A meteorite lands on the Gardner family's property and things begin to take a change for the weird. An unknown color flares up. The family members begin acting strangely. Mutated insects and unknown plants and flowers begin to grow all over the property. Their animals begin to change. Their youngest son begins to communicate with something at the bottom of their well. Their phones and car stop working. Then physical changes begin to occur to the family members and all hell breaks loose.
Color Out of Space (2019), which is Richard Stanley's first feature length movie in 25 years is a triumphant return for the director of Hardware (1990) and Dust Devil (1992). Based on the short story "The Colour Out of Space" by H.P. Lovecraft, the film delivers on the Lovecraftian elements while expanding the story to include elements that the infamous author would no doubt have found distasteful such as a black scientist, sex, and strong female characters. Depicting an unknown color is, well, not possible, but the choice of purples and magenta is inspired given the recent controversy over whether magenta actually exists or is an impossible color (look it up. It's pretty interesting.
The characters and the cast playing them are all really strong and we really feel for this family as their lives begin to be adversely affected by the meteorite. My only quibble is Nicholas Cage's lapsing into Donald Trump speech mannerisms as he begins to lose his shit.
I look forward to revisiting this film in the future and look forward to Stanley's next Lovecraftian adaptation.
2 comments:
This is one movie that's been in my "to watch" pile for a while now and I keep forgetting to watch it. Hopefully I'll dig it out from under the maggoty gravedirt this month and give it a watch.
I find Stanley interesting, but found this the latest in a long line on unsatisfying cracks at Lovecraft. I enjoyed The Void a good deal more, though it’s more a bang on John Carpenter homage than a Lovecraftian one.
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