I recently watched the Color Out of Space directed by Richard Stanley and starring Nicholas Cage. Overall, I enjoyed the film and it was nice to see a Lovecraft story get a big-budget movie adaptation. I am interested to see where Stanley takes his next two films (allegedly is he doing the Dunwich Horror next and then a third film all set in the same cinematic universe. The way they phrase that makes me think there will be some connection). While this movie was good, it wasn’t perfect. To summarize, there was some bad writing and dialogue, and some head-scratching moments, but we’ll get into that a little later. Plus, I found Nicholas Cage distracting in this film. He would go into some moments where he was supposed to be going crazy, and boy did he go crazy, but to the point that I was left scratching my head on what he was aiming at.
For those of you not familiar, the Color Out of Space is based on a short story by the same name written by H.P. Lovecraft in 1927 and is about a farm out in the Arkham countryside. A meteorite lands near the farm and begins to change the surrounding flora and fauna. The plants twist and change, and the animals become misshapen beasts and go mad. The people begin to exhibit the same changes as well. The film follows the same premise, but instead the story is set in the present day.
First, let’s hit the pros of this movie. I’m a huge fan of Lovecraftian horror and was excited to see this film. There was some amazing cinematography, especially with the opening shots of the forest and country. They even had a narrator reciting lines from the actual story which added to the tone and atmosphere of the piece. Imagine hearing this while we get some wonderful shots of the forest:
“West of Arkham the hills rise wild, and there are valleys with deep woods that no axe has ever cut. There are dark narrow glens where the trees slope fantastically, and where thin brooklets trickle without ever having caught the glint of sunlight.”
The next great thing was all the nods to Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos. Some serious and others just tongue and cheek. For example, the daughter (Lavinia) was rocking a copy of the Necronomicon, which was fun, but at the same time posed some issues. The news company had an elder sign on their news van.
For those of you not familiar, the Color Out of Space is based on a short story by the same name written by H.P. Lovecraft in 1927 and is about a farm out in the Arkham countryside. A meteorite lands near the farm and begins to change the surrounding flora and fauna. The plants twist and change, and the animals become misshapen beasts and go mad. The people begin to exhibit the same changes as well. The film follows the same premise, but instead the story is set in the present day.
First, let’s hit the pros of this movie. I’m a huge fan of Lovecraftian horror and was excited to see this film. There was some amazing cinematography, especially with the opening shots of the forest and country. They even had a narrator reciting lines from the actual story which added to the tone and atmosphere of the piece. Imagine hearing this while we get some wonderful shots of the forest:
“West of Arkham the hills rise wild, and there are valleys with deep woods that no axe has ever cut. There are dark narrow glens where the trees slope fantastically, and where thin brooklets trickle without ever having caught the glint of sunlight.”
The next great thing was all the nods to Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos. Some serious and others just tongue and cheek. For example, the daughter (Lavinia) was rocking a copy of the Necronomicon, which was fun, but at the same time posed some issues. The news company had an elder sign on their news van.
Some of the effects were cheesy, especially the CGI stuff; however, there were other effects, that I think were practical that reminded me of Evil Dead and those were great. The creature that we see near the end had a very Evil Dead feel.
The story is great and weird, especially as it moves along. I loved Tommy Chong’s character and I think he did an excellent job with it. There’s a creepy scene with Tommy Chong near the end. I don’t want to spoil it though.
Overall, if you like weird, cosmic horror, then check this film out.
Now, on to the spoilers.
The story is great and weird, especially as it moves along. I loved Tommy Chong’s character and I think he did an excellent job with it. There’s a creepy scene with Tommy Chong near the end. I don’t want to spoil it though.
Overall, if you like weird, cosmic horror, then check this film out.
Now, on to the spoilers.
