Apparently Lovecraft intended the short story to be a kind of spoof of ‘Frankenstein,’ and Director Stuart Gordon takes this to heart, effectively making a horror comedy. At first, there isn’t much to laugh about except for the hammy acting, with Jeffrey Combs front and centre for the role of Herbert. Combs is great at keeping a straight face, no matter how ridiculous proceedings become. Herbert’s been kicked out of a Swiss medical school and is instead taken on at Miskatonic University, befriending Dan Cain. It’s a friendship borne out of convenience, as Dan also needs a new housemate, and Herbert is happy to take up residence, as long as he is never disturbed and can use the basement for his experiments. Unsurprisingly for everyone except Dan, Herbert’s experiments involving raising the dead, and it’s not long before his determination – and apparent lack of any ability to learn from his mistakes – leads to an undead disaster.

Re-Animator is all about the gore, and it does it pretty well. If you’re really itching for some severed limbs and spattered brains, then this film is for you. The prosthetics are top notch for their time, too. The sets are less impressive – I was constantly distracted by the security guard who had a desk in the middle of a hallway – however with a budget of apparently $90,000, it’s clear that the focus was upon the quality of the prosthetic effects rather than the locations.

The film is gratuitous in many regards, particularly when it comes to the aforementioned gore, and it throws in some unnecessary nudity for good measure, too. Poor Barbara Crampton (as Megan) gets her kit off for a particularly exploitative scene, though she did continue working with Gordon for years to come, so presumably wasn’t too conflicted about her role.

Re-Animator is quite nasty, really – like many horror films from the 80s. Even the humour doesn’t manage to hide just how unpleasant most of the film is, though I suppose this is part of the cult appeal of Gordon’s most fondly remembered film. If any Lovecraft fans out there are looking for a film that truly conveys the spirit and mood of his works, then this isn’t it. There’s nary a catacomb to be seen, though I’m told that future sequels would remedy this (I’ll let you know how those compare in time).

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Barbara and Paul are boating off the coast of Spain when they become shipwrecked. They manage to get to shore, but find that the inhabitants of the fishing town of Imboca more than a little strange. Many of them are reluctant to talk and feature noticeable deformities. The whole place is rundown and it soon becomes clear not only that they shouldn’t tarry long, but their being here was no accident.

Strangely, this film is both ultra faithful and fairly loose in its adaptation. The setting and characters may have changed, however the scene in the short story where the protagonist has to lock himself into his hotel room (featuring some nifty home improvement) is almost a blow-by-blow recreation. In fact, that same scene was in the ‘Call of Cthulhu: The Dark Corners of the Earth’ video game, which is still better than any Mythos film I’ve seen.

Ezra Godden plays Paul (who bears a strange resemblance to Jeffrey Combs in Re-Animator), and whilst he’s a strong lead performer, it’s a pity that Stuart Gordon seemingly feels the need to add extra cheese to his films. For the most part, Dagon plays it straight, but then there are moments when it seems he has his sights set firmly on the B-grade. This is part of the problem with many Lovecraft adaptations – they’re not treated seriously. There are several moments that are practically throwbacks to the days of Re-Animator (I’ll get to reviewing that film soon) and the gloriously silly horror comedies of the 80s. As I say, Dagon is a strong enough film that it doesn’t really need distractions like this.

The other major flaw with Dagon would have to be a single scene that suddenly veers into torture porn. This particular piece of grossness is truly difficult to watch and, again, feels out of place. Lovecraft’s horrors were never really graphic – he is, after all, the master of insinuated (rather than described) horror. This moment of gore is simply unpleasant and didn’t need to be included.

The production values on display here are great. The location is beautiful and the sets are decent (even if the props often feel over the top). The film moves at a cracking pace, too. It seems as if the filmmakers couldn’t quite decide just how threatening the mutated inhabitants of Imboca are – sometimes they are unstoppable, at other times Paul merely seems to be knocking over a bunch of stunted homeless people. The film does get bonus points for hilariously using samples of dolphin cries amongst their inhuman wailings, however.

Dagon really does get Lovecraft’s atmosphere right, and Imboca is a great substitute for Innsmouth. There are some great prosthetic effects (and some not so good CGI), but overall this is a great Mythos adaptation. To quote my better half, it’s R’lyeh good.

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