Color Out of Space | 2 ½ out of 4 Stars | Not Rated
By Kyle Osborne
If you go into Color Out of Space completely blind, the sci-fi thriller plays almost like a Roger Corman B-movie; sort of overcooked, yet under developed. All of it punctuated by Nicolas Cage at his Nic Cagey-ist–wild eyed and emoting to the upper balcony.
But if you go back and see that the film is an adaptation of a short story by the much revered H.P Lovecraft, written in 1927, it all makes sense. And you appreciate that director Richard Stanley has brought the pulpy source material into the present day with a considerable amount of skill.
Some kind of meteorite crashes into the ground of the Gardner family’s comfy, though isolated, estate in Arkham, Massachussets. It’s a long drive to the nearest hospital and all othet conveniences–sooooo, not a good place for the weird things that are about to happen to ther family.
This purple colored presence, emitting a bright light, infects their water supply and drives some of the family of five mad and does worse to others. It’s not easy to have the antagaonist of a movie be so abstract–it’s not a fire-breathing monster or a killer in a hockey mask, but Stanley manages to keep the tension ratcheted up. The score is just right and the production values are, in fact, above b-movie status–but you’d be forgiven for laughing your ass off at the raging Cage and all the talk about Alpacas( don’t ask).
It’s a mixed bag, but I’m not mad at it