Now, let’s talk about the Necronomicon. If this is indeed set in Lovecraft’s mythical Arkham area, which it is, and there is the Miskatonic University, which there is because there is a surveyor from the university, then I have to believe that the Necronomicon is, in fact, a real thing as well in this world. Which, we find out through the storytelling, it is indeed. However, in Lovecraft’s world, the Necronomicon was an ancient text written by the Mad Arab, Abdul Al-Hazred
Lavinia is seen at the start of the film casting a spell. We’re made to believe that she’s using witchcraft by the way she’s dressed and the words she’s using. We find out through the spell that she’s trying to get rid of her mother’s cancer. Enter the student surveyor from Miskatonic who happens upon her in the woods, mid-spell. He is enthralled with what’s going on and ends up startling her. She quickly tells him that this is private land and he’s trespassing and that he interrupted her ritual. He askes if its type A or B witchcraft (which I’m sorry to say I forgot, I think he asked if it was Gardinian {referring to Gardner who started Wicca} or something else. She asks him which he thinks it is and replies with one and she says wrong. We’re led to believe that it was the other type of witchcraft when in reality she was conducting a ritual from the Necronomicon. This becomes apparent later in the film when she whips the book out and starts casting another spell and carving symbols into her body with a razor blade. We also see that she isn’t as affected as the rest of the family when the fecal matter is hitting the fan, perhaps due to the spells she casts. So with that being said, we can infer that she perhaps caused this whole thing by “summoning” the color creature from out of space.
Now here’s my problem with the whole thing. In Lovecraft’s work, the Necronomicon is a rare text with only a few copies out there in the world. It’s a very dangerous book capable of causing a lot of harm. The copy they showed looked like something you’d buy at a book store, like some sort of novelty. I found it pretty quickly on Amazon. So if this thing is the real deal in the movie, but you can buy it online or at Barnes and Noble then the Lovecraft Cinematic Universe is in big trouble.
Lavinia is seen at the start of the film casting a spell. We’re made to believe that she’s using witchcraft by the way she’s dressed and the words she’s using. We find out through the spell that she’s trying to get rid of her mother’s cancer. Enter the student surveyor from Miskatonic who happens upon her in the woods, mid-spell. He is enthralled with what’s going on and ends up startling her. She quickly tells him that this is private land and he’s trespassing and that he interrupted her ritual. He askes if its type A or B witchcraft (which I’m sorry to say I forgot, I think he asked if it was Gardinian {referring to Gardner who started Wicca} or something else. She asks him which he thinks it is and replies with one and she says wrong. We’re led to believe that it was the other type of witchcraft when in reality she was conducting a ritual from the Necronomicon. This becomes apparent later in the film when she whips the book out and starts casting another spell and carving symbols into her body with a razor blade. We also see that she isn’t as affected as the rest of the family when the fecal matter is hitting the fan, perhaps due to the spells she casts. So with that being said, we can infer that she perhaps caused this whole thing by “summoning” the color creature from out of space.
Now here’s my problem with the whole thing. In Lovecraft’s work, the Necronomicon is a rare text with only a few copies out there in the world. It’s a very dangerous book capable of causing a lot of harm. The copy they showed looked like something you’d buy at a book store, like some sort of novelty. I found it pretty quickly on Amazon. So if this thing is the real deal in the movie, but you can buy it online or at Barnes and Noble then the Lovecraft Cinematic Universe is in big trouble.
Shortly after the opening scene, the meteorite hits, seeming affecting the seven-year-old son, Jack the most as he can hear a loud buzzing. What kills me is after it lands, they all go outside and start poking the damn thing. I guess they don’t care about possible radiation or whatnot. Cage’s character seems to smell some god awful stink, but no one else does. It doesn’t take long before odd plants start popping up, the animals are acting strange, and the madness increases.
The flora and fauna continue to change and we start to see that animals are fusing together. At one point we see a crazy llama creature that looks like it could have come out of Carpenter’s The Thing. Then, in one heart-wrenching scene, Jack and the mother get hit by a beam of light and are fused. It’s tough to watch because you can hear the pain in Jack’s cries throughout the whole thing. The mom can’t talk anymore and is only able to make aggravated mewing noises and groans. This combo-creature continues to morph until it becomes this, thing, that crawls around like a crab or spider, devoid of human emotion and purely animalistic. This was the Evil Dead moment for me as this creature looked like something Sam Raimi would have cooked up.
Finally, in one scene we get a glimpse of the creature’s homeworld. Wanna talk cosmic horror? It’s a world of wriggling masses. Loved it.
As I mentioned before, this film wasn’t perfect, but it left me wanting more and looking forward to Stanley’s next two films.
Finally, in one scene we get a glimpse of the creature’s homeworld. Wanna talk cosmic horror? It’s a world of wriggling masses. Loved it.
As I mentioned before, this film wasn’t perfect, but it left me wanting more and looking forward to Stanley’s next two films.
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