Color Out of Space  ★★★

THE best decision Nicholas Cage has made in recent years is to re-enter the horror/fantasy genres.

Mom and Dad (2017) was freakishly off-the-wall in every way with a virus causing parents to start killing their own children.

Mandy in 2018 was, to put it bluntly, both bat-shit crazy, visually captivating and wildly entertaining with a lead character seemingly written for the king of on-screen, over-the-top paranoia.

Last year’s Color Out of Space, released in 2019, is based on a short story by H. P. Lovecraft that many of the writer’s afficionados had considered was unfilmable.

That’s because the premise has a family fascinated and ultimately driven mad specifically by the unique colour of light generated by a meteorite that lands on their rural property.

The story very specifically focuses on the colour being something entirely alien to our world, hence the main problem of bringing it effectively to the screen.

Ultimately, director Richard Stanley doesn’t really try to overcome the problem of creating a ‘new’ colour, instead concentrating on the full suite of atmospherics and relying on the strong lead performances of Cage and Joely Richardson, who plays his wife.

By the way Stanley is an interesting character in his own right. He is South African and made a few films that attracted attention before writing and directing the 1996 remake of The Island of Dr Moreau.

That film is notorious for being plagued by storm damage, budget problems and creative differences which eventually resulted in Stanley being sacked. Rather than disappear, he returned to the island in disguise to secretly observe the rest of the filming. This was also one of the films that was basically hijacked by the bizarre behaviour of Marlon Brando.

Stanley has made very little since but is now planning to tackle another film based on a H.P. Lovecraft story, The Dunwich Horror, which was previously filmed in 1970. Cage is going to star in that one as well.

Anyway, back to Colour Out of Space.

The film initially takes its time, setting up the characters and location well. Unlike a lot of horror films, the character reactions are understandable and there is little need to suspend disbelief.

When the madness cranks up it’s done with a good pace and there are a few decent scares. Unfortunately the ending is a little lacklustre for my taste.

If you’re looking for something deeper, obviously the film has something to say about the power of nature, man’s vulnerable position and the futility of trying to bend it to our will.

Watch out for veteran stoner Tommy Chong in a small role as a squatter living on the property who spends all his days smoking weed (what a surprise).