Color out of Space (2019)

Director: Richard Stanley

Writer: Richard Stanley

Cast: Nicolas Cage, Joely Richardson, Madeleine Arthur, Elliot Knight, Tommy Chong

No one gave us horror the way H.P. Lovecraft did. His brand of grandiose and out-of-this-world (I mean that in both the cosmic and downright weird senses) storytelling practically made a genre of its own in which may storytellers love to work. His world can be as whimsical as it is dark, and that’s what makes it beautiful. While Lovecraftian horror always get me excited, it’s the adaptations of his stories that really have my attention (watch Re-Animator if you haven’t yet). That’s why I was so happy to watch Color out of Space.

When a strange meteorite lands in Nathan Gardner’s (Nicolas Cage) farm, odd changes start to occur to the minds and bodies of him and his family. In a short time, they all find themselves battling an extraterrestrial species, trying to leave before it wipes them out. This is Director Richard Stanley’s first feature film since 1996’s The Island of Dr. Moreau and I’ll admit this is a leap in the right direction from that. It wasn’t a perfect movie, but it had all the things I expect from a Lovecraft adaptation: weird monsters, characters going out of their minds, and dread; heavy, growing, consuming dread. It begins early in the film with an uncomfortably quick introduction of characters (whether that was intentional, I don’t know, but it was jarring) and builds within the shadowy cinematography—wide shots with pockets of darkness scattered about the frame in a way the engulfs the characters and make the Color pop once it is introduced in the most Spielbergian way. If you know anything about how Steven Spielberg plays with lighting, it’s that he incorporates beams when danger or evil are near. That technique gave this film a Close Encounters of the Third Kind type of vibe and I was for it. I feel that if Spielberg was a young and upcoming horror filmmaker, using his current signature techniques, we’d get a similar aesthetic to Color out of Space.

With the aesthetic set, Stanley’s interpretation of the short story had some more nods to make. From the alpaca monster that was so reminiscent of the dog monster of John Carpenter’s The Thing (as well as another biological monstrosity that you’ll have to watch to experience) to Nathan’s descent into madness that had feelings of The Shining, Stanley made some nostalgic homages to horror’s biggest films, making for a pretty fun game of I Spy. Interesting that homages and were stuffed into an adaptation of an old tale to create 111 minutes of classic horror packed into a modern-looking container. It was a lighthearted element to a dark story with nearly no intentional comic relief.

I emphasize intentional in that last sentence. With films like Mom and Dad and Mandy, I think Nicolas Cage had found a pretty comfortable place in horror. His typically cheesed up mania is perfect to give a somewhat campy flair to the movies he’s in, but it’s appropriate and we can’t help but accept and enjoy him. I can’t say it worked for him this time. Not entirely. Even when Cage was acting in an everyman kind of role, like Nathan before the insanity, he was still emitting that unhinged Nic Cage that’s responsible for some of my favorite memes. He seemed to have been fighting his urge to just be normal, but then when it was time to let the Cage…out of the…Cage (I’m not apologizing for that) the meter peaked and we got way too much. Sadly, it was comical in some spots of temporary fugue, and even though it did provide some palate cleansing for a second, it was clearly not meant to be there and took me out of the beautiful terror that surrounded him. However, he did manage to save it at the end, where the egregious Cage Rage was present but eerily hidden under a veil of composed delusion. All in all, he was fun to watch, which was exactly what I expected. As for the rest of the cast, Madeleine Arthur was incredible to watch, delivering an impressive range of emotions that make me wish to see her in more horror flicks in the future. Everyone else kind of got swallowed by the combined shadows of Arthur and Cage. That didn’t seem to hurt the movie, however.

Color out of Space is a pretty, uncomfortable, and damn fun adaptation that shows us what is meant by “Lovecraftian horror”. It’s a rubber band that is stretched to its limit and held there until it’s ready to be snapped, releasing all of its pent up, magenta energy, then tied up with the chilling prospect that the family affected by the events on the farm may be joined by the rest of us. I’m inspired to pick up H.P. Lovecraft’s tale and give it another read after watching this, just to have the experience again, as it reminded me of just how much I enjoy that dark and twisted brand of horror.

Color out of Space is available to stream on Shudder.