Color Out of Space is not a film you watch and become emotionally invested in. Color Out of Space is a film you witness, with all its emotional fluidity, and make your own stance. So in my opinion, while it’s not perfect Color Out of Space is a brilliant and unique sci-fi horror.

This adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s short story from cult director Richard Stanley, sees a meteorite settle in the front yard of the Gardner family farm. Days later the strange stone disappears, allowing the Gardners to return to their normal everyday lives. However, as time passes the vegetation and farm animals begin to mutate. Eventually the Gardners themselves start to change and their once peaceful farm becomes a nightmarish land, inhabited by creatures and sights beyond human comprehension.

The Characters

The best way I can describe how the characters are written is balanced. The film is an ensemble piece as every character is developed pretty much equally. At the beginning, the film doesn’t seem to want you to like the Gardners. Rather it wants to show them in their natural habitat and let you judge them for yourself. We see that while the Gardners are certainly a functional family they have their flaws.

For example, the father of the family, Nathan (Nicolas Cage) clearly cares for his wife and children, particularly for his youngest son Jack, however he and his wife Theresa are struggling to rekindle their sex life following Theresa’s mastectomy and is he somewhat haunted by the upbringing from his eccentric father.

As the plot progresses and the landscape begins to mutate, some characters are affected sooner than others. Nathan and Jack display odd behaviour early in the film, becoming totally different people. Hence when the plot escalates and Nathan and Jack suffer certain consequences, you don’t know how to feel because beforehand it seems that all you’ve seen is their least admirable traits rather than their more likable ones.

The Horror (And Comedy?)

The overall feeling most people will take away from the film is dread. What the Gardners go through is visually horrifying. The effects the landscape has on them is very reminiscent of 80s’ Body Horror films like The Thing and From Beyond.

The horror is presented quite similarly to how the characters are, not really like it’s supposed to scare you or as if you’re supposed to care. It’s presented as nothing more than it is, which you could argue expresses the Lovecraftian theme of our small meaningless existence in the universe. You’ll feel disgust from the imagery but depending on your point of view, you may or may not feel some sympathy for the people enduring it.

There’s actually a lot of funny moments in Color Out of Space, which just makes the film’s emotional neutrality stronger. Pretty much all the comedy comes from Nicolas Cage’s portrayal of Nathan. In the beginning his performance is a dignified depiction of a middle-aged father trying to raise three children but as he begins to be affected by the mutated landscape, he becomes more aggressive and arrogant. He explodes into fits of rage exactly like those in Vampire’s Kiss and it’s hilarious! Yet when his family’s threatened, he returns to a caring father and conveys sadness and despair, muddling your feelings even more.

Color Out of Space is definitely a film I’ll watch again and again and have a totally different interpretation each time. To anyone who prefers more clear-cut films, I don’t you’d get a lot from Color Out of Space but if you love Lovecraft and Nicolas Cage I highly recommend it. You’re in for a ride.

I give Color Out of Space a great 7 out of 10.