Or, When Good Directors Go (Very) Bad. An attack by a shark forces a
rather unlikeable yuppie couple to seek refuge at a nearby fishing
village. Whilst the girl (Raquel Merono) runs off to get help, our leading
man (Ezra Gordon- what the hell kinda name for a leading man is Ezra?)
stays in town to find that basically everyone is a zombie and they worship
a freaky pagan fish-God named Dagon.
That really is the plot, and sadly it’s not as hysterically funny as it
sounds, thanks to the surprisingly deadening pacing by Gordon, who
directed this adaptation of a H.P. Lovecraft tale. The film has a fairly
creepy atmosphere, but like John Carpenter’s ‘The Fog’ it isn’t enough,
even moreso here than that film.
The extremely gory (and even weirder) finale is nearly enough to make it
tolerable for gore-hounds, and oddly sexy mermaid-lady (Hey!) Macarena
Gomez is rather enchanting (if mostly unable to act). However, the 70
minutes one has to endure before the finale is a chore.
It’s just a lot of
running around whilst supposed Spanish acting legend Francisco Rabal (as a
town drunk who has escaped the zombies by staying inebriated) spouts
wholly unintelligable lines of dialogue and our man Ezra carries on like
an especially wimpy cross between Gordon regulars Bruce Campbell and
Jeffrey Combs. Oh, if only he had their charm.
OVERALL SUMMARY
Perhaps it is time for Mr. Gordon to find inspiration elsewhere, but with
another ‘Re-Animator’ film out there, I doubt it will happen. Weird,
especially gory, but totally uninvolving.
