A Cor que Caiu do Espaço

Written and directed by Richard Stanley (his first film in 25 years, after he was infamously fired three days into production on his long-gestating dream project, A Ilha do Dr. Moreau (1996)), Colour Out of Space is a modernised adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's 1927 short story "The Colour Out of Space", and takes a good stab at depicting one of Lovecraft's most oblique entities. Mixing humour and body horror (perhaps weighed a little too much towards humour), the film gives Nicolas Cage another opportunity to go full-Cage, and boy does he lean into it - this is the most ludicrous, histrionic, and borderline farcical performance he's given since Um Estranho Vampiro (1988), and how much latitude you give him may well determine your opinion of the movie.

Just outside the city of Arkham, MA (the fictitious setting of many Lovecraftian stories), Nathan Gardner (Cage), his wife Theresa (Joely Richardson), and their children Benny (Brendan Meyer), Lavinia (Madeleine Arthur), and Jack (Julian Hilliard) have moved into Nathan's deceased father's property, with Nathan embracing rural life by raising alpacas on the property's farm. On an otherwise normal night, the sky fills with pulsating light and a meteorite crashes onto the Gardners' land, and as time passes, the Gardners start to experience ever-more bizarre events - unnaturally localised lightning storms that seem to come from nowhere; huge fuchsia-like plants that seem to grow overnight; a horrific odour that only Nathan can smell; a gigantic purple mantis flying around; radios and the internet cutting out more than normal; the water turning strange colours; the family's dog, Lavinia's horse, and Nathan's alpacas starting to acting strangely; even time itself appears to be corrupted. And soon enough, the family members themselves begin to show signs of unnatural change.

After some basic narrative preamble and a contemplative sub-Terrence Malick-style voiceover, the film features one of the most inorganic expositionary scenes I've ever seen, as Nathan and Theresa stand on the porch, and spend a good five minutes telling each other things that they both already know. Thankfully though, the clunkiness of this opening isn't a sign of things to come, and one of the film's most consistent elements is the subtlety with which Stanley depicts the entity, or rather, doesn't depict it. Lovecraft felt that if humanity were ever to encounter real cosmic beings, they could be so unlike anything in our experience as to be impossible to describe, or even process in our minds, and one of his aims with "Colour" was to create an entity that doesn't conform to human understanding - hence the only description is by analogy, and even then, only in relation to a colour beyond the visual spectrum. With this in mind, Stanley wisely keeps everything as vague as possible - vibrant, modulating pulses of light that seem to be emanating from somewhere just outside the frame, vaguely-defined spatial distortions, colour manipulations with no obvious source, etc.

Important here is the colour itself, and instead of attempting to create the indescribable colour featured in the story, director of photography Steve Annis chooses to go the route of not settling for any one stable colour - every time we see the effects of the meteorite, the hue appears to be in a state of flux - so although we can say the colours are recognisable, they're never identifiable as any one specific colour, which, is probably the best choice the filmmakers could have made.

As we get into the third act, the film abandons all sense of restraint and goes completely insane, with the body horror which has threatened to break through from the earliest moments finally unleashed, foregrounding the exceptional work of special effects supervisor/creature designer Dan Martin. These scenes are heavily indebted to David Cronenberg, especially his earlier work such as Calafrios (1975), Enraivecida na Fúria do Sexo (1977), and Os Filhos do Medo (1979), although the most obvious touchstone is Chris Walas's work on Cronenberg's masterpiece, A Mosca (1986). A lot of Martin's creature design also seems inspired by the legendary work of Rob Bottin, and there's a direct visual quote of one of the best moments in John Carpenter's O Enigma de Outro Mundo (1982).

It's also in the last act where Cage is turned loose, signalled by an epic meltdown when he discovers Benny hasn't closed the barn door and the alpacas have gotten out. From there, it's Nicolas Cage unrestrained. There is a problem with this, however. Full-Cage has been seen in films such as Vampire's Kiss, A Outra Face (1997), Vício Frenético (2009), Mãe e Pai (2017), and Mandy: Sede de Vingança (2018), but each performance has felt fairly organic, never becoming self-conscious. In Colour, however, to an even greater extent than in the virtually unwatchable O Sacrifício (2006), Cage crosses into self-parody, with his performance having as much to do with people's preconceived notions of a Nicholas Cage performance as it does with finding the character. There are a couple of scenes here that seem to have little to do with legitimate character beats and more to do with Cage winking at the audience.

Which might be entertaining and all, but which doesn't serve the film especially well. For all its insanity, this is a relatively serious movie, but Cage's performance is so manic, that it affects everything around it. For example, after the aforementioned meltdown ("Don't you know how expensive those alpacas were"), which just about fits with what we know of the character, as Nathan is walking away from Benny and Lavinia, he stops, turns, pauses, shouts "ALPACAS", pauses again, and then walks away. This got a huge laugh at the screening I attended, and it was undoubtedly funny. But does self-reflexive humour by the leading man help tell the story or even create the right tone? No, not in the slightest. In essence, this scene marks the point where the character ceases to be Nathan Gardner and becomes a version of Nicolas Cage.

The other characters all have a kind of internal logic to their crumbling sanity; the meteorite affects each of them differently, with their minds disintegrating in different, but consistent ways. With Nathan, however, Stanley seems unwilling, or unable, to establish the parameters by which his mind is breaking down, seemingly going for laughs rather than something more cogent.

