The Return of Richard Stanley as He Fires All of His Guns and Explodes Color out of Space

Based upon a short story by H.P. Lovecraft, Color out of Space is writer/director Richard Stanley’s return to feature film-making since he was fired from the infamous box office bomb that was The Island of Dr. Moreau starring Marlon Brando and Val Kilmer who reportedly were so much trouble on the set that ultimately Stanley was blamed for it. This time out Stanley works with the ever wacky Nicholas Cage (in yet another fevered dream performance) and Joley Richardson as Nathan and Teresa Gardner living on a rural farm with their three children. Soon enough a meteorite crashes into the field of their farm changing their lives radically.

Stanley made a name for himself as a sci-fi horror filmmaker with Hardware and Dust Devil in the early ninety’s. Much like Dust Devil, the best of Stanley lies in his almost acid trip like scenes. Many people have argued that Lovecraft is infamously hard to translate into film which might explain why so few direct adaptations of his stories are made even if countless films are inspired by or loosely based upon his work, particularly the use of his monstrous Cthulhu. This monster is a part of Color out of Space but not what makes this film so compelling.

A big part of the appeal of Lovecraft is his beautiful and often poetic prose which doesn’t tend to translate well into screenplays unless the director has some kind of visual aesthetic that might come close to that poetry. Stanley’s visual aesthetic almost does this and just because it ultimately fails, what a glorious failure it is. There is a charming b-movie feel to the film and while it is less horror than it is trippy dippy scifi-Lovecraftian horror. Cage’s acid trip performance is as much a part of this feel as are the wild visuals and of Gardner’s three children Madalein Arthur as Lavinia is nearly as nutty as Cage.

Not to be outdone in the nutty department is a smaller appearance by Tommy Chong as Ezra which only underscores the drug like fury that fuels Richard Stanley’s fire of a film. It’s a slow burning beginning that eventually gives the audience their Cthulhu fix, but it isn’t the monster that creeps but rather the unraveling of the Gardner family, who it is hinted at in the beginning is a family already unraveling before the meteorite crashes. A family that is pulling apart only to come together in horrific ways. A coming together like a collision between unstoppable forces and immovable objects.

There is another character, a hydrologist Ward Phillips played by Elliot Knight who seems to be extraneous and whose only purpose is to be the one who survives the after effects of the alien/demon bearing meteorite. At the heart of this film is a tale of a family who’s been pulling apart and comes back together in tragic ways. Whether anyone survives the madness after the Gardner’s don’t, seems to be pointless except for the fact that Phillips narrates using some of Lovecraft’s poetic verse. Maybe that’s enough and Phillips does also serve as another gaping mouth at the monstrosities thrown at the characters.

This isn’t the kind of horror film that will outright scare many while watching it, but it is a film that will likely stick with many long after viewing it. A creeping and unsettling dread like after effect of watching a scifi horror film about the after effect of a meteorite crashing into the Gardner’s filed. Richard Stanley has made a solid comeback as director and hopefully will continue to make more. It is also worth noting that Elijah Wood has steadily built up (along with a few others) an oeuvre of horror films as a producer.

Both Color out of Space and the excellent Daniel isn’t Real were Elijah Wood produced films released in 2019. The year before that the wild ride that is Mandy (also starring Nic Cage) was another and he, along with Daniel Noah and Josh C Waller have all collaborated together as producers as far back as 2105’s The Boy and The Greasy Strangler released in 2016. Since Mandy, however, their horror films have become increasingly art house fare and that, in my opinion, is a good thing.