Dagon (2001)

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Don't let the crappy poster fool you: it's actually pretty good!

Director Stuart Gordon

Stars Ezra Godden, Raquel Meroño

Things You Might Like

• Creepy visuals
• A chase sequence that doesn’t let up
• Excellent plot
• The moment you go, ‘Hey, this is just like Resident Evil 4!’
• BOOBIES!

Things You Might Not Like

• Lame hero
• Lame CGI effects
• Lame that it takes so long to get really, really good

Conclusion
Dagon is a surprisingly fun horror romp that unfortunately takes a bit too long to get into the swing of things.

3 out of 5 Fish Fingers

Jonathan David Lim

***

It’s not very often that I’m pleasantly surprised by something. It’s more likely that I set my expectations so low, that I’m surprised the results could be lower (as in the case of my last review). But this time, my low expectations were subverted in the best way possible. It’s like reaching into your pocket expecting to find lint, only to produce a twenty pound note.

Okay, well, maybe not a twenty’s worth. More like one. Or, okay, let’s be generous: a two pound coin. That’s a nice little discovery, isn’t it? It’s not a rapturous one to be sure, but nevertheless charming, and a delightful little piece of joy to brighten up your day. Only in this case, it’s a coin that’ll give you the creeps.

Dagon has its flaws, not least of which is a mousey, irritating main character more apt for a Woody Allen film. Paul Marsh (Ezra Godden, who I like to think is sticking to a shitty script, instead of being a shitty actor) is a nerdy, tech-obsessed loser who managed to strike it rich playing the stock market. More unbelievable, however, is the fact that his girlfriend is a gorgeous Spanish woman named Bárbara (Raquel Meroño), who wants nothing more than to make Paul happy. Obviously a gold-digger, she’s actually the strongest character in the entire film, and for the first twenty minutes, I was really hoping we’d get to ditch Paul and follow her. Alas, director Stuart Gordon makes it quite clear that’s Bárbara’s sole purpose for being in the film is to fulfil the ages-old ‘damsel in distress‘ motif. And, of course, to see her naked.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. The film opens with Paul and Bárbara attempting to enjoy their newfound wealth on the deck of their friends’ yacht as it sails the Atlantic, when a storm sends the vessel into a rock spire protruding from the ocean. As the yacht prepares to sink, Paul and Bárbara seek help from the seaside town of Imboca. But, as this is a horror film, things aren’t as they seem.

Imboca boasts impressive architecture that has long since decayed, consumed by the elements over years of perpetual rainfall. Even more decayed, however, are its people: shambling, mutated folk with webbed hands, sharp teeth, gills in their necks. They capture Bárbara, and attempt the same with Paul after he is told to wait for her in a room at the hotel. But Paul, thankfully, is crafty, and manages to affix a bolt onto his hotel room door, which likely went on to inspire this very sequence in the 2005 game Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth:

As a matter of fact, this film seems to have inspired a good deal of game developers, not least of which are the good folks at Capcom and their hit title Resident Evil 4. The parallels are aplenty: both take place in a small (and rainy) Spanish hamlet, its citizens made up of zombiesque mutants, all of whom worship an entity that forms the basis of their local cult. And then there’s this guy:

If Paul had only asked the guy for a gun, he wouldn’t have had to use his mobile phone as a weapon.

Which brings me back to the little wiener. Remember how I mentioned he belonged in a Woody Allen film? Well, apparently, that’s the point. A good portion of the film involves Paul fleeing from his would-be captors, a long sequence that is broken only once when he meets a homeless drunk (the late Francisco Rabal, to whom this film is dedicated) – the only ‘normal’ individual in Imboca —  who relates the terrible history of the town, and how it came to be in its present state. When Paul is finally abducted, it is only then that he transforms into an individual of strength and willpower. It’s very easy to hate him early on, but hard not to love him by the film’s end.

It’s closer to the end that things start to get really twisted, as well. Following Paul’s capture, he and the drunk find themselves tied to posts, and is forced to watch as the poor old man is flayed alive. The gruesome effects are played up magnificently, and is bound to make even the most hardened horror fans cringe. It’s too bad not all of the effects could have been the same, as the film tends to rely on a good deal of sub-par CGI.

Overall, Dagon is not what I would call terrifying, or even especially intense. It’s a good fun romp, but the wimpy protagonist really kills the mood at the outset. It takes just a bit too long for him to come around, and by the time we’re ready to really cheer him on, it’s almost over. At least we get a good half-hour of him being a badass to make up for it.

Buy Dagon from Amazon today. And get the full 4-D experience by watching it outside in the glorious English weather!