Stuart Gordon Talks DAGON Part One

By: John Thonen
Date: Wednesday, July 24, 2002

To true lovers of the literary horror genre, the name H.P. Lovecraft is an almost sacred one, which should only be mentioned if afforded the same respect as an Edgar Allan Poe or Stephen King. However, unlike either Poe or King, attempts to turn the works of Lovecraft into films have most often been disastrous. Roger Corman's THE HAUNTED PALACE, and perhaps Dan O'Bannon's THE RESURRECTED are among the very few movies to effectively take film viewers to the realms Lovecraft's readers regularly visit through his work.

The only other exceptions to the high mortality rate most Lovecraft based films suffer can be found in the works of cult director Stuart Gordon, whose delightfully dark comic takes on Lovecraft, RE-ANIMATOR and FROM BEYOND ('86), found a warm, often adoring critical and audience response in the '80s. This week, Lovecraft is back, and Gordon's got him, as the cinematic couple from Hell return after nearly 20 years away from their public, and this time they come with a new offspring: DAGON!



DAGON is, according to Gordon, who directed it, something of an amalgam of two H.P. Lovecraft stories, "Dagon" and "The Shadow Over Innsmouth." The film deals with the residents of an isolated fishing town who, following several years of meager catches, call upon an ancient god to bring them a bountiful harvest from the sea which has always provided their livelihood. This god, one of the indescribable ancient ones who provide the basis of the Lovecraft mythos, eventually wants to be compensated for his assistance: the females which he impregnates eventually give birth to mutant, half-human, half-fish children who eventually come to dominate the town.

"It's my favorite story of his," Gordon says. "I really do think it's his scariest story. It's the idea of being in a place where you are surrounded by monsters. Where you may be the last human left in this whole town. That's a very scary idea to me."

Scary ideas are the stock and trade for Gordon, who has been trying to make this particular film for over 15 years. The original script was written by his frequent collaborator Dennis Paoli and has been close to actual production several times in the past. When asked if the past roadblocks in the film's way came from a lack of studio interest or difficulties in raising production money, Gordon laughingly replies, "Yes! Everyone just thought it was too strange. I had meetings where they'd say, 'If you can make these werewolves we'll do the movie tomorrow,' but the idea of a town where people are turning into amphibious creatures was just too weird for them. I had one guy who just told me, 'Fish are not scary.' Apparently an investor who never saw JAWS."


[IMG3L]

Gordon was finally able to make the film after Brian Yuzna, who produced Gordon's earlier forays into cinematic Lovecraft territory as well as the Lovecraft inspired NECRONOMICON, made a deal with the Spanish Filmax corporation to produce a series of genre films aimed at the international market. Not surprisingly, DAGON was among the first titles announced for Yuzna's Spanish based production house, Fantastic Factory.

The film tells the story of Paul and Barbara, a young couple who have hit it rich with a dot-com concept developed by the slightly nerdy Paul. The Spanish born Barbara is excited about vacationing off the coast of Spain with Paul's investor and his wife in a sailboat. But Paul isn't quite so thrilled.

"Paul kind of thinks of the world in computer terms," explains Gordon. "He thinks that everything is binary. That there's two possibilities and only two. His girlfriend is much more open to life and wants him to open up too. So, they're an interesting couple because, if he had his way, he'd just sit inside by a computer all day long."

Barbara, played by stunningly beautiful former model, Raquel Merono, isn't about to let Paul (Ezra Godden) waste away in front of his laptop, so she promptly pitches it over the side of the boat. Not long after, a storm suddenly comes up and the ship is caught on a reef, badly injuring and trapping the investor's wife. Paul and Raquel take a life raft to a nearby fishing village of Imboca to get help.

[IMG4R]

Gordon actually shot the film on an eight-week schedule in Galcia, a region of Spain just north of Portugal. Settled by Celts, the area is genuinely as isolated as it is depicted in the film, a separation heightened by the fact that the locals even speak a different language than the rest of Spain. While Gordon had always planned on shooting DAGON in the Northeastern part of the U.S., where Lovecraft's stories are set, the locale switch to Spain turned out to be an inspired one thanks to the suggestion of Filmax president Julio Fernandez that they film in Galcia.

"It's known as a very 'witchy' place," Gordon explains. "In fact, when you go there, they sell little toy witches all over the place. It has this reputation of being a very supernatural place. Witches, ghosts, legends, sea monsters. There's even one story I heard when I was there of creatures that come out of the rivers and rape women and then their children are born with kind of fish signs on their bodies. It was very appropriate to what we were doing."

Check back soon for part two of our Stuart Gordon interview.

Questions? Comments? Let us know what you think at feedback@cinescape.com.