Dagon

Stuart Gordon’s take on Lovecraft is becoming my favorite. He delivers the source material’s existential dread and world-building while stirring in a liberal dose of sleaze. While this would have offended the prudish author, it sets the stories outside conventional morality, heightening the sense of an ancient “other” lurking below society’s norms.

In Dagon, Ezra Godden plays a young dot-com millionaire vacationing with his girlfriend off the coast of Spain. A freak storm sends them searching for help in a small fishing village. But they soon discover the village denizens harbor a terrible secret.

Godden’s look bears a more than passing resemblance to Jeffrey Combs. This, along with his girlfriend being named Barbara, offers a subtle callback to Gordon’s other Lovecraft adaptations starring Combs and Barbara Gordon.

Dagon measures up to those films. Besides the usual excellent practical effects, Gordon exploits the Spanish locales to conjure a sense of otherworldliness. Best of all, the perpetual rainfall makes for an immersive sound design. Don’t watch this in stereo on Shudder. Pay the three bucks and rent a version with the 5.1 mix.