This issue notwithstanding, I enjoyed Colour Out of Space a great deal. Stanley's return to the director's chair is to be admired for its restraint and how faithful it remains to the very tricky Lovecraftian original. The body-horror in the film's last act will appeal to fans of the grotesque, whilst others will take great pleasure from Cage's insanity, as narratively unjustified as it is. The film is ridiculous on many levels, but it's extremely well realised and well made, and is to be applauded for not trying to attach an explicit meaning to a story which avoids any kind of thematic specificity.

Felt like elements from 'the shining', 'signs' and 'the thing' so I loved that side of it, the effects are glorious, cage having fun with the role, loses points for unrewarding payoff but a gripping ride that seems to have something to say.

I read into it some interesting metaphors about cancer effects on family, off grid hobby farming, land management/indigenous culture, I don't know the source material or if these things were intentional. Hope the director makes more I love the Carpenter style of it all.

If you like both Nicolas Cage and Lovecraft like me, you are in for a treat. The film is also really gorgeous in a creepy kind of way.

It starts off pretty slow, but it does get better especially as the creep factor sets in. Typical of Lovecrafts work things get stranger and stranger, and the scary part is the unknown as something that is happening is so unfamiliar to us.

Then you have Nicolas Cage, being Nicolas Cage wandering around in this situation. He really does bring HIM into all this situation, and I think that's awesome. The film would probably be scarier and creepier without him, but I had great fun with this film.

It seems fairly obvious to me who has and who has not read this short story, or any Lovecraft for that matter. So many reviews rating this movie a 1 and claiming that there is no point to the movie. A lot of Lovecraft's work is centered around how terrifying the "unknown" is. You are supposed to feel unnerved and confused, you are meant to ask yourself "What the hell is going on?" No this movie may not be a 100% pure adaptation to the original story, but any Lovecraft story will need some tweaks to translate to film, that is just the nature of his stories. They are meant to tap into the limits of your imagination. That is harder to do with visual movies. Anyway, if you enjoy Lovecraft them give this movie a watch!

A -{ B i g }- Screen Review, republished -Long- after the cinematic release of the picture, as a rewrite .

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Ward : " What touched this place cannot be quantified or understood by human science. It was just a color out of space. A messenger from realms whose existence stuns the brain and numbs us with the gulfs that it throws open before our frenzied eyes " .

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So here's the thing. I Honestly don't know which was more " Macabre " . Watching Nicky Cage go, well, -{ Almost }- er, " Full-on Batsh... Nicky Cage Crazy { 😅 } " ...Or the -{ Actual }- spooky stuff in the film ; { and believe me, there is a veritable ( -Ton- ) of it, to boot, I can Un-equivocally assure you }. On a really Positive note, however, I was utterly Wowed by a -{ Lot }- of the movie's Sheerly Superb Cinematography, courtesy of its veteran D. P, Steve Annis. From delectably wide nature shots and " Lavish " Sunrise & Sunset Vistas to some Truly astounding nature capture , { including, but not limited to } . . . Several Completely -Stunning- 'More Than' Poster Perfect 🏞 shots of towering trees & glittering lakes . . . A -Good- deal of the picture is an un-deniable, veritable , " Rich Visual Treat " . Not to mention the super-Vivid " Colour Kaleidoscope " that gradually accrues, permeating a -Significantly- large proportion of the film's eerie frames, as a -{ Direct }- result of the Alien-presence that 'The Meteorite' brought with it. { No spoilers here ; this is ( -All- ) in the trailer } .

Everybody gives a -Hugely- commendable performance in 'Color Out Of Space', ( broadly speaking ), with a -{ Particularly }- Special 🌠 "Mention-Of-Note" going out on the one hand to the movie's amateur occultist, Madeleine Arthur's 'Lavinia Gardner', and on the other to Tommy Chong's all-knowing Deep-forest-sage, 'Ezra' . What's more, the story in & of itself, is Absolutely, Positively . . . -{ Solid }- . . . Although it very clearly bears noting here that there are -{ Very }- many rather disturbing scenes, in said film. ( As, I suppose, is only to be only expected from a film of this particular nature ). So, All-said-&-done, and as a " Firm , Unwavering -{ Non }- Horror-movie Aficionado " ; I must say that as a 'Pure, flowing work of art' alone ; this often 'Grotesque', yet all at once often -{ Beautiful }- picture... { swaddled in its 'Shockingly' Vibrant, Psychedelic, Phantasmagoric ( -Even- ), " Visually Extravagant Hues 🍭 " } ...succeeds, well, " Phenomenally " .

Summation : Gifted Director Richard Stanley alas , has hit a bit of a stumbling block, by way of allowing the 'afore-mocked' { yet ( -Very- ) talented, let's be clear } Nicholas Cage a tad -Too- Much Leeway, with his outright "Over-The-Top" Scenes. If I -Had- a 15 year old , I would most definitely -{ Not }- want her or him watching such scenes ( The Film Is Rated '15' ). For this reason -Alone- , it's going to have to be a 'Sizeably' reduced ; yet -{ Nonetheless }- " Sparky , Lustrous 7.50 Marks Out Of 10 " , from me 👏 💥 🏆 .