Dagon is the first story Lovecraft wrote and this adaptation is both good in the sense it captures the original material's unsettling story, but also bad because it goes through the classic monster movie routines with no respect to character development or quality of story and using the clichés I game to hate so much like "Americans in spooky European country trying to communicate by adding an 'o' to every English word", "Americans looking for police and/or a phone and, lacking that, looking for a car or a gun", Deus ex Machina overload and so on.This is the second time I watch the film and, besides some scenes that I vaguely remembered, the rest of the movie was completely forgettable. In truth, with a little effort this could have been a decent movie. I don't get why they had to break it using such bad acting and such a silly script.

'Dagon' is one of those films where I watch and yet still can't really make up my mind about. I didn't hate it. It has its good points, yet overall there didn't really seem like there was enough story to flesh it out (even to its quite average ninety minute runtime).It's about an American couple whose boat gets shipwrecked off a remote Spanish island. When they get to shore they find the locals are hardly the hospitable types. It kind of reminded me of 'The Wicker Man,' i.e. outsiders who are up against the whole of a town.My main problem with the film was that very little happens. Once the couple arrive on the island, they're quickly separated and we're left with just the man. Pretty much the whole of the middle part of the film is him being chased from one dark and creepy location to the next. He's all on his own and doesn't really have anyone to interact with, therefore we don't really get to know him that well and know that he's going to make it out of each area, simply because the film would end if he didn't. He does meet one local, but the old man talks with such a strong accent I actually had to put the subtitles on to understand him! Seriously, if you were watching Dagon on DVD, you could skip a few chapters in the middle and you wouldn't miss anything 'story-wise,' just a few creepy scenes here and there. The atmosphere is one of the plus points. The story is nicely creepy and the monsters are well done. It's just a pity not much happens for the majority of the movie.The last act is a bit more dramatic and they've saved some of the best gore for last, but it's too little too late to turn what could have elevated an okay film to a really classic one. Bottom line, it's okay, but because there's so little story, I probably wouldn't watch it again because I can remember everything about it.

*** Major Spoiler Alert ***Stuart Gordon's Dagon is an intense and unique film based mostly on H.P. Lovecraft's The Shadow Over Innsmouth and his much shorter work entitled Dagon. This is really epic material in a strangely soaked Spanish environment. A Lovecraftian cult worshiping the underwater deity Dagon have taken over a small town on the Atlantic coast of Spain. A sailboat on pleasure cruise ends wrecked there. They will not be leaving anytime soon.Now situationally this is a fairly obvious menu. Gordon does, at one point, dive off the gory edge, but this is a Stuart Gordon film after all. Meanwhile the chase through dripping dampness of the town is really a pulse quickener. What makes this work is the danker than dank waterlogged environment and the extraordinarily emotional relationship of Dagon's daughter played in a one of a kind performance by Spanish actress Macarena Gomez to our trapped nerd, played by Ezra Godden.Macarena plays the part of tentacled siren princess with real fish-eyed believability. She was given instructions by Gordon (whose previous Lovecraft works include From Beyond and Re-Animator) to keep her eyes from blinking. When in the end Uxía (Gomez) craves Paul (Godden), whom she calls Pablo, she calls out to him with such an urgent imploring sad doomed yet loving tone in her voice she becomes perhaps the ultimate mermaid nightmare: Her eyes filled with wells of tearful salt water, her robes of gilded Symbolist splendor. She reveals the dark secrets of the unholy sect.Uxía: Pablo, it is your destiny... We had different mothers, but the same father... We are children of Dagon. Your dreams. Remember your dreams, Pablo. They brought you here. Paul: No. They were nightmares. They weren't real. Uxía: Every dream is a wish. Paul: Somebody help me! What's happening to me? Uxía: You are my brother. You will be my lover - forever.The tone Macarena hits here is the crescendo of the entire film, that sense of hopeless beauty and tragic certainty. I don't agree philosophically with the fatalism of that black romance, but who hasn't felt that temptation to give into it. And as Paul sets himself on fire and plunges into the sea Uxía follows. And together they descend into the depths of the tentacled God Dagon's realm. One feels the drowning, yet liberation. Yet we know to follow is to be annihilated.I can't think of another film to present the darker aesthetics aspects of the antique Symbolist dream so vividly. For those with strong stomachs yet sensitive hearts I strongly recommend Dagon.

I have just watched this film for the second time, so that means I like it, enough to buy the DVD. There are so many big-budget and even-bigger-budget films out there that are utter rubbish, insult the viewers' intelligence and waste their time & money. Its a genuine pleasure to see this small budget production, and a Spanish one at that, showing the big boys a thing or two. I agree with a previous poster's comments about Hollywood being too scared to touch this material, which is a real tragedy. Such imaginative writing deserves the bigger budget treatment. Firstly I am a real fan of H.P.Lovecraft's work and to best appreciate the film, you'd probably be well advised to read some of his work, particularly in this case, "Shadow over Innsmouth" and "Dagon", both in the excellent volume: "Necronomicon". Lovecraft's writing has a claustrophobic, nightmarish and dreadful feel and the film captures these attributes admirably. The film spends a lot of time in pursuit of the "hero" by nightmarish creatures who, alone would pose but a slight threat. Its their strength in numbers and perseverance that creates the real fear factor, and vain attempts to hide and subsequent discovery and flight are genuinely scary. Add in the constant rain and flooding, used to great effect in "Bladerunner" and "The Hitcher", the decrepit feel to the village and you have a superb backdrop to paint on the action. The actors may not be A-listers but they do a decent enough job and Macarena Gomez's countenance is striking. Special effects are also decent enough considering the budget, and there is a mild sexual undertone too which is in keeping with the popularity of more current productions like "Game of Thrones" and "Sparticus". There is one gory scene that in my opinion interrupts the progressive feel to the action. In summary I'd say another underrated low budget triumph, I would liken to the original "The Wicker Man". Watch it and I am confident you will have seen worse. In my opinion a lot worse.