Dagon (Blu-ray) (2001)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Horror	More…-Short Story "Dagon" by H.P.Lovecraft Featurette-Behind The Scenes-B-Roll / Making Of (4:16) Interviews-Cast & Crew-Macarena Gomez, Stuart Gordon, Raquel Merono, Ezra Godden Interviews-Cast & Crew-Interviews from the Set Theatrical Trailer Teaser Trailer TV Spots
Rating
Year Of Production	2001
Running Time	97:51
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Stuart Gordon
Studio Distributor	Umbrella Entertainment	Starring	Ezra Godden Raquel Merono Francisco Rabal Macarena Gomez Brendan Price Birgit Bofarull Ferran Lahoz
Case	?
RPI	?	Music	Carles Cases

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English DTS HD Master Audio 5.1
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080p
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     Having made millions in an IT start-up company, Paul Marsh (Ezra Godden) is taking a yachting holiday off the coast of Spain with his girlfriend Barbara (Raquel Merono), business partner Howard (Brendan Price) and Howard’s wife Vicki (Birgit Bofarull). However, Paul is not enjoying himself; he does not know how to relax and have fun and, as well, he is having a recurring nightmare about a terrifying mermaid (Macarena Gomez) who has big, sharp teeth. Then a storm blows in and the yacht is forced onto rocks off the coast and Vicki injured. Paul and Barbara take the yacht’s zodiac and go for help to a village they can see on the coast nearby.

     The village is Imboca, a dark and foreboding place that seems deserted. The two make their way to the church. It is, however, a strange church without images of Jesus or a Cross; instead above the altar is a circular shaped symbol that Paul has seen in his nightmares. A Priest (Ferran Lahoz) appears and takes Paul and Barbara back down to the jetty where he finds a boatman willing to take Paul out to the yacht. Barbara stays behind to telephone the Police from the hotel. When Paul reaches the yacht Howard and Vicki have disappeared. He returns to the village and goes to the hotel to be told by the Priest that Barbara has left to travel to the next town to get the Police. However, the audience have already seen that Barbara has been abducted by the Priest and the Hotelkeeper. Obviously, evil things are happening in the village.

     Paul waits at the hotel. When night falls he witnesses zombie like creatures emerge from the darkness. They see Paul and break into his room in the hotel; Paul leaps from the window but hiding in a nearby building he finds the bloodied, flayed bodies of a number of men, including Howard. Escaping the building Paul collides with Ezequiel (Francisco Rabal), an aged alcoholic who tells Paul the secret of Imboca. Ezequiel is the last remaining normal human in the village; everyone else a couple of generations ago turned from God to worship the ancient Fish-God Dagon. Visitors who come to Imboca never leave; as a sacrifice to Dagon the men are flayed and the woman offered to Dagon to have his part human, part aquatic children. Indeed, the villagers are themselves gradually mutating into aquatic creatures.

     Paul is determined to find out what happened to Barbara and Vicki. Pursued relentlessly by the villagers he flees to the mansion of the Cambarro family, the local aristocrats, where he discovers Uxia, the woman from his nightmares; she has been waiting for Paul and, indeed, has a mermaid’s tail. And what Paul discovers about the Cambarro family, Imboca and the fate of Vicki and Barbara is much worse that he could ever have imagined.

     Dagon is based upon the H.P. Lovecraft story The Shadow Over Innsmouth, taking its name from another short story Dagon. The film is directed by Stuart Gordon who is best remembered for Re-Animator (1985), another Lovecraft adaptation. After that film he made a few others, including The Pit and the Pendulum (1991) and Space Truckers (1996), before, in 2001, returning to Lovecraft for Dagon, relocating the action to Spain. The screenplay, as for Re-Animator, is by Dennis Paoli.

     Dagon has its fair share of gore, blood and terror; a flaying, arms ripped from bodies, part human, part aquatic creatures, writhing tentacles, an enticing mermaid and a naked, bloodied woman suspended from chains over a pit waiting for the god to arise from the sea. The make-up and gore effects are pretty good, with only some less impressive CGI, and, as most of the film takes place over one dark and rain drenched night, the atmosphere is bleak and chilling. But whereas Re-Animator worked because it was, almost, based on possible science and was played as such, Dagon is pure horror / fantasy, invoking a deity that is actual, not imagined. A lot of the running time of Dagon is also the villagers chasing Paul through various buildings in the rain, which does get a bit repetitive, enlivened when Paul stumbles across the mermaid Uxia in a bedroom waiting for him. His dreams, it seems, were all too real. Another issue is that while Spanish icon Francisco Rabal is fine, Ezra Godden, as a nerd who becomes a hero, is underwhelming in a role that is central to the film, while Raquel Merono, probably the best thing in the picture, disappears for a substantial part of the running time. On the other hand, Macarena Gomez makes for a very sexy and enticing mermaid and the ending of the film is certainly not that of a Hollywood film!

