Color Out of Space - Movie Review
I love H.P. Lovecraft’s works. I love the antiquated language, the bizarre creatures, and the utter hopelessness his work embodies. Man has no chance against the cosmic horror that H.P. Lovecraft unleashed onto the literary world. Many people have tried to adapt his works, but very few have attempted to adapt the bleak outlook of mankind’s utter helplessness against forces beyond the stars. With Color Out of Space, director Richard Stanley (mostly) succeeds in doing just that.
The story begins by introducing us to Lavinia (Madeleine Arthur), our de-facto protagonist, performing a ritual in hopes of gaining freedom from her rural surroundings. Through implied / environmental storytelling we are let on to a brief history of the Gardner family. The family was forced to move from the big city back to Nathan Gardner’s (Nicolas Cage) father’s farm after his wife, and family breadwinner, Theresa (Joely Richardson) has a double mastectomy to combat breast cancer. The children all cope with this in different ways. Benny (Brendan Meyer) smokes a lot of pot, Jack (Julian Hilliard) explores the wilderness, and Madeleine Arthur rides her horse. They are a modern family equipped with cell phones, satellite television, and an internet connection. It’s a far cry from the family depicted in the source material. A family with no links to the outside world. You would think these things would lessen the horror involved, but in fact they seem to lead to an even greater sense of dread. When the meteorite crashes to earth and brings with it the glowing pink aura, their connections to the outside world are cut off one by one. The family is forced to confront not just a cosmic menace but also each other, without the modern coping mechanisms the audience is all to familiar with. It’s subtle, but it’s about the only subtle part of the film. This movie is over the top, campy, and brutally violent. The visuals are both breathtaking and stomach churning in equal measure. Top marks go to Madeleine Arthur, who gives a superb performance as a Lovecraftian hero, both sympathetic and doomed in equal measure. For those who have read the Lovecraft there are many Easter eggs. Many of the character names are those of main characters in different stories from Lovecraft’s stories. For example: Lavinia from the The Dunwich Horror and Ward from the Case of Charles Dexter Ward. Just fun nods from a director who obviously loves the material.
However, the movie is not without its faults. Nicolas Cage provides a Wicker Man level performance including one of his patented freak-out scenes. He also develops a strange, cartoon version of a Boston accident in the third act which feels very out of place. It may be the oddest thing, even compared to the alpaca tentacle sex beast. It’s so strange to see him devolve into this level of camp after his tour de force performance in Mandy, but it’s kind of endearing. He’s the lovable uncle of movie actors. He’ll get’em next time. The other issues I have with the film involved the bloated cast. There’s a mass of characters that get introduced for little to no use. Tommy Chong appears as a burn out hippie squatter who really doesn’t serve much of a purpose. They introduce a mayor that seems to almost be a backup villain, but it doesn’t go anywhere. The move would have done better with trimming fifteen to twenty minutes off with these characters and tightening up the horror. While the film has frightening parts, the bloated runtime dials down the creep factor I think Richard Stanley was aiming for.
I recommend the film as it does, despite its flaws, portray a modern take on Lovecraftian cosmic horror. It’s a fun film with incredible visuals, great cinematography, and a whole lot of Nicolas Rage.
