Possible origin of Dagon, and maybe most of Act 7

quote:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0264508/ Plot Summary for Dagon (2001) Based on a short story by H.P. Lovecraft (1890-1937), the undisputed master of the macabre, Dagon tells the story of Paul Marsh, a young man who discovers that the truth will not set him free instead it condemns him to a waking nightmare of unrelenting horror. A boating accident off the coast of Spain sends Paul and his girlfriend Barbara to the decrepit fishing village of Imboca looking for help. As night falls, people start to disappear and things not quite human start to appear. Paul finds himself pursued by the entire town. Running for his life, he uncovers Imboca's dark secret: that they pray to Dagon, a monstrous god of the sea. And Dagon's unholy offspring are freakish half-human creatures on the loose in Imboca...

I happened to flip this on the Sci-Fi channel the other day, read the short blub, and it clicked.

Can't tell me this doesn't sound a bit like Act 7 "The Call from the Past".

Wow.

I saw that movie too. Made the connection as soon as I heard "Dagon" (I didn't happen to see the title of the movie at the start, for whatever reason).

The first one doesn't seem to have any relation to Act 7, but the others definitely work, if only as basis points.

I saw part of it on the Sci-Fi channel a while back too. It basicly says that they both have their origins in an older story about a Sea God.

quote:

Originally posted by The Big Finale Wow. I saw that movie too. Made the connection as soon as I heard "Dagon" (I didn't happen to see the title of the movie at the start, for whatever reason). The first one doesn't seem to have any relation to Act 7, but the others definitely work, if only as basis points.

With the first underlined part, I thought of something besides Act 7. To me that sounds like Schwarzwald, and his obsession with finding out the truth behind Paradigm, and how it drove him to wander the desert and meet his end, yet he still continued to wander as a spirit.


Heh, I should have specified that before.

...You see R. Smith...You can't avoid H.P. Lovecraft when dealing with the macabre and strange any more than you can avoid the sun...

Still. I am baffled that the Japanese put such a blatantly western theme in it. Hell, a piece I was writing (and will continue to do so as soon as Avenir figures how to send it back to me) dealt with the Miskatonic University. Yes. Howie does have great influence.

I haven't read Dagon and The Shadow over Innsmouth(sp?) so I can't comment.
Since I'm lazy and overly generous today, I'll drop this link.

The Complete(?) published Writings of H.P. Lovecraft

You can read his stuff there. Oh. Do not read At the Mountains of Madness anything on the site until you develop a big vocabulary and/or have a dictionary on hand.

Lovecraft is one of my household gods. The movie "Dagon" is more or less a sexed up, modernized, and transplanted retelling of his Shadow Over Innsmouth. The story Dagon is essentially a rough draft for his longer and more popular "The Call of Cthulhu" in which a shiprecked sailor goes mad after running aground on a previously non-existant island and seeing some very fishy signs of pre-human civilization. Dagon is also the name of an ancient Pheonecian (?) god erroneously attributed aquatic qualities by early biblical scholars.

EDIT:

Having just read The Shadow over Innsmouth on that site (thanks, D-Boy), I can't say I see any deep connection between it and Act 7.

It's just the basic plot points that are similar.

Scratch that for the moment. I'm going to look over Act 7 again... may have to re-evaluate my position.

my dad has a book of Lovecraft stuff I knew about this for a couple of weeks already, (I also saw a bit of the movie ) just never bothered to post it. Glad some others have found the connection as well

I think I pointed out the Lovecraftian tones of Act 7 about a year ago in the episode discussion thread. The whole episode, beyond the Megadeus, has a very "Shadow over Innsmouth" (the story the movie Dagon) is based off of) feel to it.

Umm... Ia Ia Cthulu Ftaghn!

dagon was a satanic nephilim from the babylonian and philostine religions.