| “ | This town murdered my family - sacrificed them to the gods they dug up when they built this place! Oh, nobody knew what was under this house until it was too late! | „ |
| ~ Jacob Lewis, possessed by the spirit of Lassander Dagmar |
Lassander Dagmar, also known simply as Dagmar, is the central antagonist of the 2015 horror movie We Are Still Here.
He is a physical spirit who murders those who set foot inside a house that was once built for him and his family.
Backstory
Lassander Dagmar was a mortician and civil war veteran hired to work in the small town of Aylesbury, located somewhere in New England, in 1859. As the small township began erecting him and his family a home (which would double as a funeral parlor), they accidentally awoke an ancient darkness buried in the land, which poisoned the village. The evil demanded the souls of a family or it would spread and consume the entire town, so the village sadly decided to sacrifice Lassander, his wife Eloise, and their ten-year-old daughter Fiona. The village attacked the house one night, burning the entire Dagmar family to death.
The newspapers at the time claimed that the family disappeared after a "mysterious fire" began - but the village always knew the truth. Dagmar's spirit, however, was filled with such rage that he refused to leave his home - and he and his family killed anyone who stepped inside. This ended up to the village's advantage when the ancient evil awoke again thirty years later, demanding a new family. The village moved in an unsuspecting new family, and the Dagmars killed them, satisfying the hunger of the darkness under the house. The evil continued to wake every thirty years, and the town continued to exploit the rage of the home's original family to continue feeding the darkness.
Biography
In We Are Still Here
The burnt spirits of Lassander's daughter and wife.
During the events of We Are Still Here, set in 1979, Anne and Paul Sacchetti, a middle aged couple who have recently lost their son in an automobile accident move into Dagmar's house. A neighbor, drawn to the fact that the couple has survived two weeks in the house, checks in on them, fabricating a story about the Dagmar family - claiming that they were run out of town after Lassander was caught burying empty coffins and secretly selling the town's dead. In the neighbor's story, Dagmar died an alcoholic less than a year after being run out of town, his family unable to stand the sight of him.
In truth, the Dagmar family was sacrificed to an ancient evil under the home, with their murderous rage keeping them earthbound, hungry for vengeance against the town that wronged them.
The residents of Aylesbury become concerned when the Dagmar family appears seemingly uninterested in killing Anne and Paul, and decide that they will have to murder Anne and Paul to satisfy the darkness under the house. The town attacks, but the Dagmar family sides with Anne and Paul, and proceeds to decimate the townspeople.
With the majority of the town's inhabitants dead, the Dagmar family is finally ready to move on and, after staring down Anne and Paul, disappear together.
Anne and Paul, believing their dead son is in the home with them, enter the house's cellar - where the Dagmar family used to dwell. It is unknown if the darkness under house was satisfied, or if it used the image of Anne and Paul's deceased son to lure them into the cellar and consume them.
Body Count
- An unknown number of family members in 1889, 1919, and 1949.
- Harry Lewis: Eyes gouged out (by Eloise)
- Daniela: Arm through chest (by Eloise)
- Jacob Lewis: While possessing him, forces him to shove a fireplace poker through his eye
- Numerous townspeople who attack the house in 1979
- Dave McCabe: Lassander crushes his skull in his bare hands
Behind the Scenes
Lassander Dagmar is played by model and historic reenactor Guy Gane III. He was designed by special effects technician Marcus Koch, based on concepts by the film's writer/director, Ted Geoghegan. The look of Lassander and his family was heavily inspired by the pirate ghosts in John Carpenter's The Fog, the Taxi ghost from Ghostbusters, and Jacob Freudstein from The House by the Cemetery.
Trivia
Lassander Dagmar is named after Italian actress Dagmar Lassander, who appeared in the film The House by the Cemetery. We Are Still Here is based heavily on this film.