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A young man and his girlfriend discover that the little Spanish village of Imboca is the inbred fish mutant capital of the world.  Remember all of those "unspeakable things" that Lovecraft often mentioned but never described?  At least one of them is fish incest.

I loved this movie!  I always found The Shadow Over Innsmouth one of the most terrifying tales of all time.  This film really captures (though straying a bit from the source material) the theme of the story.  The ending contains the twist but it was the one thing I wish they would have played up more.  The toilet swirly scene is awesome btw.

Thanks for the great review.

Nice dig at West Virgina by the way.

Say do you know how to ambush a marine?

You wait till he gets a drink of water then slam the toilet lid down on his head.

Gloomhound . . . DON'T MESS WITH ANDREW! :hatred:

Why in heavens name would I mess with Andrew?

I would never mess with him or his home State. That would just be rude.

By the way do you know why the Army has guard dogs and the Navy has Marines?

The Army got first choice! ;)

This is one ex-squid who will go to the mat for our Gunny!
I wouldn't come in as  a GUEST on his forum and be starting trouble if I were you.


Now, on a lighter note, I haven't seen DAGON in years.  I may have to give it another watch.  I remember really enjoying it.

Hmmm... it maybe a concidence but the image of the guy from the video clip looks like the Batman villian the Great White.  Interesting.

A good review, but there is an error in there:


Wouldn't that be Empire Strikes Back?

Had to Google for a picture of that Batman villain.  The do look similar.


Son of a gun!  I have no clue why I put that, other than the fact that recently the kids wanted to watch one of the Star Wars films, and they chose "Return of the Jedi."


I am going to guess that this person serves or served in the Army, and is from West Virginia.  Hence why he is upset and attempting to insult me.

Dagon actually is a pretty awesome Lovecraft movie, although -- as noted -- it's got much more in common with The Shadow Over Innsmouth than Dagon. Also, the girl playing Barbara is awesomely hot! Why haven't we seen her in any other bad movies?

Ah, Dagon, or as those who watch it with me refer to it, "that fish-people movie." I got real excited when I saw this on the front page :teddyr:. This is one of my favorite recent horror films as well as one of the better attempts to adapt Lovecraft into a movie. Being the type who has clearly read everything Lovecraft ever wrote, I got the connections between the seperate stories and thought that the combination was done fairly well. I also approve very highly of most, if not all of, the effects being done in front of the camera (one or two moments I wasn't quite sure.)

The hotel room is indeed very horrible, and the octopus man at the end always registers in mind for a split-second as Brundlefly.

Having read and enjoyed most of H. P. Lovecraft's short stories, I can attest to the difficulty of taking his vision from the page to the screen. This is one of the few that I've seen that gets it right. That's one reason to see it.

The other reason to see it is Francisco (Paco) Rabal's performance as Ezequiel. (IMHO) One of the best performances I've ever seen in a horror films. Unfortunately, he'd only have one more screen appearance, before his death in 2001. R.I.P. Paco.

"I feel no slight amount of trepidation about how Google will index this review. "

You are a prince among men.  I salute you sir!

I remember seeing this movie on TV once which is sad because I could feel (as I see here) I was missing out on the best parts. Once you cut out all the gore and hot fish/human chicks you just have a nerdy looking guy being chased alot by evil villagers. I remember the ending being somewhat disappointing because he falls in the water before he really burns (seems he failed to actually kill anyone with his flame attack, even himself.) and ends up following the mer-octopus as she swims down the tunnel. Classic bad-ending where the evil cult wins despite liberal usage of flammables by the protagonist.

I have never read Lovecraft books but it would be cool to see how these stories were actually written.

I really like this movie, but it disturbs me because I find Uxia very attractive and I'd probably still do her even though her bottom half is an octopus.

Guilty on both counts, but truth be told I am only very mildly upset about the West Virginia "thing."

 :hot: "Deep Blew Sea?!!" Oh,lord,I actually roared when I read the opening to this review.
I haven't posted 'til now, but you got me-I am now an official devotee..................

That would be Macarena Gomez. When she's not playing the otherworldly sea-creature, she's pretty attractive. She's a great example of an actress with odd features that somehow work as a whole.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UInoPK5WqU

Andrew's a big boy.

I see you registered, gloomhound. Welcome to the forum. We're not really big on personal attacks and fights here. Stick around, though. Enjoy the discussions of bad movies. If you found the site through the Dagon review, I think you'll find some good reasons to stick around.

Hey Gloomhound, it it was all in good fun, then we're fine.  I was a little touchy the other night.  Welcome aboard!

Please think nothing of it.

For my part I made my post with an eye toward humor and with no ill intent.

As for this site, I have been a fan for years and a fan of bad movie for far longer. I carry the scars of a true aficionado. As a child I was take to the movies and allowed to pick the movie I wanted to see. I chose "The Crater Lake Monster" over a little movie you might have heard of called "Star Wars"*

"Grizzly", "Empire of the Ants", and "Prophecy" all I spent my hard earned paper route money to see.

I watched "Hawk the Slayer" in the theater...twice....on purpose.

I took a date to see "TerrorVision" and this was a girl I really liked!

I even almost watch all of a few Sci-Fi Channel movies all the way though...almost.**

So I've been around and I hope that I might fit right in around here.


