Dagon (film)
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| Directed by | Stuart Gordon |
| Produced by | Julio Fernández Brian Yuzna |
| Screenplay by | Dennis Paoli |
| Based on | The Shadow Over Innsmouth by H. P. Lovecraft |
| Starring | Ezra Godden Francisco Rabal Raquel Meroño |
| Music by | Carles Cases |
| Cinematography | Carlos Suárez |
| Editing by | Jaume Vilalta |
| Studio | Castelao Producciones Estudios Picasso Fantastic Factory ICCA Generalitat de Catalunya, Institut Català de Finances Televisió de Catalunya Televisión de Galicia S.A. Vía Digital Xunta de Galicia |
| Distributed by | Filmax International (Spain) Lions Gate Entertainment (United States) |
| Release date(s) | October 12, 2001 (Sitges Film Festival) July 23, 2002 (United States) |
| Running time | 98 minutes |
| Country | Spain |
| Language | English Galician Spanish |
| Budget | $4,800,000 |
Dagon is a 2001 horror film directed by Stuart Gordon and written by Dennis Paoli. Despite the title, the plot is actually based on H. P. Lovecraft's novella The Shadow Over Innsmouth (1932) rather than on his earlier short story "Dagon" (1919).
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[edit] Plot
Paul Marsh is a wealthy stock market tycoon vacationing off the shores of Spain with his girlfriend, Barbara, and their friends Vicki and Howard. Despite Paul's disturbing dreams about a carnivorous mermaid and a deep, underwater pit, things go well, until a storm blows the friends' boat against some hidden rocks. Vicki is trapped below deck, and Howard stays with her while Paul and Barbara take a lifeboat to the little fishing village of Imbocca, a storm blows up, dashing the boat against the rocks.
At the docks, Barbara and Paul find no one about, and venture into town until they eventually reach the church, where they find a priest. Barbara convinces him to help them, and the priest comes to speak with two fishermen at the docks, who volunteer to take either Paul or Barbara to the wreck. Despite Paul's misgivings, Barbara stays to try to find a phone in order to call a doctor while Paul goes to help their friends.
Vicki and Howard are mysteriously missing, however, and Paul is brought back to shore, where he is sent to a hotel, where Barbara was supposed to have ended up. But she is missing as well, and Paul is left to wait for her in an old, filthy room.
His fitful rest is broken by a large gathering of strange, inhuman people approaching the hotel, and Paul fearfully tries to barricade himself in the room, but is forced to flee from the masses. He ends up in a macabre tannery full human skins, and is forced to fight off several of the villagers by starting a fire. With the flames as a diversion, Paul is able to run and find momentary safety with an old, human drunkard named Ezekiel, the last human in Imboca.
Ezekiel explains how the worship of Dagon brought incredible wealth in the form of fish and gold to Imboca, but also terror when Dagon demanded live sacrifices and human women to breed with. Paul realizes his friends are in danger, and begs Ezekiel to help him save Barbara, Vicki and Howard, if they're still alive. Ezekiel relents and takes Paul to the Mayor's manor, distracting some servants long enough for Paul to slip inside. There, Paul finds a beautiful woman named Uxia Cambarro, who looks just like the mermaid from Paul's dream! She saves him from discovery, but when Paul finds she isn't human either, he flees again in horror, despite Uxia's pleas to stay.
Paul narrowly escapes a horde of more villagers by hot-wiring an old car, but ends up crashing, and is thrown into an old barn, where he is reunited with Vicki, Ezekiel, and Barbara. The three plan to escape, but the attempt comes to naught when they are discovered. Having been raped and impregnated, Vicki kills herself, and in the resulting confusion, Paul and Ezekiel manage to kill one guard and subdue another before being recaptured by the guards' backup. Barbara is taken away, and Paul and Ezekiel end up in a butchery, where they are chained and given a chance to join the worship of Dagon. When they both refuse, Ezekiel is killed before Paul's eyes while they both say the Lord's Prayer.
Paul is saved by the appearance of Uxia, who tells the guards and Ezekiel's killer to leave, and informs Paul that he has no choice but to join them. When he again refuses, Uxia angrily leaves him, and Paul escapes, killing his would-be murderers, and starts desperately looking for Barbara, collecting a can of kerosene on the way. His search brings him to the empty church, and inside is a hidden passage that takes him below ground, where a congregation of villagers are watching Uxia, now garbed as a priestess, torture Barbara before the human woman is chained and lowered into a deep, water-filled pit. The inhuman congregation and Uxia call to Dagon and Cthulu, and Paul attacks, dousing several villagers in kerosene and lighting them on fire before pulling Barbara out of the pit. However, it is too late to save her.
