The latest from acclaimed horror director Stuart Gordon takes us back to his favorite source material - H.P. Lovecraft. Dagon is Gordon's version of the Lovecraft story "The Shadow over Innsmouth", although the setting has been changed from New England to Spain. This is due to the fact that the entire group of producers (the guys who put up the money) are all Spanish. But who are we to quibble over such trivialities?

Our film begins with our hero Paul, underwater searching around strange ruins in the shape of an eye. As he probes a chasm carved with bizarre figures, he is startled by a mermaid! She, however, tries to kill him. Fortunately, Paul picks that exact moment to wake up. He is with his girlfriend Barbara and two of their friends on a yacht off the Spanish coast. It seems this nightmare is a reoccurring one. A storm quickly brews and slams the yacht into the offshore rocks before it can make it to safety in the nearby fishing village of Imbaca (instead of Innsmouth). Their friend Vicky is trapped in the crash and her husband Howard sends Paul and Barbara off in the dinghy to the village. However, there seems to be no one in the town, until they enter a bizarre church that bears the same eye Paul saw in his dream. A vicar appears and sends Paul back to the dock, where he finds a boatman willing to try and help. The Vicar and Barbara go to a hotel to wait for Paul to return and call the police, but once there, the Vicar and hotel clerk kidnap Barbara. Meanwhile, Paul finds the yacht empty. He returns to the town and goes to the hotel to wait for Barbara (the Vicar told him she was "going to get the police"). Paul falls asleep and imagines the mermaid woman in Barbara's clothes, but is awakened by a commotion outside. The town square is now full of freaky-looking people who notice Paul and chase him. Pursued to a slaughterhouse, Paul stumbles across the skin of Howard drying from a hook. Paul escapes by setting the place on fire. In the chaos, Paul meets Ezequiel, the only other "human" in the town. Thanks to him, Paul hears of the true origin of the town. The villagers gave their souls to the Deep One Dagon in exchange for eternal life as "fish creatures". They need humans to procreate, however. Barbara is to be sacrificed as the bride of Dagon. Much more happens to our hero Paul, but you'll have to watch the film yourselves to find out what.

When I first watched this film, I was struck by a number of things. First, the first hour of the film is extremely slow moving; there are great stretches without dialogue or music and the fish creatures chase of Paul seems to go on forever. Secondly, there are plot holes you can drive a truck through. Gordon does not give us enough back-story to understand about what's going on with the characters and the situation. Thirdly, a lot of the dialogue is in Spanish, and no translation or subtitles are offered. The Spanish actor's English is heavily accented, especially Ezequiel, which makes understanding the film very difficult. I watched the DVD a second time with commentary by Gordon and writer Dennis Paoli and it was actually a better movie, because their comments filled in many of the plot and character shortcomings. How I wish they could have put some of that in the film itself!

Besides Gordon and Paoli's commentary, the DVD includes a second commentary track with Gordon and lead actor Ezra Godden (interesting, but not as revealing as the Paoli track). Other extras include a restricted trailer for the film, storyboards for three sequences, production art more disturbing than what they used, and English/Spanish subtitle options.

I can't give the film a "thumbs up", because it isn't really that good. However, I did like it more on the second go-round, so it's not a total waste of time. Because DVD extras saved the film, I'll give Dagon a "thumbs -sorta-sideways".

And also mention that the cover could have been better!