*True story
** Ok I'll admit it I like Sci-Fi Channel movies. Sure I haven't made it to the end credits of Anonymous Rex yet. But I will as soon as my therapist says I'm healthy enough to try again.

An important thing to know about Lovecraft is that he rarely employs dialogue. He only wrote dialogue in The Dunwich Horror and The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. Even in those brief instances, you could tell that he sucked at dialogue. So most of his stories consist of solid narrative broken up by the occasional monologue.

Been  a long  time viewer to  this site  and  love it  but  this  is the  first  time Ive  commented and  Ill try  to rectify  that  in  the  future, but  anyways....here  we  go. That  mermaid porn  film  you were talking  about?  It  existed  in  the  70's, It  was called  Gums which  i  guess was  a  shot   at  some shark  movie making  the   rounds  about  that  time(hee hee). Look it  up  if you  can. Definitely  bad  fun. Andrew .. been a   bad  movie  afficionado  for  more  years  then I  can  count and  I  love  the  site. Keep  up  the  good  work!

It was directed by Stuart Gordon, who has had a more success in making Lovecraftian movies than anyone else that comes to mind.  I really have to recommend The Resurrected (http://www.badmovies.org/movies/resurrected/) to anyone who likes a good movie adaptation of Lovecraft.



Lovecraft's true skill was in causing his readers to conjure up unspeakable horrors.  That's why I have always enjoyed his works.  They lay out some foundations, then put it upon me to populate the story with its various denizens.  It's also a reason that making a Lovecraft story into a film is so difficult, because you have to show something to the audience.



Thank you!



Good to go, and welcome aboard.  By the way, seeing "Hawk the Slayer" in the theater must have been fun.  That movie is amazingly bad, but still a lot of fun for people who like cheesy fantasy flicks.



Egad, I found it via the IMDb:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0139294/

Check out this part of the IMDb entry:

Soundtracks
"Thar She Blows"

Good  Lord  ..Youve found  it! LOL! I actually  saw  this  when  a  local  mom and  pop video store  placed  it  in their  comedy  section   not  knowing any  better. I  got  quite  a  shock  out  of it. When  the store  when  out of  business they were selling  off their

  stock but  alas, I  never saw  it  there. I asked  the  owner about  it  but  he said  he  didnt  know  what  I  was  talking  about. Dirty old  man  probably  kept it   for  himself. Sure  wish i  had  it  now. I  beleive   its  worth a  chuck  of  change  in  good  condition.

HAHAHAHAAAAA!!! I would absolutely pay to see Kurt Thomas try to pommel-horse his way out of a Lovecraftian situation!

I absolutely love "Dagon." I wouldn't necessarily call it a bad movie, though I do have to admit that while it is one of the best of the H. P. Lovecraft adaptations, when compared to the broader genre of horror it probably doesn't hold up. Ezra Godden brings a very Jeffrey Combs-esque feel to the main character, in keeping with Lovecraft's habit of putting utterly ordinary people into indescribably horrible situations--before seeing them dead or damned. I particularly love the attention to detail on the "Eye of Dagon" tunnel in the sea floor.

Well-adapted material; excellent characterizations; gruesome, otherworldly horror; and stunning women--what's not to love?

I liked Dagon quite a bit and decided that I am madly in love with Macarena Gomez..... tentacles and all.

BTW, being an old Nam Vet and gunboat sailor who used to give the USMC gunfire support I feel comfortable in imparting a couple of jokes:

1- Why does the USAF have the smartest enlisted men? Because they send the officers into combat.

2- Why does the Navy have the second smartest enlisted men? Because they are all in the same boat.

Couldn't finish it. Couldn't make it past the point where he knows an angry fish-man-mob are about to break down his door in the hotel, so he unscrews the microscopic deadbolt off of an adjacent door, then screws it on the entrance door to his room. I guess it seemed like a good idea to him. His response when the angry fish mob start beating on his door? "What's your problem!?"

If it was Jeffery Combs I would have probably made it through the whole thing.

 :hot:A terrific movie which only lacks the appearance of Cthulhu or any of the other Great Old Ones (such as HeWhoCannotBeNamed).  The ending is horrific and left me rather in shock for a while (not as much as the Mist but close). 
I watched on Sci-Fi Channel so it was badly cut (such as the arms remaining) but I have ordered it with the above handy dandy icon and hope to have it before I dream of having my male parts chewed to pieces by a tentacled maiden. :thumbup:

I was interested in watching a bad movie one night and I watched 'Dagon'.
It's really not that horrible.
The makeup is awesome, the sets are great, and just the all around atmosphere is creepy as hell.
The dialogue is crappy and there are stupid moments.
But it's not awful, it's definitely watchable.

Hey Andrew - Really good review I laughed at the Gymkata reference at the beginning. As a matter of fact, "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" is  my favorite H.P. Lovecraft story. Macarena Gómez was definitely hot. (check her out on: youtube - "Macarena Gomez Speaks!" ).  Anyway, I felt that "Dagon" captured the spirit of Lovecraft's story more than just about any other screen adaptation. Well done, sir...

As a point of interest, the bit at the end where Paul sets himself alight is almost certainly meant as a nod to the early Lovecraft short story Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family.

Always carry a swiss army knife on you, to fight off an army of things lol