A COMPARISON WITH THE SOURCE MATERIAL (Dagon (DVD))

Member Name: MrQuomps

Product:	Dagon (DVD)
Date:	09/08/08 (41 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: In keeping with Lovecraft's syle and vision

Disadvantages: There aren't more of it's kind

A COMPARISON WITH THE BOOK FOR HP LOVECRAFT ENTHUSIASTS

Dagon (2001) is director Stuart Gordon's most recent, and in my opinion, most faithful Lovecraft adaptation. It is based on the short story "The Shadow Over Innsmouth".

Dagon, as seems to be the norm with Lovecraft adaptations, is set in the time that it was made - the turn of the twenty first century. This is really only a factor for the opening sequence at sea, with the modern yacht, laptop computer etc. The majority of the films action takes place in Innsmouth where time is not really relevant, and to all intents and purposes it could just as easily be the 1920s; the decade in which the short story was set.
In the original tale the lone narrator purposely goes to Innsmouth; seeing it as a place of historical and architectural interest. It is evident he is an intelligent, rational and not easily fazed individual. The film alters this so that an insecure young man, Paul Marsh, and his girlfriend, Barbara (and to some extent their two friends, Vicki and Howard), become stranded in Innsmouth by accident/fate.
Although the film adds other characters, the plot is mainly concerned with Paul, who correlates well with the first-person narrator from the original tale.

The overall look of Dagon is the most impressive of it's attributes, the make-up, special effects and mise-en-scene are, for the most part, all excellent. These qualities contribute to the dark, tense atmosphere achieved in the film.
Innsmouth in the original text is described as "a city of stark desolation". Dagon recreates this brilliantly; the dark, dank buildings reflect Lovecraft's words:

...black, gaping windows of deserted hovels, many of which leaned at perilous and incredible angles through the sinking of part of the foundations.

Amongst these buildings the film shows the "infrequent shambling forms in the dismal streets and unpaved lanes"
The inhabitants of the town are wonderfully recreated for the screen, linking closely with Lovecraft's descriptions of that "Innsmouth look":

... a narrow head, bulging, watery-blue eyes that seemed never to wink, a flat nose, a receding forehead and chin, and singularly undeveloped ears.

A particularly memorable touch in the film comes when the receptionist in the hotel turns and displays red slits on his neck like the gills of a fish.
An addition to the original tale, whereby the town dwellers attempt to hide their features by wearing the faces of human visitors whom they have killed and skinned, sets up an excellent scene towards the end of the film. The unveiling of one of the oldest inhabitants reveals a squid-like head complete with tentacles on a still vaguely human form. This creature is not dissimilar to some of Lovecraft's own crude drawings of Cthulu and other entities.

Dagon faithfully recreates a number of scenes from the short story. The all-knowing drunk, Zadok Allen gives his account of Innsmouth's past and the reasons for the horrors that reside within the town.
The Gilman House hotel is a somewhat more rundown affair in the film, to the extent of the bed-sheets being heavily coated in slime. The detail of Paul replacing the missing bolt on the bedroom door with the bolt from the wardrobe to keep out the Innsmouth folk is an enjoyable and faithful inclusion. In the film the hunting and eventual capture of Paul by the resident disciples of Dagon is much more urgent than in the book, but then in the book the main protagonist is never caught.

The film ends quite differently to the book, presumably in order to create a more spectacular impact for today's viewers. The townsfolk surround a large well down which they are lowering Barbara, Paul's girlfriend as a sacrifice to the Gods from the sea; notably Dagon, whom they worship. Despite Paul's attempts to save her, she is lost as tentacles (presumably belonging to Dagon) shoot from the water and snatch her into the abyss, leaving only the remains of her arms dangling from their shackles. This excessive scene is brought to its climax when Paul douses himself with gasoline and sets himself alight in a desperate attempt at suicide, only to be dragged into the pit by a tentacled freak who has been claiming to be his half-sister, daughter to Paul's father, Dagon.
What follows next harks back to the final sequences of the original story, whereby the narrator has realised he is one of these hideous, amphibious creatures and in dreams sees himself deep in the ocean with his grandmother (half-sister in the film), able to breath underwater, and swimming around a great underwater palace. This is a satisfying ending, which has been hinted at throughout the film by Paul's dreams and flashbacks of dreams. It brings the film back in line with the book having slipped into an elaboration of the original which could easily have lost all connection with Lovecraft's work.

Other aspects of Lovecraft's story faithfully revived in the film include: the solid gold intricately fashioned objects from the ocean, the transferral of the Church into a place for the worship of Dagon, the concept that entities from the sea require human sacrifices as well as humans with which to mate. An example of this is Vicki (one of Paul's friends); who becomes close to complete insanity when she reveals that she has been impregnated by something in the water.

I believe Dagon to be a truly successful adaptation. It contains much of the original tale and any deviations and additions are well worked into the plot. Importantly, it recreates the dark, surreal atmosphere from Lovecraft's short story and the imagery does justice to the work on which it is based.

Summary: Thumbs up for a good adaptation