I saw the Color Out of Space...

As most horror fans know, Richard "Hardware" Stanley's "Color Out of Space" isn't the first film version of the H.P. Lovecraft story. Prior to such, there was "Die, Monster, Die!" (1965) and "The Curse" (1987). However, the current consensus is that Stanley's edition is the most faithful in spirit, and if some don't see it that way, no harm done. They'll likely accept the movie's depraved psychedelia, anyway. 

Co-produced by Elijah Wood and adapted by Stanley and Scarlett Armanis, "Color Out of Space" introduces viewers to the plebeian Gardner family: Nathan, its caring dad (Nicolas Cage); Theresa, its melancholic mom (Joely Richardson); Lavinia, its earthy daughter (Madeleine Arthur); Benny, its older son (Brendan Meyer), and Jack, its younger son (Julian Hilliard). (Tommy Chong portrays the clan's spacey squatter, Ezra, while Elliot Knight performs as the film's heroic hydrologist/inspector, Ward Phillips. Completing the main cast is Q'orianka Kilcher as Mayor Tooma and Josh C. Waller as Sheriff Pierce.)

The Gardners' tragic tale commences after a meteor crashes near their home (not far from famous ol' Arkham, Massachusetts), emitting a color unlike any that Nathan has ever imagined or hoped to describe. Soon after the water turns oily, tomatoes grow extra large and animals melt into anguished, screaming monstrosities. 

Word spreads of the calamitous phenomenon, and all those who cross it are (in one way or the other) contaminated by it. Think of "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill" meets "Swamp Thing", and you'll get a smidgen of what I mean, but what "Color Out of Space" holds is so much more extreme.

For the most part, the home-invasion set-up mirrors "Evil Dead'"s, which also holds Lovecraftian roots, though Stanely's film is nowhere near as flamboyant as Raimi's chapters. (One can also find traces of Stuart Gordon's acclaimed, inter-dimensional spree, "From Beyond" in the movie's more lurid parts, thanks to Steve Annis' powerful photography and Colin Stetson's surreal score.) "Color Out of Space" goes much further and farther than any Lovecraft film before, pushing the growth of Hell on Earth at full force, with all the mind-bending terror that one should expect. (It's really no wonder Richardson was cast, since she'd already taken a similar path in Paul W.S. Anderson's eerie "Event Horizon".) 

Cage carries much of the film and therefore, absorbs the brunt of the ascending torture, which only goes to reason, considering his headlining status. His performance is nuanced enough to make his disintegration stick, but the other performers are as identifiable, emoting torment and fear at every hair-raising turn. It's hard not to feel bad for these folks as they become evermore immersed in the mutating chaos. 

When all is said and done, "Color Out of Space" isn't so much about an alien invasion as it is the degradation of a family that crumbles under circumstances that it neither asked for or deserve. For anyone who's been vexed by life's basic disruptions, "Color Out of Space'"s allegorical seeds are certain to sprout commodious nightmares. For horror fans, that makes it worth a view--better yet, two or three.

Can't wait to see what Stanley brews for his next: "The Dunwich Horror", no less!