     With narrow, dark, cobblestoned, rain-swept streets, brooding wet buildings, a silent hotelkeeper who could be Boris Karloff on a very bad day, a hotel with gross plumbing and hygiene issues, a murderous priest, mutant inhabitants and a Fish-God requiring human sacrifice, Imboca is not a recommended holiday destination although you might be lucky, or unlucky, enough to meet a beautiful and sexy mermaid. And I suppose that fish, especially squid, may not be on the menu.

Video

     Dagon is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.77:1, in 1080p using the MPEG-4 AVC code.

     Detail is strong and clean allowing the rain-swept buildings and streets, blood, gore, flaying, tentacles and guts to be clearly seen, except when the hand-held camera swings around quickly and things become more of a blur. The film takes place almost exclusively at night in rain or in darkened buildings or cellars so that colours, except for the blood or the opening scenes on the yacht before the storm, are dull and muted. However, blacks are great and shadow detail wonderful allowing us to peer into the background of shots in case something is lurking there. Skin tones are fine, showing the comparison between the very pale pasty skin of Paul and Uxia with the healthy tan of Barbara. Brightness and contrast is consistent.

     I did not notice any artefacts or marks.

     English subtitles are available.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     The audio is English DTS-HD MA 5.1.

     This is a front oriented audio track; even during the storm the effects were mostly from the front with only ambient sound in the rears such as rain, so this is not a particularly immersive track. Dialogue was easy to hear, although not always easy to understand, especially from Rabal which is a bit of an issue seeing as he provides all the exposition in the film; however, one can get the gist. Effects were reasonable. The sub-woofer added ominous rumble on occasion and supported the thunder. The score by Carles Cases was orchestral and choral, nicely adding to the tension.

     There are no lip synchronisation issues.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Short Story

     Inside the Blu-ray’s cover is Lovecraft’s short story Dagon, written in 1917 and first published in 1919.

B-Roll / Making Of (4:16)

     Unstructured bits and pieces of on-set footage.

Interviews

     These interviews were filmed towards the end of 2001 (the death of Francisco Rabal is mentioned as occurring a few months earlier) in Spain. They were shot at a day time function after screenings of the film the previous day and are less interviews than conversations by the “interviewee” and a number of people off camera who ask questions and make observations, the camera remaining at all times on the “interviewee”. The conversations range beyond the film and into careers, beliefs and backgrounds. The interviewees are:

• Macarena Gomez (12:50): includes her casting, meeting Gordon, her make-up, learning to dive and the freezing water.
• Stuart Gordon (17:26): the Lovecraft stories, the Spanish location, his intentions, the cast and the ending of the film.
• Raquel Merono (14:17): her audition and casting, nudity, her character and her career in TV.
• Ezra Godden (20:15): how he was cast, his audition, the physical demands of the role, diving, acting underwater and the ending.

Interviews from the Set

     Brief sound bites with the individual answering unheard questions from off-camera. Shot early in the filming:

• Stuart Gordon (3:31): the plot, the cast and shooting in Spain.
• Ezra Godden (2:35): his character.

Theatrical Trailer (2:58)

Teaser Trailer (2:04)

TV Spots (1:32)

     Two TV spots.

     Dagon was released on DVD over 15 years ago, including here in Australia. The US release had a couple of commentaries, one with Stuart Gordon and writer Dennis Paoli, the other with Gordon and Ezra Godden but not the interviews on this Blu-ray. Amazon.com only lists this Australian Blu-ray, although there appears to be a German release. The lack of the commentaries is a pity but, for Blu-ray, this release is what is currently available.

     Dagon has its moments of tension and terror, atmosphere and foreboding. It is also a film about having a choice, and no choice, a film about faith, fate, destiny and inevitability with an ending that is surprising but makes absolute sense given what has gone before. Which can only be a good thing.

     The video is very good, the audio fine. The extras are not extensive but are acceptable.

     This is certainly a Blu-ray worth picking up for those interested in the genre or the career of Stuart Gordon. For those with the DVD I can only say that the HD presentation of the film on Blu-ray makes an upgrade worthwhile.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall