worship where the silver screen has glowed with the culminations of many a man’s madness. Tarantino has held mass there. And Campbell. And Rodriguez. And Linklater. Brilliant madmen such as Gregory Widen and Robert Forster have attended mass there. It is the place where I first attended mass with Harry, with FatherGeek, with Quint and Patch and Rav and Auntie Meat. The same hall in which the yearly dark rites of Harry’s orgiastic Butt-Numb-A-Thon are held. It is the Alamo Drafthouse. What a dark, corrupt and tainted place it is now.  

Built upon the foundation of what was once a parking garage, the architecture speaks of middle American pop influences, yet the theatre itself is unique; as if some sadistic lecture hall had been merged with a mid 20th century cinema Americana, mating for hours in spastic glee to give birth to this fair hall of roving servants and flickering images.  

But tonight, oh this wicked night, the architecture changed. It breathed in the darkness and spat out the wickedness of Dagon in its exhilation. Tonight, Stuart Gordon held mass.  

Oh the madness, the horror of it all. The horror. The horror. Did I mention the madness? And horror.  

Okay, enough of the Lovecraftian posturing. Let’s get down to the nitty gritty of Dagon. First of all, if the last few paragraphs have left you confused or wondering why the hell I was writing like that then Dagon is not for you. See that “Back” button on the upper left hand corner of your screen? Press it now and go watch the “Reign of Fire” teaser again. Trust me, Dagon is not for you. It’s for the rest of us. That’s right. Dagon is for those of us that have felt Lovecraft tiptoe into our souls, lay his foul eggs of dementia and leave us to rot with horrifying images of the Ancients in our skulls. Dagon is for everyone of us who jumped five feet in the air when our cats leapt into our lap while we were drinking in “Pickman’s Model”. Dagon is for anyone and everyone who has been waiting for a true thematic, inventive, serious adaptation of Lovecraft’s work and have been left with only the 1970 “The Dunwich Horror” to keep us warm.  

Stuart Gordon did such wonderful things with $3 Million. This film is the first ever to really, absolutely conjure H.P. Lovecraft to the screen and paint such images that will forever haunt you when rereading the originals it is based on.  

There is no way I can really express what this film did to me. I was watching it, and rather enjoying it, wondering what Stuart was going to show us next, and then there came this moment, this moment of absolute joy where I actually began to vibrate and my eyes shot to the size of saucers and my jaw went slack, falling fully agape. It was a scene recounting what had occurred in this town when the fisherman turned dark priest cast an ancient artifact in the water and began to chant. The soundtrack kicked in. And beautifully sung words floated out of the speakers. They sang “Ia! Ia! Cthulhu fhtagn! Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah-nagl fhtaga.” I shit you not. That’s what they sang. For the first time in my life, I heard a prayer to Cthulhu sung. Those unpronounceable words dripped melodically from the tongues of those singing it and gave me a geek stiffy like I cannot describe. Imagine, if you will, the great Russian singing from “The Hunt for Red October” replacing those words with a Lovecraft written prayer to Dagon invoking Cthulhu and you have an exact idea of what I heard.  

It was amazing and I became hypnotized. This film was not made for the popcorn swilling masses shelling out money at the multiplexes this summer. This film was not made for the critics. This film was not made to garner a single award. This film was made because Stuart Gordon is haunted by the ghost of H.P. Lovecraft and it won’t leave him alone. This film was made by Stuart Gordon for all of us who have ever lost sleep over the greatest horror writer of all time.  

This film is moody, creepy and downright sacrilegious. It never for a moment strays away from Lovecraft’s formula of fucking his characters over right and left. The horror of the Ancients is inescapable. They will, at some point, kill, maim, devour or simply destroy the sanity of us all. And if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. Because with Lovecraft, death, insanity and servitude are your only options. Gordon doesn’t forget that for a second with “Dagon” and he never lets us forget it. Every bit of Lovecraft’s pathos is presented on the screen. Every bit of it.  

This film is everything it should be…except distributed. You see, the problem with Dagon is that it’s so like Lovecraft that your average American just won’t and can’t get it. They’ve been raised to fear the watered down versions written by third generation fans like King and Koontz, so much so that this kind of thing will just blow their minds. They’ll miss the subtle nuances of what’s being talked about and what’s being shown, thinking, hey, I’ve seen this all before, not realizing that this is where what they’ve seen before borrowed from. It’s like reading the Old Testament and thinking “Hey, this is weak. Billy Graham is so much better then this ‘he begat him and he begat her’ crap.”  

Just read the unnamed chucklehead’s review on IMDB and see what I’m talking about. He found it ludicrous that there where shambling aquatic horrors. Fish people, he called them. Now if you’re reading this and screaming SPOILER WARNING PLEASE, then once again, Dagon is not for you. And if you don’t know about fish people before you see this, then you’ll know 15 minutes in, so relax. Fish People indeed. This guy didn’t get it because he saw this as a third rate idea that is simply ridiculous. He didn’t see that this was an adaptation of an 80 year old horror story. He saw it as a cheesy horror movie.  

He probably thought Valentine was a plausible horror concept.  

And if you thought Valentine was a valid horror concept…ALL TOGETHER NOW…Dagon is not for you.  

Okay…just the Lovecrafties with me now? Good. You’ll love this. Beautifully shot, wonderfully conceived, and probably the best thing to happen to Lovecraft since WWII (when his work first received large circulation and he gained a great amount of popularity, albeit posthumously.) And the score, dear god, the score…Lion’s gate, you guys listening? Good, hear me out. Do one of the two things. 1) Release this freaking soundtrack. It is unlike anything out there for the large fan base Lovecraft has. Or 2) Do something REALLY subversive to get the word out on this Video/DVD release. Post the soundtrack in MP3 format on a webpage about the film. Then send out a press release about the tracks and the film to every Lovecraft fansite you can find. If you have doubts about the size of this fanbase, call up the Wizards of the Coast game company and ask them about their opening weekend sales of the $40 Call of Cthulhu game book released earlier this year. Have them repeat the numbers if necessary. Realize these people will buy this DVD in droves if you let them know about it. Use the MP3’s as proof that this film is serious about it’s Lovecraft roots.  

I want to hear this music over and over again. I want to write to this music, I want to chill to this music, I’d want to fuck to this music except I’m afraid of the spawn that might be conceived (and that my wife would kick me off and demand I put on something slightly more romantic.)  

All in all, this movie come together in ways I never thought would be possible on film. It fills my head with sweet dreams of del Toro’s “At the Mountains of Madness”. It makes me thankful that there are Stuart Gordon’s in the world to paint beautifully disturbed pictures to go along with the words I know by heart.  

Dagon hits stores July 23rd. I’m guessing with the weak push it’s getting and the crap ass, moronic review it got in VIDEO STORE WEEKLY that there won’t be many copies available at your local rental store or outlet (Hell, just look at how few copies of the Devil’s Backbone hit shelves this week) so get there early and support this genius piece of horror.  

Until next time friends,

Smoke ‘em if ya got ‘em. I know I will.  

Massawyrm  

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