"Dagon" is hardly a throwaway slasher flick - its a dark, nasty, twisted fairy tale with neither a happy nor an unhappy ending. There's a beautiful syren with mesmerizing eyes and an unfortunate case of tentacles, a bloody sacrifice above a stone pit, a sick face-ripping scene, a self-immolation and a twist ending. The town's listless inhabitants soon reveal themselves to the terrified young couple - white, slimy gills and fish black eyes make their appearance, and by the time they do, it is too late.
There have been warnings already, in the shapes of underwater nightmares suffered by the young man a huge, submerged stone disk, a mermaid with a vampire's mouth, etc. A boat accident sends a young couple ashore seeking help for their stranded friends. Based on a short story (which runs no more than five or six pages, if memory serves me correctly) "Dagon" is a cold, slithery, unnerving tale set in one of those isolated seaside towns that Lovecraft loved so much to write about.
This film could probably be easily lost in the deluge of direct-to-video slashers with unimaginative plots and stale gore effects, which is a shame because it is neither stale nor a slasher.
So, it was with little enthusiasm that I watched "Dagon" one cold, rainy morning. Maybe, as a Pisces, I was subconsciously insulted, I don't know.but I've never sought out either his written works or the films based upon them. His mutant fish fixation has always upset my equilibrium, and his tentacled Monster Gods still give me nightmares. Don't get me wrong, the man was a master - but that's the problem I have with him.
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