Main Cast: Ezra Godden, Francisco Rabal, Raquel Merono, Macarena Gomez, Brendan Price
Release Year: 2001
Country: ES
Run Time: 95 minutes
Plot
The nightmares of Paul Marsh (Ezra Godden), a successful businessman, are haunted by a mermaid that neither he nor his beautiful girlfriend, Barbara (Raquel Merono), can figure out. While on a boating vacation off the Spanish shore, a sudden storm sends their sailboat crashing into the rocks, causing Paul and Barbara to paddle to the nearby fishing village for help. But the village is inhabited by a race of people who are half-human/half-fish, and the time has come for them to sacrifice humans to their monstrous leader, Dagon. Not only that, but Paul's nightmares become horrifying reality when he encounters beautiful and passionate Uxia (Macarena Gomez), the mermaid of his visions, and boy does she have a surprise for him besides the double tentacles under her skirt. ~ Buzz McClain, All Movie Guide
Review
H.P. Lovecraft fans may well be the most elusive cinematic horror gold mine that filmmakers have yet to find an effective means to harvest. With a rich and imaginative body of work that has spawned some of the most memorable images in literary horror history and inspired such beloved contemporary genre masters as Stephen King and Clive Barker (whose works have also been adapted into less-than-stellar films), such efforts as The Dunwich Horror and The Unnameable have left Lovecraft fans waiting anxiously for someone to come along and get it right. And though this has happened on rare occasion (Dan O'Bannon's The Resurrected (1992) offered a fairly chilling adaptation of Lovecraft's The Case of Charles Dexter Ward), most film versions of Lovecraft's complex and far-reaching tales have failed to capture the essence of terror that he managed to imbue so effectively onto the written page. Though it's more of a hodgepodge of stories rather than a straight adaptation of the singular tale of Dagon, Stuart Gordon's return to Lovecraft land captures the supreme sense of dread represented in the best of Lovecraft's writings and manages to work it into a well-paced film with some great settings. The seaside town which has fallen prey to the influence of a malevolent sea deity named Dagon is a dank maze of crumbling buildings that becomes a terrifying character on its own terms. Additionally, Fantastic Factory has wisely opted for more traditional prosthetic effects rather than the current trend toward CGI-based animation, with the exception of a brief moment in the film's climax. In the world of Lovecraft's tentacle-bearing beasts, this choice seems far more realistic and provides an effective means of literally fleshing out the characters who have succumbed to Dagon's lures of wealth and prosperity. Though it's not perfect, Lovecraft fans will most likely be willing to forgive Dagon's shortcomings in favor of a film that obviously shows great respect and appreciation for its source materials. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
Two young Americantourists, Barbara and Paul, seek help in a small town called Imboca on the coast of Galicia in Spain after their boat becomes shipwrecked. However, the inhabitants turn out to be far from friendly, and, as they discover, not even human, apart from a drunken tramp named Ezequiel. This latter (played by veteran Spanish actor Francisco Rabal - in what would be his last role), tells Paul how the denizens of the town have overthrown Christianity in favour of the fish god Dagon, who has brought them wealth from the sea. Since that time they have mutated into fish-like forms and are in obedience to the beautiful mermaid-like Uxia. Eerily she has appeared to Paul in his dreams even before they meet and she saves him from being murdered by the locals. However, her plans for him, and for Barbara, unleash horror beyond all imagination.
Eventually we learn Paul's mother escaped from the town years ago and is Uxia's half brothers from the same father, and they are destined to be together.
^ This names are still faithful to the novel as they're literal translations to Spanish of the original names.
Details
The plot presents several differences from Lovecraft's original story, such as:
The setting is switched to Galicia, Spain instead of the fictional town of Innsmouth, Massachusetts. The Spanish town is fictional too, and it is called Imboca. "En boca" is Spanish for "in mouth" and is apparently a pun on the name "Innsmouth." Imboca, as well, sounds similar to "Invoca", Spanish for "He/She invokes"
The villagers in Lovecraft's story are the offspring of human breeding with sea creatures called Deep Ones. In the movie, their origin is vaguely explained. Also, in Gordon's version, the appearance of the creatures is quite exaggerated when compared to the original story, as they have additional tentacles or have them as replacements for their limbs.
The villagers skin and wear their victims' faces; while Stuart Gordon based this habit on research he had done about the ancient worshippers of Dagon, who wore fish heads, this doesn't occur in the original story.
Dagon itself does not appear in The Shadow Over Innsmouth; it does in the homonymous short story, even though it is only vaguely described. Its appearance in the movie seems to be inspired by another creation of Lovecraft, the tentacled Cthulhu.
Dennis Paoli wrote the screenplay back in the 1980s, but he and Stuart Gordon never managed to get the movie off the ground. In early 2000, Brian Yuzna founded the Fantastic Factory division of Filmax and called them back to finally shoot the movie. The original draft was more faithful to Lovecraft's short story, being based in New England.
