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| Lions Gate (USA). Region 1, NTSC. 1.78:1 (16:9 enhanced). English DD 5.1. English, Spanish Subtitles. 98 minutes |
| The Movie |
| Cover Art |
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| Credits |
Director: Stuart Gordon
Starring: Ezra Godden, Francisco Rabal, Raquel Merono and Macarena Gomez
Screenplay: Dennis Paoli from H.P.Lovecraft's Shadow over Innsmouth
Music: Carles Cases
AKA: Dagon - La secta del mar, Dagon: Sect of the Sea |
Brian Yuzna and Stuart Gordon once again team
up to bring the first Lovecraft adaptation they
have done since From Beyond.
This project has been sitting on a shelf for some
15 years before it finally went into full production.
Was it worth the wait? Read on…
Adapted from H.P.Lovecraft's Shadow over Innsmouth,
this tells of a young man, Paul (Ezra Godden)
and his lover, Barbara (Raquel Merono), being
forced from their boat by a violent storm. They
find themselves then stranded in an old fishing
village where nothing is quite what it seems.
After wandering around a bit they soon find themselves
hotly pursued and lose each other. Paul bumps
into some old guy who relates the tale of how
the village abandoned the Christian God in favour
of a more sinister deity called Dagon. This Dagon
promised them riches and so they took to worshipping
him, and did indeed become rich. At a price. As
generations progressed, the townspeople started
mutating into…erm…fish. So Paul has
lost his girl in a town full of fish-people who
are intent on killing him and doing God-knows-what
to her. Off he then goes in search of Barbara
with the intention of finding her and rescuing
her if need be, then getting the hell outta Dodge.
However, things are never as simple as that and
the ending is happily unpredictable.
Hmmm….fish-people. Not sure about that…
Anyway, it's certainly a polished piece of filmmaking
and Gordon handles directorial duties fairly competently.
The film does flounder at times and the story
itself is a bit muddled in places. Overall though
it's not a bad effort and has some startling sequences,
but it never seems to quite gel into a cohesive
whole. It's more of a film of 'moments' and 'set-pieces'
rather than a consistent thread of storytelling.
The other complaint I have is the abundance of
Spanish actors who can barely speak English. Not
bad in itself I suppose, and I'm sure they're
all fine actors, but the old guy who recounts
his tale is practically unintelligible. I had
to use the English subtitling option just to make
head or tail of what he was he was saying. But
it's a minor quibble.
Not a great film, but not completely without
merit either. It has some great moments and is
highly entertaining for the most part, but maybe
I expected too much. It definitely has that 'old-school-horror'
feel to it, which is no bad thing, and it's also
great to see Gordon and Yuzna working together
again. Like I say, it's neither good nor bad,
but very enjoyable never the less. |
| Video |
| The transfer is flawless, which is what you would
expect from a new release like this anyway. The
colours are rich and vibrant, the blacks are solid
and there is no visible print defects or compression
artefacts or digital smearing. Top quality and will
raise no complaints from viewers. |
| Audio |
| The audio is stunning. It's clear, crisp and has
plenty of sound movement. The quality is top-notch
and really envelops the viewer in the action. Top
marks for the sound design on this film. Absolutely
no complaints in this department (though I still
couldn't understand the old guy - God help VHS viewers!). |
| Extra Features |
| The main extras are two commentaries, one with
Stuart Gordon and Dennis Paoli, and the other with
Gordon again, but this time with star Ezra Godden.
Both have something different to offer, but nothing
special. There is also scene access (a special feature?)
and a trailer. The box also states that the disc
carries the original story, the source material,
but fucked if I could find it! |
| The Verdict |
An entertaining film, but nothing special in my
opinion. It has all the ingredients of a classic
horror movie, and yet never quite hits the mark.
It has some interesting moments, like the skinning
alive sequence (which will please the gorehounds
among you no end) and the finale, but the film never
seems to quite hit its stride, and suffers as a
consequence. However, any film that features fish-people,
gratuitous nudity and a reasonable amount of bloodshed
must have something going for it, and I did, admittedly,
enjoy it at that level.
Comment Script
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A must have, I totally loved it, it creeped me out.