"Actor: Alfredo Villa"

• Dagon | DVD | (02/02/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £1.99

  With Dagon, director Stuart (Re-Animator) Gordon returns once more to author HP Lovecraft, this time for an adaptation of the novella The Shadow Over Innsmouth, with the setting switched from the coast of New England to the creepy Spanish fishing village of Inboca. After a sudden storm and a yacht-wreck, a bespectacled and bewildered Paul Marsh (Ezra Gooden) finds himself stranded in the literally fishy town, which has thrown over Catholicism to devote itself to the worship of the Philistine sea-god Dagon. His influence means that the inhabitants are transforming into pop-eyed, tentacled and gilled creatures. Though Gooden perhaps strikes too strident a note to convince as an everyday guy, director Gordon orchestrates the rising terrors well. These range from a supremely damp and uncomfortable hotel room through an impressive flashback about the rise of the Esoteric Order of Dagon to some sinister business with a mad-eyed mermaid (Macarena Gomez), human sacrifice and nasty surprises all round. Unfortunately, Gordon still can't quite distinguish between acceptably gruesome and downright nasty, especially when it comes to disposing of secondary female characters. On the plus side, Dagon boasts an excellent score, which even tries to set to music some of Lovecraft's invented language ("Ia Ia Cthulhu fh'tagn"). --Kim Newman

• Dagon | DVD | (07/10/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  With Dagon, director Stuart (Re-Animator) Gordon returns once more to author HP Lovecraft, this time for an adaptation of the novella The Shadow Over Innsmouth, with the setting switched from the coast of New England to the creepy Spanish fishing village of Inboca. After a sudden storm and a yacht-wreck, a bespectacled and bewildered Paul Marsh (Ezra Gooden) finds himself stranded in the literally fishy town, which has thrown over Catholicism to devote itself to the worship of the Philistine sea-god Dagon. His influence means that the inhabitants are transforming into pop-eyed, tentacled and gilled creatures. Though Gooden perhaps strikes too strident a note to convince as an everyday guy, director Gordon orchestrates the rising terrors well. These range from a supremely damp and uncomfortable hotel room through an impressive flashback about the rise of the Esoteric Order of Dagon to some sinister business with a mad-eyed mermaid (Macarena Gomez), human sacrifice and nasty surprises all round. Unfortunately, Gordon still can't quite distinguish between acceptably gruesome and downright nasty, especially when it comes to disposing of secondary female characters. On the plus side, Dagon boasts an excellent score, which even tries to set to music some of Lovecraft's invented language ("Ia Ia Cthulhu fh'tagn"). --Kim Newman

• Swindled | DVD | (04/12/2006) from £5.74   |  Saving you £9.25 (161.15%)   |  RRP £14.99

  There's a sucker born every minute. Director Miguel Bardem (Javier Bardem's brother) delivers a stylish Grifters-style crime thriller that would not only make David Mamet proud - it would have him second-guessing the plot twists right down to the final frame. The slick handsome Ernesto (Ernesto Alterio) has spent a lifetime in the small-racket crime world working the three-card monte on suckers on the streets of Madrid conning store owners and scouting the train stations for easy marks to rob. His pleasant but decidedly small-time lifestyle changes when he meets the elderly El Manco (Manuel Alexandre) a veteran of the trade who has close contacts to the mysterious and masterful Federico (Federico Luppi) the king of all con men. The three hook up and after ascending to the rarified world of elegant hotels and high living Federico proposes a real estate con that will net them millions. The only hitch is that they need the assistance of Federico's ex-lover Pilar (Victoria Abril). A former con artist herself Pilar (who cheated Federico on a scam years earlier) is now living in luxury with her new elderly husband. The chase is on as the team embarks on their new complicated con . . . but can everyone be trusted? Swindled is an elegant fun fast-moving film where the secrets treachery and twists will keep you on the edge of your seat until the final frame.