Color Out of Space

Imagine the dark, atmospheric War of the Worlds or The Thing in a B-movie version and starring Nic Cage, who delivers the funny, energetic overacting we know and like in his crazy comedies. Does anyone want that? The film alternates high-quality slimy freak-show effects with cheap “space nebulae” and quite powerful horror scenes with the aforementioned comical Cage. It’s a story about a family in serious danger and the director, through Nic Cage, suggests you shouldn’t take the film too seriously. For me this is a little bit hard to swallow, although I enjoyed it and I was curious how it would turn out. [Sitges FF] (12/10/2019)

Overall, it’s too entertaining, engaging, interesting and different from what’s usual in the genre to rate it with less than four stars, even if I do have certain reservations that cannot be easily waved off. The first one is the enormous inconsistency in the tone, or rather, its tonal ambiguity. Color Out of Space surprised me a couple times with how horrifyingly brutal it is; some scenes were not very pleasant to watch, which I wasn’t expecting from it. Unfortunately, they are driven by Nicholas Cage playing Nicholas Cage, which isn’t suitable at all for the film’s tone. If the character of the father was a little more moderate, the film would be at least ten percent better. The second problem I have with the film is the behaviour of the characters. This is a bit tricky, because the extraterrestrial colour does have a degenerative effect over the behaviour and the minds of the characters so any lack of logic can be explained just like that. But there are moments where it feels that the heads of the characters are being fucked with not by the colour out of space but by a lazy script (the well!). I also don’t like very much that the entire family is quite weird already before the meteorite falls. (18/01/2020)

A decent film experiment in the Lovecraftian universe. A family has a meteorite land on their farm, it starts to affect their behaviour and gradually everyone loses their minds. The film is strong in its individual segments, but as a whole it didn't quite satisfy me. I had trouble getting into it and wasn't fully invested, so I didn't really enjoy it much. But the atmosphere is very decent, the practical effects are good, the bit of gore was also pleasing, and surprisingly Nicolas Cage didn't bother either. There’s also one scene that will remind avid fans of The Thing. Definitely the most interesting horror addition for January, but horror veterans (80's 90's) will be more likely to be excited. 6/10. (23/01/2020)

H.P. Lovecraft fans have been waiting for some relevant big-budget movie adaptation of his works for many years now, so as soon as this project was announced many months ago and was associated with some really big names, I began to have high-hopes for this movie. I must say that Color Out of Space completely fulfilled all of my expectations. Cult director Richard Stanley mines the rich seams of the colorful Lovecraftian universe, which is impressively reminiscent of the 1980s (for example, one scene references John Carpenter's The Thing), with a slow-building dark atmosphere, quality special effects and almost a cosmic poetry that permeates all his movies. Some people may dispute the logic in the behavior of the characters (at times they are strangely calm as they take in the bizarre events going on around them), but otherwise the screenplay delivers many twists and turns for the audiences, and the excessively visually stunning finale is definitely worth waiting for. After watching this picture, I have three wishes: I want to see more adaptations of H.P. Lovecraft’s works, I want more movies that are made by Richard Stanley, and lastly I want the tireless Nicolas Cage to continue to choose at least one such ambitious project each year. Last year it was the absolutely superb Mandy, this year this - we will wait to see what happens next year. [Sitges 2019] (11/10/2019)

The eponymous short story by horror legend HP Lovecraft about a meteorite from space which begins to remake the point of its impact on Earth into its image, has received a fantastic modern film adaptation, in which this purple-glowing meteorite hits a remote farm of a family of five, who are subsequently deprived of rational perception, gradually lose their minds and are exposed to their worst nightmares. The uncompromising, brutal, dreamily intoxicating, neon-psychedelic and distinctive vision includes radioactive monsters, magical rituals, a whistling well, alpaca llamas, Nicolas Cage's wonderfully hysterical acting, and even reflections on contemporary society's anxiety about the environmental crisis. A terrifying and intense film with an impressive camera, fitting music and an original "Lovecraft" atmosphere of deepening despair, helplessness and fear of a successfully rendered unknown evil, which is sufficiently specific and at the same time mysterious. (11/10/2019)

The American co-production Color Out of Space is as visually stunning as it is disgusting. You do not have to worry about missing out on some human deformities, animal mutants, and pretty explosions of human tissue. This movie has bucketloads of that. All of that is backed up by that gorgeous color from outer space. The movie is not groundbreaking, although it is beautiful to watch. (11/03/2020)