Five years ago, RLJE Films released director Richard Stanley and actor Nicolas Cage’s underrated sci-fi horror film, Color Out of Space, a modern adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s short story. The movie follows the Gardners, a family of alpaca farmers, as they are visited by a brightly colored meteorite that mutates their land and everything in it.
Before Color Out of Space, Richard was known for directing Hardware and Dust Devil and for being notoriously fired from the infamous 1996 movie The Island of Dr. Moreau, starring Marlon Brando and Val Kilmer. However, Color Out of Space marked Stanley’s glowing return to filmmaking to work on his passion project. Though the film received considerable acclaim upon release, Color Out of Space has been all but overlooked by general audiences since its release in 2020.
Five years later, this movie still displays the potential to become a cult classic, not just because of Cage. The way it adapts Lovecraft’s story and brings its alien horror to life with jaw-dropping visuals and heart-wrenching performances makes for an unforgettable cinematic experience. Here are the easy reasons why Color Out of Space deserves at least one viewing and far more recognition from audiences:
Its faithfulness to the source material
Though Color Out of Space is set in the modern era, Stanley stays true to the source material while drawing inspiration from his own life. Specifically, the director draws from his mother’s experience with cancer and translates it into the character of Theresa Gardner and her mastectomy. This creative change adds an extra layer to the story, turning the Color into a symbol of cancer as it infects the land around it, slowly killing it as it turns it into something new and terrifying.
Like Lovecraft’s story, the film unfolds with several horrific tragedies and zero hope for the Gardner family. The universe shows no mercy on them as the Color claims their lives and minds, fitting with the source material’s tone. The film also adds more of Lovecraft’s work into the story with the presence of the Necronomicon and Ward’s vision of an alien planet writhing with tentacled creatures. By mixing occult magic with alien sci-fi, the film creates a genre-bending nightmare that makes Lovecraft’s stories so revolutionary. This execution proved that Stanley could’ve directed his planned adaptation of Lovecraft’s The Dunwich Horror very well.
The horror
As a faithful Lovecraft adaptation, Stanley’s film depicts one family’s descent into Hell at the hands of an otherworldly force they can neither understand nor defeat. The film’s alien terror echoes John Carpenter’s The Thing, as everything the Color touches turns into horrific monstrosities. Though some of these creations don’t look that realistic at times, the CGI’s quality can be forgiven due to the film’s low budget. Nevertheless, the film’s creature designs are downright terrifying, specifically the mutant fusion of the Gardners’ alpacas and the spider-like fusion of Theresa and Jack.
The latter creature is especially horrifying, as it takes a mother and son’s loving bond and twists it into an agonizing Freudian nightmare. With Theresa absorbing poor Jack into her body as she turns into an animalistic monster, this slow and unsettling transformation is painful to watch and will get under viewers’ skin. All in all, Color Out of Space is one of those films that will stick with its audience long after the credits roll, with the movie’s dark and psychedelic ending burning into viewers’ brains for years to come.
The performances
The film’s horror can’t exist in a vacuum, and the cast elevates it as they fill the void with their engrossing performances. Playing the unfortunate witnesses to the Color’s wrath, the cast effectively captures the pain, confusion, and sorrow their characters face as they lose themselves and each other to an all-consuming entity. It’s an incredibly dark story, and audiences can’t help but ache from watching the characters endure their tragic fates.
At the forefront of Color Out of Space is Cage, who gives another mesmerizing performance as his character becomes possessed by the Color. The actor goes “full Cage” in his role, descending into a rage-filled trance like Jack Torrance in The Shining as he tries to protect his family, succeed with his farm, and maintain order. He may go a little too over-the-top at times, but his performance still adds to the wild and chaotic spirit of Stanley’s film, making it one of the most distinctive and must-see adaptations of Lovecraft’s work.
Stream Color Out of Space on Shudder.
