COLOR OUT OF SPACE: An Unsatisfactory Mix Of Lovecraft & B-Movie Horror

On paper this movie may sound like a delicious recipe for some good old fashioned fun, but Richard Stanley’s Color Out of Space ultimately ends up stuck in a losing battle, struggling to fully embody the perfectly old-fashioned B-movie body horror flick it tries so hard to be.

Nic Cage: The Man Out Of Space

I know there’s Lovecraftian horror fans out there that have been waiting for a decent enough mainstream adaptation of his work for years now, but let’s not fool ourselves into thinking you weren’t on board for this purely from the fact that you heard that the man himself, Nicholas Cage, would have the starring role. And for those of you who are fans of his more campy roles, or think he’s actually a good actor, you’re in luck because you’ll have a 2 hour buffet lined up for you with this one. So if that’s your thing, have at it.

But for those that aren’t subscribing to this sort of style of Nic Cage, especially when it doesn’t fit the tone in which the movie seems to going for (whatever that may be), then you may want to make a change of plans for your moviegoing night out.

… And Everyone Else

So if Cage isn’t really living up to any B-movie fantasies here like he did with Mandy, then what about the other actors? Luckily, they keep themselves a bit more consistently for the most part – including one stand-out performance from the teenage daughter of this family, played by Madeleine Arthur. 

Though “stand-out” is very relative here as there’s only so much I can say for these actors. Pretty much everyone besides Cage and the ganja-smoking surprise cameo who shall rename nameless are no-name nobodies. I don’t know if they’re entirely to blame here since actors can only be good as the material they’re given, but their performances are badly hurt by moments that we think might be serious given the context of the story, but are acted in a strange, over-the-top comedy nevertheless.

It would be fine if that’s the kind of movie it was going for, and though these actors really do give Color Out of Space an honest effort, without a director that’s certain of a decided tone for his and co-screenwriter Scarlett Amaris‘s script, it’s all for naught.

To B-Horror Or Not To B-Horror…

…That is the question. But it’s one that director Richard Stanley seems to still be mulling over an answer for by the movie’s final edit. And it’s for that reason we can’t place full blame on the cast’s shortcomings for the tonal uncertainty and the not-sure-if-I’m-supposed-to-laugh-or-take-this-seriously moments that litter the film.

Stanley has been famously out of the directing game for over 20 years now, with Color Out of Space marking his grand return, and sadly it seems to show.  There’s obvious influence here drawn from the works of such directors as body horror icon David Cronenberg and master of horror camp Sam Raimi, but Stanley not only wanted scenes in his movie to channel them, but a self-serious kind of horror as well. And it just doesn’t work that way.

He wanted to have the best of both worlds, and he ended up with the worst of neither. As mean as that sounds, it’s not a slog to watch. For some moments when I really tried to make myself to, I had fun. And I’d hate myself if I didn’t take the time to commend the special effect make-up team for one truly messed up, singular work of art. You’ll know it when you see it.

Battleship, Cats, & The Increasing Problem Of Impossible-To-Film Adaptations

If you’re familiar with Lovecraft’s short story of the same name, you’ll know that it’s basically describing a story of when a meteorite crashes on a farm and emits a variety of alien excretions of a kind of color that is only described as “not of this world” and makes everyone in its vicinity go insane. And if you’re not familiar, well… there you go.

The key phrase to remember here is “not of this world”. This color that came out of space here is something – at least as described in Lovecraft’s original work – no human recognizes, or can hope to explain. It’s the core of the story’s horror – something we truly can’t begin to fathom the words to describe it because there’s nothing on Earth remotely like it to compare it to. And by this extension, it’s reasonable to say that retaining that same feeling in a big screen adaptation is damn near impossible, to say the least.

This is a question that was certain to have plagued all throughout the writing/directing process and surely weeks, maybe even months, were dedicated in the pre-production process on how to figure a solution. And what resulted was a decent enough, albeit unsatisfying effort was made by making the color change every so often, though not often enough. Most of the time, this color out of space is pretty much decidedly that same pinkish-purple you see on the film’s poster. So much for the inexplicable.

Conclusion: Color Out of Space

While maybe gonzo Nic Cage and 80’s B-Horror is lost on someone like me who never really understood the cult appeal, I really do commend the effort of Richard Stanley and his crew for trying to adapt what is, by its entire concept as a whole, unadaptable for film or TV, and enjoyed what I could of the old fashioned body horror special effects makeup and attempt at old-fashioned camp.

It was just unfortunate to see such a profound and terrifying concept of classic Lovecraft style be treated with such uncertainty – regularly teetering off the edge of self-serious horror and self-satisfied B-movie schlock. And what little of the original source material’s profound existential terror is, as a result, mostly lost in the mix.

Color Out of Space was released in US cinemas on January 24, 2020. It will be released in the UK on February 28.