Color Out Of Space: Richard Stanley's Otherworldly Comeback
Following a nearly 25-year hiatus, writer/director Richard Stanley makes his welcome return to cinemas with his H.P. Lovecraft adaptation, Color Out of Space. Featuring stunning visuals, quality Nic Cage freakouts, and an abundance of cosmic horror delights, Stanley reaffirms himself as a visionary, melding B-movie trash, Lovecraftian body horror, and sci-fi/fantasy into one bonkers alchemy that is out of this world.
After a meteorite lands in the front yard of their farm, Nathan Gardner (Nicolas Cage) and his family find themselves battling a mutant extraterrestrial organism as it infects their minds and bodies, transforming their quiet rural life into a technicolor nightmare.
First off, it’s really nice to see Richard Stanley back. Few filmmakers ever have to endure the kind of career banishment that Richard Stanley’s had to live out. After making a name for himself with his early 90s genre films, Hardware and Dust Devil, both of which garnered cult followings, Hollywood took an interest in this indie visionary and allowed him to direct the 40-million-dollar 1996 adaptation of The Island of Doctor Moreau. The film was a long-time passion project for Stanley, who also co-wrote the script, and it’s one that fell well within his wheelhouse; however, shortly after Stanley came aboard to direct, things quickly went awry.
Moreau’s production was infamously troubled, which caused Stanley to be fired from the project, ostracizing him from the studio system and initiating his long-winded disappearance into obscurity. (There’s a great documentary that chronicles this cinematic debacle, Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island of Dr. Moreau, which we’d highly recommend.) Now, after nearly a quarter of a century in hibernation, Stanley’s reemerged to have another go at a narrative feature, and while Color Out of Space is far from perfect, full of the kinds of “kinks” that work for and against it, Stanley doesn’t exhibit the rust or dust that one might think, given his long exile. In fact, the film is a testament to his ability to sculpt a cohesive vision that’s just as sharp as it ever was — even if a lot of its main components are borrowed.
Lovecraft is an author that’s particularly difficult to adapt because his writing focuses on indescribable horrors that are usually only vaguely hinted at. This works well on the page, since it empowers a reader to use their limitless imagination to fill in the gaps; however, cinematically, it’s proved rather difficult. More often than not, Lovecraft-inspired films or direct adaptations aren’t very good, and very few filmmakers understand how to make the Lovecraftian work on screen — John Carpenter and Stuart Gordon being the two that immediately come to mind. With Color Out of Space, Stanley proves he has the prowess to handle the difficulties and challenges of adapting Lovecraft, distilling the core elements of Lovecraft down to the bare essentials and churning this nearly 100-year-old text into a mesmerizing audiovisual experience that feels both familiar and fresh — which is good news for Lovecraft fans since Stanley hopes to do a Lovecraft trilogy, with The Dunwich Horror coming next.
If you’re not excited about Stanley’s return, or that his Lovecraft adaptation is in sync with the wavelength of the original text, you should definitely ecstatic for more gleefully gonzo Nicolas Cage moments, which Color Out of Space has no shortage of. We get to see him milk alpacas, sing opera, manically rant about a horrendous smell, and slam dunk tomatoes into a trash can. He channels a bit of Jack Nicholson at one point, taps into a bit of Trump, and even resurrects his hilariously kooky Vampire’s Kiss accent — which should be the only selling point you really need. He really elevates this film with his consistent ability to captivate, baffle, and amuse with his singular unhinged performances. His one of only three actors here — the other two being Elliot King, who carried the movie when Madeleine Arthur was serving for dead weight, and Tommy Chong as the local stoned-out shaman — who truly understands the tone and how to work his craft into it, and he’s one of the key elements that makes Stanley’s comeback film so enjoyable.
With the MANDY producers Daniel Noah, Josh C. Waller, and Elijah Wood also producing Color Out of Space, and with Nicolas Cage also serving up star power, the films will undoubtedly be compared to one another; however, outside of their purplish hue and B-movie feel, they’re very different films. Aesthetically, the film feels like a mashing of MANDY and Annihilation, with the body horror elements of The Thing and the CGI-centric oddity of Evolution. As far as Richard Stanley visions go, it’s similar to Hardware, in the sense that a lot of its stylistic elements feel a bit derivative but are worked in a way that’s hypnotic and spellbinding — even in its worst moments — maintaining a cohesively over-the-top tone. Even if the film’s story isn’t doing it for you — and there are many points in which this will be the case — you can always rely on the lush visuals from cinematographer Steve Annis and the keen production design by Katie Byron to keep you somewhat stimulated and engaged.
The film’s biggest problem is that there’s nothing really going on with the plot, which is essentially just a clothesline to hang cosmic horrors onto. It stays true to the Lovecraft short story, but it often fails to fully color in the gaps in its expansion to feature length, sleepwalking in-between the frequently great and highly entertaining bits that are strewn about, which don’t take full force until near the end. Everything rests pretty much entirely on the surface, making it unclear if what happens to the Gardner family is supposed to have any true significance, which may be problematic for some.
The other issue is the film’s CGI, which is very hit or miss, sometimes coming off tacky or not fully blended into the filmed scene/ry. The practical effects, on the other hand, are pretty spectacular, and they make the moments of body horror more tangible and palpably grotesque. Ironically, the blending of CGI and practical elements is pretty seamless, but overall, effects-wise, the film sets a high bar and then occasional fails to meet their own established mark.
The characters aren’t all that likable and occasionally come off obnoxious (like the Wicca practicing Lavinia, played by Madeleine Arthur) or flat and “dopey” (like pot-head Benny, played by Brendan Meyer with the worst haircut so far this year). They also take a really long time to figure out what’s going on around them, ignoring blatantly obvious red flags along the way. It’s really only Ward (Elliot King), a hydrologist surveying the water table in planning for a hydroelectric dam, who seems to have any clue that something weird is going on. Certain parts of the narrative, like the Gardner’s issues with the town’s mayor or Lavinia’s third-act Wicca ritual, are pretty much non-essential to the plot, and could’ve been cut out almost entirely. Also, Richard Stanley really never learned how to write effective dialogue, and so that’s problematic as well.
Overall, Color Out of Space is one of those films that won’t be for everyone, but the niche audience of cult connoisseurs it’s aimed at will likely be all about it. In our opinion, it’s an imperfect gem of a midnight movie that succeeds in cultivating a true sense of madness, both visually and aurally (thanks to the phenomenal score by Colin Stetson, which really captures the mysticism and insanity perfectly), giving moviegoers a bit of the grotesque, a bit of shlock, and a bit of terror in equal measure. Richard Stanley’s return is definitely something worth championing, and his vision is frequently so bizarre and beguiling that its hard not to be intrigued.
Recommendation: If you’re a fan of Lovecraft, Richard Stanley, or Nicolas Cage, Color Out of Space is a no-brainer. If you’re turned off by bizarro cinema or need a film to dive deep in its content/messaging, then this won’t likely be for you. Still, we think everyone ought to give it a go.
Rating: 3.5 Cage rages outta 5.
What do you think? We want to know. Share your thoughts and feelings in the comments section below, and as always, remember to viddy well!