Color Out of Space

Color Out of Space
Starring Nicolas Cage, Joely Richardson, Madeleine Arthur, Brendan Meyer
Directed by Richard Stanley

Three names that should become synonymous with fantastic cult classic off-the-wall horror: Richard Stanley, Nicolas Cage, and H.P. Lovecraft.  These three men combined can produce some of the best that cult classic films have to offer if "Color Out of Space" is any indication: it's completely bonkers, totally off-the-wall in the most wonderful ways, and even though it's almost two hours long, it doesn't feel like it drags at any moment.  It's a fun, exciting, psychedelic ride that you don't mind paying the cost of admission, because you get more than what you paid for.

Wanting to escape the insanity of the big city, the Gardner family - father Nathan (Nicolas Cage), mother Theresa (Joely Richardson), daughter Lavinia (Madeleine Arthur), older son Benny (Brendan Meyer) and younger son Jack (Julian Hilliard) decide to move to the country so Nathan can grow a farm and raise alpacas.  The family doesn't seem to adjust to country living well - Nathan's plans of alpaca raising isn't getting the results he wanted, Theresa has problems with the Internet, Benny constantly gets stoned, and Lavinia has begun dabbling in the dark arts.  Yet this is just the beginning, as one night a meteorite crashes on their property, enveloping the land with a mysterious color. 

Soon plants and animals start exhibiting that same color, and the family becomes even more unglued than before - Nathan becomes more volatile and angry.  Theresa looses focus so intently that she injures herself.  Jack whistles to his new "friend" that lives in the well.  Only Lavinia and Benny know something bad is happening, but they can't seem to escape due to all the technology around them failing, and the color spreading, threatening to consume the entire family.

The works of H.P. Lovecraft are the stuff of legend, a series of novels that are so fantastical and out-of-this-world that it's been nearly impossible to adequately turn them into film.  Best known for creating the Dark Lord Cthulhu, Lovecraft also crafted several other creatures that will easily haunt your nightmares, and his imagination and storytelling ability has withstood the test of time.  "Color Out of Space" is based off his short story in 1927, and both are equally terrifying as well as highly imaginative.  This film so far has been the easiest to transport Lovecraft's monsters to the big screen, because here the monster is a color - one that Lovecraft lists as "falling outside the range of anything known in the visual spectrum."  Here the color looks more like a magenta or fuchsia, but its nonetheless equally beautiful and terrifying - what is its purpose?  It's not like it can explain itself, but as the film develops we learn that the color existed in another plane, and its mere existence threatens to rip apart the fabric of time and space.

In order to tell a Lovecraft story properly, you need an equally imaginative director, and it doesn't come as good as Richard Stanley.  The South African director and writer was known for directing music videos for the likes of Fields of the Nephilim, Pop Will Eat Itself, and Renegade Soundwave before hitting the mainstream in the 1990 film "Hardwire."  Yet he's probably best known for the debacle that was 1996's "The Island of Dr. Moreau."  He was set to direct the H.G. Wells adaptation, but Stanley came under fire from the leads of the film, the studio that didn't trust him, and other issues that plagued the production so much he was fired a week after shooting began.  He took time off from Hollywood after that, and "Color Out of Space" is his triumphant return to the big screen as both director and screenwriter, and the result is pure insanity magic. 

To supply the icing on this insane ride of the senses, you need a top-notch acting team, and "Color Out of Space" pulls out all the stops in that area too, especially with the inclusion of Nicolas Cage as the patriarch of the ill-fated family.  Once an Oscar-winner and known as Francis Ford Coppola's nephew, Cage has lately become more of a meme of the Hollywood elite, participating in several direct-to-DVD films that by all means should never see the light of day, and has been criticized for his lack of choosing good films to star in, until 2018's "Mandy" allowed him to fully embrace is Cage-ism and, as many people say, "go full Cage."  "Color Out of Space" once again allows Nicolas Cage to go "full Cage" and play Nathan with an offbeat gusto that only Nicolas Cage can do, and pull it off extremely well.

The story of the film keeps amping up the excitement, terror, and wonder throughout the almost two-hour runtime, and doesn't really have any lull in its storytelling.  From the get-go we're treated to the unique Gardner family dynamic, which only intensifies as they come into contact with the mysterious color, and see how it changes them all.  The movie also uses a perfect blend of CGI (especially concerning the color itself, which definitely stimulates the visual senses) as well as practical effects that hearken back to the classic days of creature feature cinema that gives you an even deeper sense of appreciation for this future cult classic.  It's all around amazing, fun, and filled with fascinating visuals and effects that really demand to be seen to be fully appreciated.

Bringing the beloved short story of H.P. Lovecraft to brilliant life, "Color Out of Space" is filled with quirky performances, top-notch effects, a solid story and enough thrills and chills to fill the nearly two-hour runtime without overstaying its welcome.

The Score: A