Adult Movies

Movie lists | Dagon | I've Heard the Mermaids Singing | Local Hero | Movie projects

Movie lists

Ed's Mermaid Page movie reviews. Some highlights.

Sea Creature — "I wasn't too fond of this one. The mermaid eats people. Not exactly a movie for kids to see."
Beach Blanket Bingo — "Ok, it is a beach movie, but the mermaid story that runs through it is not too bad."
The Thirteenth Year — "A good teenage movie, yet also has a great mermaid that is worth checking out.

Mermaid Lagoon movie page. A few reviews—Sea Creature is pronounced "possibly the best use of the mermaid legend I've ever seen on film"—combined with descriptions from a very expansive list. Some I haven't seen described elsewhere, eg., Mermaid in a Manhole, "… a story about a painter who finds a diseased mermaid in a sewer who brings her home with terrifying results." Blech!

Very comprehensive multi-part list of mermaid films from RuthAnne's Studio.

Dagon

Amazon. Dagon a.k.a. "H. P. Lovecraft's Dagon," directed by Stuart Gordon (2001). Americans crash boat by creepy Spanish fishing village with a terrible secret. (Mer-creatures of a sort are involved.)

H.P. Lovecraft's Dagon official site. The site is glacially-slow, so I'll include this link to the trailer .

IMDb. Summary, cast, etc. Lay reviewed spider63, from Boca Raton, Florida, has one of the runniest critical rants I've read, mostly aimed at the movie's protagonist, Paul.

"Paul breaks into tears in at least six different scenes, and considering that this is a Horror movie, that is about five times too many. … After falling down, Paul adopts a peculiar limp-run which works by Paul slapping his butt as he run-limps. He runs with his right hand pushing into his buttocks. I have never seen anyone limp that way, and this is probably a first for cinematic history."

The message board has some other choice criticism:

"The whole time I watched this, I suffered. I want those 98 minutes of my life back."

At the bottom of the page, IMDb suggests "if you like this film" you should also check out "Vana espuma," another film by the same director, dubbed one of the worst movies every made in Colombia.

Positive review by Martin Leggett, designating it a "a fine little film" Leggett gets the tagline award for:

"Two big webbed thumbs up!"

Negative review by Carlo Cavagna, AboutFilm.Com. Commenting on the fact that this was Francisco Rabal's last movie:

"What a sad swan song for the legendary Spanish actor, playing the town drunk in a straight-to-video feature and woefully miscast as someone who speaks English."

Positive review by Christopher Benedict.

"The real star of the film, though, is the location. Gordon found the ideal seaside village and filmed it with an arresting murk of rain and grime and oceanic dread. He turns the necessity of filming in Spain into an asset, and the ambience of decay that pervades the film makes up for a lot of the film's shortcomings."

Positive review by Adam-Troy Castro from ScienceFictionWeekly.

"This is an effective shocker, made by talented storytellers, who have here made about as believable and immediate a film about sacrifice to fish-gods as you're ever likely to see. There's even a secondary love story, involving the romantic ambitions of a half-woman, half-squid ... and damned if it doesn't work, too."

Positive review by TaningiaDanae, the Octopus News Magazine Online [!]. Reviewer notes the great efforts the director took to inject sex (not Lovecraft's cup of tea) and gore (also absent from his atmospheric universe) into the story.

Ambiguous review by John Fallon — "But even with its faulty lead and script no-no's, Dagon still came through on some levels."

Positive review by Mike Long, from www.dvdmaniacs.net.

Ambiguous review by Dr. Mality, Scifilm.

"I can recommend DAGON to Lovecraft fans only with some strong caveats. Enough of the master's eerieness and sense of the macabre remains to make it worth a look and there are some strong, shocking scenes. But the cheap exploitation elements and the weak performance in the lead seriously harm the movie."

"The Shadow Over Innsmouth" by H. P. Lovecraft (1936). The story on which the movie is (largely) based.

"Dagon" which gave the movie its title and some plot. You gotta love a story that ends "God, that hand! The window! The window!"

Other reviews: Richard Scheib (2 1/2 stars), Neil Young (negative).

I have avoided linking to one review, entitled "A Dagon Good Movie: Cthulhu ftalgn! Ayi!" The reviewer scares me more than most Lovecraftian cultists, positively slavering over the "hot DiD" ("Damsel in Distress") scenes.

You can read my review in this footnote[1].

I've Heard the Mermaids Singing

Reviewed by Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times 3.5 stars.

IMDb. Positive user reviews.

Washington Post review by Rita Kempley, "rough around the edges, brimming with uncontrolled talent."

Local Hero

Amazon DVD. Local Hero starring Burt Lancaster and Peter Capaldi, directed by Bill Forsyth (1983). Texas oilman discovers pleasures of life in seaside community in Scotland. Apparently one of the characters has mermaid feet. My wife says this is a great movie, and Amazon suggested "if you like this" you'd also like The Secret of Roan Inish. Mermaids or Irish-Scottish topics?

IMDb. Cast, credits, user reviews.

"Local Hero" by Linda Murray Green. American journalist visits the Scottish town in Local Hero to find how the movie changed things.

Fan pages from a Bill Forsyth fan page.

Movie projects

Fathom Films & Christine Navarro Productions. Info on a movie project.

Notes:

I rented Dagon because, as a fan of Lovecraft, I felt a duty, and because I figured a movie that inspired so many contrary and extreme reactions must be, at least, very something. I wanted a guilty pleasure, but like the disillusioned young priest who casts aside his collar and throws himself into the steamy maelstrom of Las Vegas only to find himself playing $5 blackjack with geriatrics from Ohio, neither the guilt nor the pleasure met expectations.

Camerawork, music, violence, nudity, "twists"—all workmanlike. Parts I liked, parts disliked. But most of all, I wish I had watched it while doing something else—a sure sign of the pacing and aesthetics of television. Had I watched it so, I would have been typing through the zombie-movie chase scenes, and much of the gory action. I would have been more attentive during the flashback, scenes with the striking, creepy Uxia and, I suppose, the final scene.

So, my advice is: if you're under 16, and your parents have forbidden it, you may enjoy it. If you're a Lovecraft fan, watching it is a sort of duty—just make sure you've got something else to do. (back)

LibraryThing: Catalog your books online.

If you enjoy this site you may like this other site by me:

Seahorse and Sea Dragon Central. Comprehensive guide to seahorse and sea dragons.

Angels on the Web. Images and other web resources on angels in Western culture, religion and art.

Hammerhead Shark! Hammerheads in all their glory, with a picture galery.