Dagon

We have a drummer who lives above us... I get off work at 8:00 AM. I come home, walk the doggies, feed Kaliana and then try to go down for a nap around 9:45. Unfortunately, dude started banging away at that time, and it sounded like he was in the room with me. Soon after she fell asleep, I was able to lie down, but she woke up in a rage. I felt like an old man because I grabbed my umbrella and started hitting the ceiling with it. Needless to say, I didn't get a nap yesterday, and I'm feeling it today. Anyways, let's talk about...

Dagon (2001)

I've been wanting to watch this movie for years. Back when I started doing this, it would pop up on Netflix, but I'd always scroll on by. By the time I was introduced to the works of H.P. Lovecraft, it had seemingly disappeared from streaming sites. Then video stores closed down (press F to pay respects), and I seemed to S.O.L. But this year, I've learned that Tubi has a pretty fantastic selection of horror movies, and they're all free! You just have to deal with ads. You know what? I'm OK with that; it seems like the streaming sites have been phoning it in with horror for some time now, so I'll take what I can get. Plus, Amazon is throwing in ads too. Cheap bastards.

Much like Cthulhu from earlier this month, it takes the name of a monster from an H.P. Lovecraft story and just does a live-action remake of Shadow Over Innsmouth. This, however, is a much more faithful adaptation and is a lot better.

We start with a group of people sailing outside Spain when a storm pops up and their boat hits a rock. One of the women hurts her leg, so the captain sends our protagonists, Paul and Barbara, onto the raft to go to the nearby town and get help. From the moment they step off the boat, they realize something is up with the townspeople. Some of it is hidden, a priest has webbed hands, a guy has an ashy white face and while turning, Paul notices a hotel worker has slits in his neck. It then doesn't take long for him to realize that they've landed in the worst possible spot as the entire town is in a weird cult, and they're coming for him.

As far as Lovecraft adaptations go, this is one of the best. A big difference, in the short story, Innsmouth is a small town in New England. In this movie, they're in Imboca, a small fishing village in Spain. While it seems wrong to have the movie set somewhere else, I loved the look of the town. The old cobblestone streets, the small corridors leading every which way and how old everything looked and felt. It's disorienting as he's running through the streets, trying to escape the mob of fish people coming for him. It ups the tension because he has no idea where any alley leads, so he's a rat in a maze as the townspeople are crawling out of everywhere, cutting off every escape route.

The movie gives us a flashback, like the original story did, in the form of the only human left in the town, who just so happens to be a drunk. It was once a Catholic village until a priest of Dagon got in and forced a conversion or death for the town. Many didn't need much convincing because Dagon provided fish and gold while things were getting lean. The downside, but the townspeople didn't seem to mind, was a gradual loss of humanity to the point where you become a Deep One.

I enjoyed the mystery surrounding the town and how, as the movie goes on, things get crazier, the deformities get weirder and our protagonist gets more unhinged. There's a scene where he and another person have been captured, and the baddies want to skin them. The other person is alive while it's happening, and it's so unnerving and uncomfortable watching them slowly kill this man as he screams in pain. I squirmed in my seat multiple times while watching it. Then, when our hero breaks free, he gets such a manic look on his face as he corners his tormentor while dual-wielding two nasty-looking blades. One more thing about Paul that I liked, he wears a shirt that says "Miskatonic" on the front, which is a fictional university that plays heavily in many of Lovecraft's stories.

The ending is sufficiently insane when you look at the whole movie, but people who aren't familiar with Lovecraft's work may be a little put off by it. I liked it, and while the book ultimately ends up in the same place, I like how Lovecraft got there better. His version makes a lot more sense as to why our hero would end up in that position as opposed to going from suicide to being happy about his situation at the drop of a hat. Still, it's solid, and we need more Lovecraft adaptations.

8 Dr. Chainsaws