Movies
Kill of the Week: Skinned Alive in ‘Dagon’
Every week, we spotlight a kill that we just can’t get enough of. This is Kill of the Week.
Stuart Gordon sure has brought some unforgettable horror to the screen over the years, huh? Much of Gordon’s work has drawn direct inspiration from the writings of H.P. Lovecraft, including standout gems Re-Animator, From Beyond and Castle Freak.
And then there’s Dagon, released in 2001 and recently crowned by our resident Lovecraft expert Luiz H.C. as his “personal favorite Cthulhu-Mythos-inspired film.”
An adaptation of Lovecraft’s The Shadow Over Innsmouth, the film unleashes full-on Lovecraftian horror on a young man and woman when their boat crashes off the coast of Spain and forces them to seek refuge in a small fishing village… which they discover is in the grips of an ancient sea god and its monstrous half-human offspring.
Eventually, main character Paul meets up with Ezequiel, the last surviving human in the village. Both Paul and Ezequiel are soon captured by the worshipers of Dagon, who chain them up and demand they join the cause. When Ezequiel refuses, well, things don’t turn out so well for him.
In a highly disturbing display of hard-to-watch practical effects, the old man is literally unmasked; his face is carved up and pulled clean off his skull.
When Gordon adapted Lovecraft, things always got pretty gruesome!
Movies
Christopher Landon to Helm Feature Adaptation of Grady Hendrix’s ‘The Final Girl Support Group’
A new feature adaptation of author Grady Hendrix‘s slasher book The Final Girl Support Group is now on the way from Paramount Pictures, and Deadline reports that it’s found its director in Christopher Landon (Drop, Happy Death Day).
The two previously collaborated on My Best Friend’s Exorcism.
In The Final Girl Support Group, “Lynette is a real-life final girl who survived a massacre. For more than a decade, she’s been meeting with five other final girls and their therapist in a support group for those who survived the unthinkable, working to put their lives back together. Then one woman misses a meeting, and their worst fears are realized—someone knows about the group and is determined to rip their lives apart again, piece by piece.”
“But the thing about final girls is that no matter how bad the odds, how dark the night, how sharp the knife, they will never, ever give up.”
I wrote in my novel review for BD, “Hendrix puts his characters through the absolute wringer. It’s a bloody, vicious voyage for the flawed heroine, both physically and emotionally. In terms of action and horror, Support Group delivers breakneck pacing and thrills.”
Five years ago, Andy Muschietti & Barbara Muschietti (Mama, It, It Chapter Two) were attached to produce a planned series adaptation for HBO Max alongside Charlize Theron. While Theron is no longer producing, the Muschiettis remain on board under their Double Dream label.
Paramount Pictures is also developing Hendrix’s sci-fi novella, BadAsstronauts.
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