The uninjured fish-men surround Paul, but are stayed by one man who is revealed to be Paul's father- and Uxia's as well. She explains that Paul's human mother escaped from Imboca years ago, but now that he has returned, he will be her lover, and they will go to dwell with Dagon. Trapped, Paul pours the last of the kerosene over his body and lights himself on fire in despair. Uxia grabs him and sends them both into the water, where Paul develops gills. With no choice left, he follows Uxia down into the pit he has seen in his dreams.
The screen fades to black, and a quote appears: "We shall swim out to that brooding reef in the sea and dive down through black abysses to Cyclopean and many columned Y'ha-nthlei, and in that lair of the Deep Ones we shall dwell amidst wonder and glory for ever."
[edit] =The Rise of Dagon
According to Ezequiel, Long ago Imbocca was a great fishing port. Then, suddenly, one day the fish stopped coming in and nobody could find out why. The people prayed and prayed but no fish came. Then one day, a strange man come to the village and told the people of Imbocca that their god was a false god that had deserted them and that if they followed him, he would show them a REAL god who would answer their prayers. the people at first ignored the stranger, but, as money and food ran thin, a small handful of men followed the stranger to the sea to watch him ask his god, Dagon, for help. The stranger put on a strange golden crown and stood by the sea, chanting a prayer in an alien tongue, calling upon Dagon for help. The next day, the shores were covered in seashells, starfish, and other items made of gold. The villagers couldn't believe their eyes! The town was rich and the fishing was good again, but the old man's parents didn't trust this new god and refused to share in the treasures from the sea.
The stranger led the people of the town in killing their old priest and overhauling their church into a temple to Dagon. Now everyone was expected to worship Dagon and the entire town joined the stranger in his strange prayers... everyone except the old man and his parents, that is.The stranger, who had become the head of the temple to Dagon as well as the town mayor, noticed this lack of prayer and questioned the old man's parents in the church on it, demanding that they pray to Dagon. They refused and were killed. The boy was too frightened to speak, and so the temple head tore off the boy's cross necklace and blessed him in the name of Dagon before continuing the service.
One day the fish stopped as did the gold, and the people asked why Dagon has forsaken him. Was it because they were not praying enough? No, it was because Dagon wanted sacrifices. Women were to be given to Dagon, not to be killed, but to be mated with, so his children would populate the town. Over time, between the breeding with Dagon and his children and the blessings of Dagon, all of Dagon's followers became fish-like so that one day they could serve their master in the sea. As the only person of the town not either a child of Dagon by faith or blood, the old man had remained human and was now the last man in Imbocca. The only reason he was not killed and skinned was because the townfolk considered him just a harmless old drunk, and had decided to leave him alone as he was no threat.
[edit] Cast
- Ezra Godden as Paul Marsh
- Francisco Rabal as Ezequiel
- Raquel Meroño as Barbara
- Macarena Gómez as Uxía Cambarro
- Brendan Price as Howard
- Birgit Bofarull as Vicki
- Uxía Blanco as Ezequiel's Mother
- Ferran Lahoz as Priest
- Joan Minguell as Xavier Cambarro
- Alfredo Villa as Captain Orpheus Cambarro
- José Lifante as Desk Clerk
- Javier Sandoval as Ezequiel's Father
- Victor Barreira as Young Ezequiel
- Fernando Gil as Catholic Priest
- Jorge Luis Pérez as Boy
[edit] Novel equivalences
The following is a list of characters and elements from the film and their corresponding counterpart in the original novel:
- Paul Marsh - Robert Olmstead
- Ezequiel - Zadok Allen
- Captain Orpheus Cambarro - Obed Marsh
- Javier Cambarro - Barnabas Marsh
- Imboca - Innsmouth
- Hotel del Mar - Gilman House
- Esotérica Orden de Dagón - Esoteric Order of Dagon [1]
^ This name is still faithful to the novel as it is a literal translation to Spanish of the original name.
[edit] Details
Dennis Paoli wrote the screenplay back in the 1980s, 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. The movie was shot at Combarro, a small fishing village near Pontevedra in Galicia. The film is dedicated to actor Francisco Rabal immediately before the credits.
[edit] External links
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