Review: Dagon
Blu-ray: Dagon (2001)
The 3rd in Umbrella Entertainment’s excellent ‘Beyond Genres’ series (make sure to read our reviews of Vol 1 and Vol 2) once again showcases a collaboration between Stuart Gordon and Brian Yuzna. This time however, the re-animation process has been replaced by something far more fishy.
Gordon and Yuzna go to the H.P. Lovecraft well once more and craft a movie that, despite its low budget, overcomes some technical difficulties (awful cgi I’m looking at you) to give a surreal, and at times quite gory, narrative that could be described as an amalgam of Dead and Buried, Creature From the Black Lagoon, The Fog, Splash, and the weirdness of the ‘village scene’ from Gymkata. If those references mean anything at all to you, then you should immediately be purchasing this from the Umbrella Entertainment website.
Four people are out on a pleasurable boat trip off the Spanish coast when a storm (1stinstance of the terrible cgi) appears and shipwrecks them near a fishing village.
Paul (Ezra Godden) and Barbara (Raquel Merono) make it ashore and are met by villagers who don’t appear to be all that welcoming and have something not quite right about them…webbed fingers being the first warning sign.
Warning sign #2 is that the villagers worship the God ‘Dagon’ and have plans for the shipwrecked visitors. These plans sure as hell don’t include taking them out for a warming cup of cocoa and a meal.
Of course everyone gets split up and has to find each other, and a backstory to how the fishing village of Imboca came to worship Dagon many years previous serves to show why the place isn’t a popular holiday destination.
Thankfully the aforementioned sub-par cgi shots are brief and occur not too often throughout the 95 minute running time. These instances of poor computer effects are most definitely overshadowed by the superb practical effects which include a face being ripped off in extreme close-up, limbs chopped off, and much more bloody action.
Dagon is a solid horror/fantasy movie that constantly has enough going on to keep your eyes glued to the screen and is presented in this release with a stunning picture that accentuates the slimy, wet, oppressive atmosphere of Imboca.
If you have a penchant for B-movie horror, then Dagon should be put on your shopping list immediately.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
- Making-of featurette
- Interviews with: Macarena Gomez, Stuart Gordon, Raquel Meroño, Ezra Godden
- Interviews from the set with: Stuart Gordon, Julkio Fernández, Raquel Meroño, Ezra Godden, Francisco “Paco”Rabal
- Trailer
- Teaser
- TV spots
Review by Dave (host of 60 Minutes With) from a disc kindly supplied by Umbrella Entertainment.