Dagon (2001 movie)

Dagon
Spanish theatrical release poster
Directed by	Stuart Gordon
Produced by	Carlos Fernández Julio Fernández Miguel Torrente Brian Yuzna
Screenplay by	Dennis Paoli
Based on	The Shadow Over Innsmouth by H. P. Lovecraft
Starring	Ezra Godden Francisco Rabal Raquel Meroño
Music by	Carles Cases
Edited by	Jaume Vilalta
Production company	Castelao Producciones Estudios Picasso Fantastic Factory ICCA Generalitat de Catalunya, Institut Català de Finances Televisió de Catalunya Televisión de Galicia S.A. Vía Digital Xunta de Galicia
Distributed by	Filmax International (Spain) Lions Gate Entertainment (United States)
Release date	12 October 2001 (Sitges Film Festival)
Running time	98 minutes
Country	Spain
Language	English Galician Spanish
Box office	EUR €212,699 (Spain)

Dagon (released in Spain as Dagon: La Secta del Mar) is a 2001 Spanish horror film directed by Stuart Gordon and written by Dennis Paoli. Despite the title, the plot is actually based, though a good deal loosely, on H. P. Lovecraft's novella The Shadow Over Innsmouth rather than his earlier short story "Dagon" (1919). In fact, the setting takes place in "Imboca", a Spanish adaption of "Innsmouth". The film is dedicated to actor Francisco Rabal immediately before the credits.

Stock market tycoon Paul Marsh has a dream that he discovers a mermaid with razor sharp teeth while scuba diving into a carven pit. Paul awakes on a boat off the shores of Spain, where he is vacationing with his girlfriend, Barbara, and their friends Vicki and Howard. A sudden storm blows their boat against some hidden rocks. Vicki is trapped below deck and Howard stays with her while Paul and Barbara take a lifeboat to the nearby fishing village of Imboca. During their absence, an unseen creature from the deep attacks the two in the boat.

At shore, Barbara and Paul find no one about and venture into town until they eventually reach the church, where they find a priest. Barbara convinces him to help them, and the priest speaks with two fishermen at the docks, who volunteer to take either Paul or Barbara to the wreck. Despite Paul's misgivings, Barbara stays to try to find a phone in order to call the police and a doctor while Paul goes to help their friends.

Vicki and Howard are mysteriously missing, however, and Paul is taken back to Imboca, where he is sent to the hotel that Barbara was supposed to have gone to. But she is missing as well and Paul is left to wait for her in an old, filthy hotel room, where he dreams of the mermaid again. His fitful rest is disturbed by a large gathering of strange, fish-like people approaching the hotel and is forced to flee. He ends up in a macabre tannery full of human skins, where he discovers Howard's remains. He escapes the tannery by starting a fire and finds momentary safety with an old drunkard named Ezequiel, the last full-blooded human in Imboca.

Ezequiel explains to Paul that, many years ago, the village fell on lean times and turned from Catholicism to the worship of Dagon, converting the church into his temple. This brought marvelous wealth to Imboca in the form of fish and gold, but also horror when Dagon demanded blood sacrifices and human women to breed with. These were, respectively, the fates of Ezequiel's father and mother. Paul begs Ezequiel to help him escape. Ezequiel relents and takes Paul to the Mayor's manor, so he can steal the town's only car. Ezequiel distracts some Imbocans long enough for Paul to slip inside, but he accidentally honks the horn while trying to hot-wire the engine. Forced to flee into the manor, Paul finds a beautiful woman named Uxia, the mermaid from his dreams. She saves him from discovery, but when he finds that she really is half-fish, he flees in horror, despite her pleas for him to stay.