Dagon (film)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Dagon |
| Original title | Dagón, la secta del mar |
| Country of production | Spain |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 2001 |
| length | 95 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 18 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Stuart Gordon |
| script | Dennis Paoli |
| production | Brian Yuzna |
| music | Carles Cases |
| camera | Carlos Suarez Morilla |
| cut | Jaume Vilalta |
| occupation | |
| |
Dagon (English original title: HP Lovecraft's Dagon , Spanish original title: Dagon, la secta del mar ) is a Spanish horror film by director Stuart Gordon from 2001 based on the short story of the same name Dagon and the novella Shadows over Innsmouth by the US writer HP Lovecraft .
action
Paul Marsh and his girlfriend Barbara, along with their friends Howard and Vicki, go on a sailing holiday off the coast of Spain, the home of Paul's mother. During the trip, Paul is plagued by nightmares about swimming underwater with a beautiful mermaid with black hair and green eyes. As the holidaymakers sail past the small fishing village of Imbocca, they hear a strange song from the village and a storm appears that makes the ship capsize on a rock. Howard remains on the boat with Vicki, who is injured, while Paul and Barbara go to Imbocca for help.
The village makes an abandoned impression. In a hotel, Barbara tries to organize help using her foreign language skills, while Paul examines the shabby hotel room offered to them. Strange-looking people appear on the streets, some of whom grunt or hobble and hardly look human. They try to break into the hotel room and Paul escapes through a window. He ends up in an old tannery, which obviously uses human skin.
In an alley, Paul meets a drunk old man named Ezequiel, who claims to be the last person in the village and tells him the story of the fishing village. The village had become impoverished due to overfishing and in desperation the villagers prayed to God to send them fish. One of the sailors, Cambarro, had found an ancient artifact on his voyage at sea that could be used to bring Dagon , the god of the sea, to Imbocca. Some of the villagers followed him to the shore, where he lured the sea god to him. The next day, many fish were washed up on the beach, along with gold jewelry, which made the village rich. The villagers drove the old pastor away and destroyed everything Christian in the village. The church became a temple in honor of Dagon and the Cambarros became high priests of the cult. Over time, the villagers' prayers became insufficient and he asked for human sacrifices. The men of the village were killed, and the women were offered to Dagon as brides so that he could father children with them. The resulting descendants were immortal and could live in water. To lure victims into the village, they use the tanned hides as human disguise.
Paul, who doesn't believe this story but wants to flee the strange village with his friends, is looking for a car. To do this, however, he has to break into the mayor's property, as he is the only one who has a car. When Paul looks for the key in the villa, he is almost caught by the mayor and escapes into an open room where he finds a young woman. After she lured away the mayor, who is her father, she reveals herself to be Uxia. Meanwhile, Paul notices that the young woman looks exactly like the woman from his nightmares. Uxia, who is dependent on a wheelchair, tries to seduce Paul. Reluctantly at first, he surrenders to the beautiful stranger. As he begins to undress her, he notices that she has gills on her hips. When he tears the blanket off her, the reason for her walking disability is revealed: She is a child of Dagon and has tentacles instead of legs.
Disgusted, Paul runs away while Uxia's desperate calls for him draw the staff's attention to him, so that he is caught.
Like Ezequiel, Paul is captured and locked away. He also finds Barbara and Vicky again. While Barbara is unharmed, Vicky sits in a corner, completely traumatized and injured, and tells that she and Howard were attacked by a huge creature. Howard was killed in the process, while Vicky was touched everywhere by the creature and lost her legs. Since then she has believed that something is growing in her. Ezequiel says Vicky was raped by Dagon and is now pregnant by him. Vicky, who cannot cope with this realization, commits suicide, after which Barbara asks Paul to kill her if she faces the same fate.
A few hours later, Paul and Ezequiel are taken to the old tannery. There they are to be processed into new skin coats. While Ezequiel is being skinned alive, Paul gives the sacrament of death to grant Ezequiel's wish to die a Christian. Just before the cultists start with Paul, Uxia shows up and tells the men to let him live. She explains to him that he belongs to her and will soon go with her to the realm of Dagon. A realm where he will forget his life as a person and live with it forever. Paul, who pretended to accept this, is released.
With a petrol can, Paul enters the local church, where he interrupts a ritual ceremony in which Barbara is to be given as a bride to the god Dagon. Uxia leads the ritual as high priestess. Paul pours gasoline over some of those present and lights them with his lighter. He tries to free Barbara, but he's too late. All he can do is pull a broken, squid-coated Barbara out of Dagon's basin, who begs him to kill her. Paul hesitates, which Dagon takes advantage of: He pulls Barbara down with him, leaving only her arms behind. The villagers attack Paul and the mayor wants to kill him for what he did. However, Uxia interferes and reveals Paul's past: Paul's mother was one of Dagon's brides and was able to escape from Imbocca. At that time, Paul, whose real name was Pablo Camborra, was already born. So Paul is a child of Dagon and Uxia is his half-sister. When Paul threatens to burn down the entire village, Uxia tries to persuade him to accept his fate, to be a child of Dagon and to become her lover. Paul, who refuses to accept this and realizes that his transformation into a fish being is almost complete, sees only one way out: suicide. He doused himself with gasoline and lit up. Desperate, Uxia throws herself and Paul into Dagon's ritual pool. As soon as Paul is in the water, his perfection as a fish begins. Uxia swims next to Paul as in the dream and Paul accepts his fate and swims with his half-sister and lover to Dagon's cave.
The film ends with a quote from Shadows Over Innsmouth :
"We shall swim out to that brooding reef in the sea and dive down through black abysses to cyclopean and many columned Y'ha-nthlei, and in that lair of the Deep Ones we shall dwell amidst wonder and glory for ever."
“We will swim out to that dark reef in the sea, and dive deep, through black abysses, into the cyclopean and columnar Y'ha-nthlei, and in that refuge of the deep beings, in the midst of wonders and splendor, we may live for all Time."
criticism
The lexicon of international films was ambivalent in its criticism: "An atmospherically dense horror film based on a story by HP Lovecraft, which, despite clear genre set pieces due to many inconsistencies and unnecessarily disgusting scenes, at best knows how to keep fans interested thanks to its uncompromising pace."
Web links
- Dagon in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Dagon. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .