A meteorite of peculiar colour, carrying a hostile living organism, strikes a secluded family farm and turns their lives into a sadistic nightmare.
What an opening scene!!! But I’m not convinced that the rest of it is how H.P. Lovecraft envisaged it. But first things first. It’s great to see the talented – yet hurt from the Industry – writer/director Richard Stanley coming back. After The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996) fiasco, Stanley strikes again and, directing-wise, the film lacks nothing. Chasing it for years, the film’s Odyssey finally came to an end when he finally found the money to finance it in early 2019. The acting is also solid. Very convincing performances add to the film’s pros, and Nicolas Cage, once more, proves that no matter how many memes, trailer compilations, or other creative visual and audio fun they make out of him, he will not give two s#$%^ and will keep on being… Nicolas Cage! Every, God knows how many unknown films/flops he’s been in every year, there’ll always be this one film that will stand out and perpetuate Cage’s ongoing on and off glory.
The major con is the production’s decision to make it look like the paranoid cult film Mandy (2018) – the same production company behind it. Lovecraft’s world, the way I grew up visualising it anyway, has nothing much to do with this adaptation. The bold, exaggerated colours create a visually incoherent landscape that overshadows the narrative. But don’t take my word for it; what do I know anyway? John Carpenter’s In the Mouth of Madness (1993) is arguably the best Lovecraft adaptation out there. If you haven’t watched it and are a ‘Lovecraftian’ horror fan, you will fall in love with the film’s paranoia (Do you read Sutter Cane?).
Regardless, Color Out of Space is a low-budget must-watch that definitely deserves your attention. It is not commercial enough, but that means nothing. Once you turn your screen off, parts of the film will keep looping in your head. What makes me happy is that, even posthumously, Lovecraft’s legacy is still alive and very rich. Which is exactly the opposite of how he died…
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Solidarity for all the innocent lives who suffer the atrocities of war!
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