Color Out of Space

 Year of Release:  2019

Director:  Richard Stanley

Screenplay:  Richard Stanley and Scarlett Amaris, based on the short story "The Colour Out of Space" by H. P. Lovecraft

Starring:  Nicolas Cage, Joely Richardson, Elliot Knight, Madeleine Arthur, Q'orianka Kilcher, Tommy Chong

Running Time:  111 minutes

Genre:  Science-fiction, horror

Nathan Gardner (Cage) and Theresa Gardner (Richardson) move with their three children:  Teenagers Lavinia (Arthur) and Benny (Brendan Meyer) and youngest son Jack (Julian Hilliard) to a remote farm in the middle of the New England woods.  One night a meteor crashes down near their home, releasing bizarre coloured lights and seeming to have a strange effect on anyone who comes near it.  Shortly afterwards the meteor seems to vanish.  Hydrologist Ward Phillips (Knight), who is surveying the area for a dam development discovers that something strange seems to have contaminated the water.  As strange events happen around the Gardner family, local animals and people begin to undergo nightmarish transformations.

American writer Howard Philips Lovecraft is one of the most influential and problematic horror and science-fiction authors of all time.  His work is challenging for filmmakers is difficult not only for the horrific racism, sexism and anti-semitism that blights his life and writing, but also Lovecraft's writings tended to be about dimensions and creatures so terrible that the very sight of them would drive a human insane, which is very difficult to realise on screen.  Lovecraft has been adapted to the screen before, perhaps most notably in Re-Animator (1985) and From Beyond (1986), but this is one of the best depictions of Lovecraftian horror that I have seen.  Cult film director Richard Stanley and co-writer Scarlett Amaris update the film enough to be acceptable to modern audiences, while still keeping the cosmic horror feel of the story.  Stanley creates beautifully artistic images, with special effects which range from the subtle to the completely psychedelic, alongside gruesome 1980s style pulp horror.  In the lead role Nicolas Cage goes from quiet and subdued, to his trademark full-on manic frenzy.  The film is overly long and it takes a while to get going, also Cage's over the top performance in the final third of the film becomes almost funny.  It is a good film, not without it's flaws, but is one of the most successful H.P. Lovecraft adaptations, and is full of striking, memorable imagery.

Nicolas Cage sees the Color Out of Space