Dagon (2001)

Dagon   Spain | 98 mins | Fantasy/Horror/Mystery/Thriller | Color

Written by Roger Malcolm

A shipwrecked couple raft to a local fishing town on the Spanish coast for help, only the residents of Imboca aren’t quite what they were expecting.  Based off Lovecraft’s The Shadow of Innsmouth, it is named after Lovecraft’s short story Dagon, which borrows elements for the film.  Dagon is the fourth film based off Lovecraft directed by Stuart Gordon, the others being Re-Animator, From Beyond, and Castle Freak.   The screenplay was written by Dennis Paoli, who also has writing credits on all three films just mentioned.   Gordon and Paoli had originally intended Dagon to be filmed in 1985, yet instead it would be in some form of production for over 15 years.

John Carpenter’s The Fog (1980)

The Fog (1980) USA / 89 min / Horror / Color(metrocolor)

Written by Roger Malcolm

“Is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream?”
Edgar Allan Poe

The inhabitants of a small sea-side northern California town are haunted by avenging ghosts during its centennial celebration. 

The Haunted Palace (1963)

The Haunted Palace (1963) USA / 87 min / Horror / Color

Written by Roger Malcolm

From the pit came a horror of unknown origins, which would lead to a curse on the New England town of Arkham.  Based on Lovecraft’s ‘The Case of Charles Dexter Ward’, starring Vincent Price and Lon Chaney Jr., and directed by Roger Corman, The Haunted Palace derives its title from an Edgar Allan Poe poem.  Notably the credits purposely misspell Poe’s middle name “Allan” to “Allen”.  The studio American International Pictures forced Corman into changing the film’s original title “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward” to connect it to Corman’s Poe films of previous success.