A young stock market tycoon, Paul (Ezra Godden), has been plagued by strange dreams of a green-eyed mermaid. His girlfriend, Barbara, feels it is most likely an indication of excessive stress and tries to convince Paul to go on vacation with her and their older friends, Howard and Viki, to the sunny shores of Spain. Paul, however, is reluctant to go citing work, though his girlfriend won't take no for an answer and the four of them set sail in a yacht for Italy.
Everything goes fine at first. However, a sudden storm near a small fishing village named Imboca dashes the yacht against the rocks. A large rock has pierced the cabin below deck and Viki's leg is trapped between the rocks and the yacht. Luckily, the yacht is otherwise stable and in no risk of sinking. Howard stays behind to care for his injured wife while Paul and Barbara go ashore to look for help....
Provides examples of:
- Adaptational Alternate Ending: An odd case because it ends with more or less the same thing happening: the protagonist joining the Deep Ones in their Underwater City. The difference is that in the movie, he doesn't choose it.
- Adaptational Name Change: Due to the setting transplant, pretty much everyone gets this; the most notable examples include Insmouth to Imboca, Zadok to Ezequiel, the Marshes to the Cambarros, and so on and so forth.
- Adaptational Villainy: The people of Innsmouth were Ambiguously Evil at worst, and all the Deep One-on-human pairings are presented as consensual. Here, the Imboca people are Always Chaotic Evil monsters who flay people alive and propagate themselves exclusively by rape in Obviously Evil Human Sacrifice rituals.
- Affably Evil: Uxia - despite being the head of a Cult that feeds victims to be eaten or raped by Dagon - is very polite, warm, and gentle to Paul.
- An Arm and a Leg: When Paul and Barbara are reunited with Viki, they find her in a state of complete shock because the cultists cut off one of her legs. Barbara loses her arms when Dagon drags her into the depths.
- Barrier-Busting Blow: A tense scene gives us dueling ones from Paul and the Deep Ones, each trying to break down a door to either escape or catch the other.
- Big Bad: Uxia is directly responsible for the terrible things befalling the main characters in the present, as the High Priestess of the Cult of Dagon.
- Bilingual Bonus: English and Spanish are present here.
- Bloodier and Gorier: Than Lovecraft, who was an advocate of Nothing Is Scarier.
- B-Movie: Its creators willingly admit this and state they engaged in sex, horror, and camp willingly in the style of Stuart Gordon.
- Body Horror: Those fish people...not all of them were born that way.
- Brother–Sister Incest: What Uxia intends for her half-brother, Paul.
- Bowdlerise: A version was aired on American TV with some changes for that audience.
- Nakedness was covered or otherwise edited out.note
- Most of Ezequiel's skinning scene was cut.note
- When Dagon comes out of the water and takes Bárbara, her arms aren't left behind, in spite of her wrists being shackled. No justification is given.
- Chekhov's Gun: Barbara's lighter is given focus right at the start, and Paul uses it to good effect before dousing himself in oil and attempting to light himself.
- Child by Rape: You're going to submit to Dagon whether you want to or not.
- Cosmic Horror Story: By association with the Cthulhu Mythos.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Surprisingly frequent. A couple include being skinned alive to make ceremonial masks and suicide by pocket knife Hara-kiri style.
- Cthulhumanoid: All the Dagon cultists in the village are various types of Fish People. Uxia's father has a face that resembles an octopus.
- Cult: One of the most famous is featured: the Esoteric Order of Dagon.
- Cute Monster Girl: Uxia turns out to be a Cute Monster Girl Deep One by way of Our Mermaids Are Different... for certain definitions of "cute".
- Dagon of the Depths: Paul Marsh and his girlfriend Barbara are stranded in the Spanish fishing village of Imboca and soon discover it's home to a cult of deep ones and hybrids who worship the eldritch sea-god Dagon, who rapes and impregnates the women sacrificed to him by the cult. You get a single glimpse of him at the end, and he's suitably monstrous, as he is nautical.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Considering the setting of Ezequiel's flashback (the 1930s, assuming he is roughly the same age as his actor), the sacking of Imboca's church, the smashing of sacred statues and icons by a mob, and the murder of the priest are almost certainly meant to parallel the very real desecrations and anti-clerical massacres that took place during the Spanish Civil War.
- Downer Ending: The Bad Guy Wins. Our hero goes from Roaring Rampage of Revenge to Driven to Suicide to And Then John Was a Zombie in the course of two minutes. To be specific, Paul accepts his heritage, and presumably goes on to join the cult and engage in Villainous Incest with his half-sister.
- Driven to Suicide: Several times. Wanting to avoid an Eldritch pregnancy Viki decides to cut her own throat. Likewise, when Paul discovers the truth of his heritage, he tries to kill himself...but fails, thanks to his half sister.
- Eldritch Abomination: Dagon itself is only seen for a split-second near the end, but it lives up to its Lovecraftian nature.
- Eldritch Ocean Abyss: The movie ends with the protagonist growing gills and traveling into an underwater abyss to meet the Eldritch Abomination that spawned him and his sister.
- Extremely Dusty Home: Verging with Old, Dark House, but every single place in Imboca is a dilapidated mess of a building; filled with broken clutter, sea-water, and general disrepair.
- Fanservice: Uxia is quite attractive (until you get to the fact that her legs are tentacles), and spends a fair amount of time underdressed, or just plain undressed.
- Fan Disservice: The afforementioned tentacle legs. Also, Barbara has a nude scene near the end of the film... after she's been raped by Dagon and Covered in Gunge. Well, we hope it's gunge. Then she's pulled back in, with her being torn off her shackled arms.
- Fish People: As per Deep One lore; many of the inhabitants of Imboca bear fish like traits; like gills, teeth, and faces. Some of them have cephalopod traits as well.
