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Dagon
Directed by	Stuart Gordon
Produced by	Julio Fernández Brian Yuzna
Written by	Short Story: H. P. Lovecraft Screenplay: Dennis Paoli
Starring	Ezra Godden Francisco Rabal Raquel Meroño
Music by	Carles Cases
Studio	Fantastic Factory
Distributed by	Filmax International (Spain) Lions Gate Entertainment (U.S.)
Release date(s)	October 12, 2001 (Sitges Film Festival)
Running time	98 min.
Country	Spain
Language	English Galician Spanish
Budget	$4,800,000

Dagon is a 2001 horror movie 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 his earlier short story titled Dagon (1919).

Plot

Two young American tourists, Barbara and Paul, seek help in a small town called Imboca on the coast of Galicia in Spain after their boat becomes shipwrecked. However, the inhabitants turn out to be far from friendly, and, as they discover, not even human, apart from a drunken tramp named Ezequiel. This latter (played by veteran Spanish actor Francisco Rabal - in what would be his last role), tells Paul how the denizens of the town have overthrown Christianity in favour of the fish god Dagon, who has brought them wealth from the sea. Since that time they have mutated into fish-like forms and are in obedience to the beautiful mermaid-like Uxia. Eerily, she has appeared to Paul in his dreams even before they met, and she saves him from being murdered by the locals. However, her plans for him, and for Barbara, unleash horror beyond all imagination.

Eventually we learn Paul's mother escaped from the town years ago, and both he and Uxia share the same father, making them half-siblings; still they are destined to be together for eternity.

Cast

• Ezra Godden - Paul Marsh
• Francisco Rabal - Ezequiel
• Raquel Meroño - Barbara
• Macarena Gómez - Uxía Cambarro
• Brendan Price - Howard
• Birgit Bofarull - Vicki
• Uxía Blanco - Ezequiel's Mother
• Ferran Lahoz - Priest
• Joan Minguell - Xavier Cambarro
• Alfredo Villa - Captain Orpheus Cambarro
• José Lifante - Desk Clerk
• Javier Sandoval - Ezequiel's Father
• Victor Barreira - Young Ezequiel
• Fernando Gil - Catholic Priest
• Jorge Luis Pérez - Boy

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 ^[1]
• Hotel del Mar - Gilman House
• Esotérica Orden de Dagón - Esoteric Order of Dagon ^[2]

^ This names are still faithful to the novel as they're literal translations to Spanish of the original names.

Details

The plot presents several differences from Lovecraft's original story, such as:

• The setting is switched to Galicia, Spain instead of the fictional town of Innsmouth, Massachusetts. The Spanish town is fictional too, and it is called Imboca. "En boca" is Spanish for "in mouth" and is apparently a pun on the name "Innsmouth." Imboca, as well, sounds similar to "Invoca", Spanish for "He/She invokes".
• The story is updated to modern times, with the appearance of devices such as mobile phones and laptop computers.
• The number of characters is increased.
• The villagers in Lovecraft's story are the offspring of human breeding with sea creatures called Deep Ones. In the movie, their origin is vaguely explained. Also, in Gordon's version, the appearance of the creatures is quite exaggerated when compared to the original story, as they have additional tentacles or have them as replacements for their limbs.
• The villagers skin and wear their victims' faces; while Stuart Gordon based this habit on research he had done about the ancient worshippers of Dagon, who wore fish heads, this doesn't occur in the original story.
• Dagon itself does not appear in The Shadow Over Innsmouth; it does in the homonymous short story, even though it is only vaguely described. Its appearance in the movie seems to be inspired by another creation of Lovecraft, the tentacled Cthulhu.
• It is worth noting that the main character wears a Miskatonic University sweater.

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 film is dedicated to actor Francisco Rabal immediately before the credits.

External links

• Official site
• Entry on imdb.com
• Horror Express review of Dagon
• Dagon at Allmovie