DAGON
Kicking off a whole month of Lovecraft adaptations is the film that reunites the producer, director, and screenwriter of Re-Animator. Much of Dagon’s running time is comprised of Paul’s desperate flight through the seemingly inescapable labyrinth of the crumbling village, mobs of bug-eyed, tentacled creatures always close behind. Most of this sticks pretty close to The Shadow Over Innsmouth. While it changes the motivation for arriving in the decrepit old village (a ship wreck instead of general curiosity) and the location of the village (somewhere along the coast of Spain instead of somewhere along the coast of New England), and adds a girlfriend into the mix, once arrived in town the action is more or less the same. Particularly well executed is Paul’s ordeal in his own room at the inn, where first he is mere disgusted by the squalid nature of the abode then becomes terrified once he realizes the hall is crowded with things that want his blood. Although the comedy in Dagon is not as pronounced as it was in Re-Animator, it’s still present and evident in scenes like this. Paul, realizing that there is no lock on his room door, desperately scrambles to remove a tiny deadbolt from the bathroom door and screw it into the main door. That the lock is so tiny it could hardly stop a child from knocking in the door never seems to cross his mind. He also spends most of the movie doing his best to look threatening to his pursuers while brandishing a small pocketknife the likes of which are often given away as novelty items at conventions.
#1 by Joshua on October 2, 2009 - 9:38 am
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Although gambrel rooftops and Cyclopean architecture were always scary to Lovecraft,
In Lovecraft’s defense, he seems to use gambrel roofs to signify age rather than terror, and Cyclopean to signify big things.
#2 by lyzard on October 2, 2009 - 4:49 pm
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Brother!
#3 by Braineater on October 4, 2009 - 9:04 pm
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Y’know, the poet Fred Chappell wrote a novel called Dagon back in the late 60’s. It won the French Academy’s award for Best Foreign Novel. I read it a long time ago, and hated it.
I don’t remember very much about it any more; but for a Lovecraft spin-off to win the French Academy’s award for Best Foreign Novel, I think you can imagine what kind of eldritch transformation must needs occur. Shudder.
#4 by Read MacGuirtose on October 4, 2009 - 9:35 pm
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I was going to ask if you were sure it was a Lovecraft spinoff, since unlike Cthulhu and most of Lovecraft’s pantheon, Dagon was (loosely) based on a real mythological figure… but first I did some Googling and… well, yeah, never mind.
#5 by jason farrell on October 5, 2009 - 9:09 am
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Your painting the typical Lovecraft “hero” as the moral and existential equivalent of the Cowardly Lion made me have one of those pop-cultural buzzes wherein you curse your own lack of insight. Everything makes perfect sense now, I swear.
#6 by El Santo on October 5, 2009 - 1:19 pm
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By the way, Keith– where did you find that picture of Jeff Clayton? And was there originally any caption identifying where it was taken? ‘Cause that image really reminds me of the night my band played with Antiseen at the Sidebar, and the Sidebar does have a little arch detail like that in the brickwork beside the stage.
#7 by KeithA on October 5, 2009 - 2:36 pm
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I found it on some Croatian site that had a lot of pictures of Antiseen and GG Allin. I have no idea it’s actual origin. I assume that, when one needs a picture of Jeff Clayton, the appropriate one simply appears where it’s needed.
Antiseen ruined me for going to shows. After you’ve paid $5 to see a guy light himself on fire and roll around in electrified barbed wire, paying $15 to see sullen guys in t-shirts and corduroys stand around glumly strumming guitars just doesn’t seem worth the money.