- Flayed Alive: Ezequiel is ultimately subjected to this; having his ''entire face removed while he's alive.
- Foreign Remake: Despite being directed, written, and starred in by Americans (who play American characters) and being filmed in English for a wider release, it is a full Spanish production that changes Innsmouth to a fishing village in the Galician coast (or, the closest thing in Spain to Lovecraft Country).
- Ghost City: Imboca looks to be deserted when the tourists take a glimpse of it from the sea. As it turns out, there's people there, but they don't really come out till nightfall.
- Girl of My Dreams: Paul has recurring dreams of a beautiful mermaid who beckons him to join her. After he and his friends get stuck in a coastal town inhabited by a Fish People cult, he finds out that the girl in his dreams, Uxia the high priestess, is real. At the end he's told that they're both the demi-human offspring of a sea god and that he is destined to become his sister's lover.
- Gorn: Most notably the scene in which Ezequiel's face is cut off his head while he's still alive and screaming in agony.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Dagon, of course, but Captain Orpheus Cambarro counts as well: a disciple of Dagon who came to Imboca, seduced the townsfolk to worship his god, which turned them into the murderous Deep Ones, and is a distant progenitor of both Uxia and Paul. He's long gone: either dead or dwelling as a Deep One by the time the film starts, and has no direct hand in Paul's plight, but the story never would have happened without him.
- Hell Hotel: Barbara picked a great place to look for help. As Paul discovers, it comes complete with a Disgusting Public Toilet, smashed windows, and a bed in which someone—or something—has apparently died recently.
- Human Sacrifice: Viki and Barbara are used as offerings to Lord Dagon. Barbara gets more ceremony, though. It's particularly noted that the village-folk haven't been able to offer a sacrifice for a year, which makes the two all the more important to keep within the town limits.
- Insult Backfire: An instance that is at the same time unusually messed up, and funny.Uxia: Dagon needs her sacrifice!
Paul: Fuck Dagon!
Uxia: Yes, and their child will live forever! - Kill It with Fire: The Deep Ones are deathly afraid of fire. Paul goes with an old standby at the finale, before invoking this on himself in a suicide attempt.
- Lovecraft on Film: An adaptation of The Shadow over Innsmouth, with some elements of "Dagon".
- Luke, I Am Your Father: Said by one of the fish people to Paul.
- Malevolent Masked Men: The Deep Ones wear skinned human faces; apparently to mock their Catholic faith.
- Man on Fire: Paul douses several Imbocans in kerosene and lights them on fire before doing the same to himself.
- Mars Needs Women: In contrast to the book, where the Deep Ones' sexual interest in human beings was unisex, here, they are exclusively after our women. This adds to the Adaptational Villainy.
- The Mermaid Problem: Averted via tentacles with certain *ahem* functions.
- Monster Progenitor: Dagon, responsible for, er, directly siring all the assorted Fish People.
- Mood Whiplash: The slow pacing and dramatic mood of the film is interrupted by a flashback to a surprisingly dramatic depiction of the town's corruption by inhuman forces.
- My God, What Have I Done?: The Deep Ones in general after they realize they almost killed one of their own; this is especially pronounced with Mr. Cambarro who realizes he was seconds away from having his son sacrificed.
- Nightmare Face: Everyone in the town have hideous fish traits admist their features.
- Not-So-Safe Harbor: The Spanish town of "Imboca", which translates to "in the mouth", looks as it got transported from the 19th century to present day. Amusingly, it's also a literal example, being a place the tourists think is a convenient stop to get ocean-side help, without realizing the danger they're in.
- Ominous Fog: The town is cast in this during the prologue; the tourists barely able to see the shoreside as a result. It disappears as soon as the storm begins.
- Only Sane Man: The old drunk Ezequiel; though he admits to being crazy in his own way as well.
- Our Mermaids Are Different: Really, "mermaids" here are just another slight anatomical variation on Fish People.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Paul goes on a rage-fueled rampage at the end; duel wielding knives, carving up Fish People, and then lighting a bunch more on fire with the help of some kerosene.
- Religion of Evil: As per the norm for Lovecraft's Deep Ones. The cult of the fish god, Dagon, practices human sacrifices; luring, capturing, and then offering tourists to satisfy the Ocean God.
- Scenery Gorn: The town of Imboca with its flooded houses, caving in roofs, and broken windows everywhere.
- Shown Their Work: The movie is actually almost completely faithful to Lovecraft's themes and stories. The director and producer also did extensive research on comparative religion, which shows in the design work regarding the various implements and decorative items the cult uses. The movie seems to imply "Dagon" is Cthulhu himself instead of a distinct entity, which is one of the actual interpretations of The Shadow over Innsmouth. About the only true inaccuracy is the film being an adaptation of The Shadow over Innsmouth as opposed to...well, Dagon.
- Sinister Minister:
- The town's priest disguises himself in a regular Catholic priest's attire, but he's actually part of Dagon's Religion of Evil.
- Captain Cambarro was this in years past: after turning Imboca to Dagon worship, he became the town's head priest.
- Sinister Scraping Sound: More like thump, shuffle and scrape. It signifies the villager's evil intentions at the hotel.
- Tomato in the Mirror: Paul is half Deep One.
- Town with a Dark Secret: If you've read this far down the page and don't know Imboca is that town, we don't know what to tell you.
- Unscaled Merfolk: They're more cephalopod than traditional merfolk or Fish People.
- Verbal Tic: "There are two possibilities..." for Paul. Eventually it changes to "No possibilities," when he tries to kill himself to avoid becoming the lover of his sister Uxia the Dagon high priestess.
"We shall dive down through black abysses... and in that lair of the Deep Ones we shall dwell amidst wonder and glory forever."
