There is, perhaps, a great movie to be made out of the H.P. Lovecraft short story The Colour Out of Space. Lovecraft's a challenging writer to adapt for the big screen due to his emphasis on the indescribable, to say nothing of the extreme racism to be reckoned with in some of his writing. The Colour Out of Space, however, is one of his more manageable tales to film, a psychological horror story set in a single location with more attention paid to human madness than the alien presence (described in abstract terms analogous to a new "color") and without any particularly problematic elements.

Director Richard Stanley's adaptation, titled Color Out of Space, isn't a great movie. It does, however, get enough elements right that it's both enjoyable enough to watch and frustrating enough that it doesn't take the extra steps necessary to achieve greatness. Stanley's film knows how to handle the cosmic horror elements but it doesn't do the additional work of giving audiences greater reason to care about the characters.

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The funnest part of the movie, as expected, is Nicolas Cage getting to go full ham as Nathan Gardner, a stressed out father whose attempts at farming are messed up by the meteorite infecting the water supply. Existing in a realm beyond "good" or "bad" acting, Cage is in a class of his own -- and if the thought of him milking alpacas and doing a freaky possessed voice sounds entertaining, that might be reason enough to purchase a ticket to Color Out of Space... or at least watch the highlights on YouTube in a few months.

Color Out of Space Nicolas Cage

Cage starring in yet another surreal horror film produced by Elijah Wood's SpectreVision naturally begs comparisons to the 2018 cult hit Mandy. Color Out of Space suffers in those comparisons. Whereas Mandy fully transported the viewer to another world with its lush visuals and worked its offbeat slow pace to build an emotional connection, Color Out of Space is only so stunning in bits and pieces. When the alien presence is warping the screen in bursts of purple and the body horror mutations it creates are brought to viscerally disturbing life through impressive practical effects, the movie works.

Waiting for those moments of transcendent weirdness and horror, however, gets to be a bit of a slog. There was potential for a more compelling drama in the storyline involving wife and mother Theresa (Joely Richardson) dealing with cancer and her Wiccan daughter Lavinia (Madeleine Arthur) attempting to heal her, but the dialogue is weak, making it feel like the movie's just putting these pieces into place rather than bringing them to life. And the family's two sons hardly get any character development whatsoever. Even Nicolas Cage, compelling as he is, is interesting in spite of the underwritten script not because of it.

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There is a better movie out there dealing with roughly the same story and themes. That film is Annihilation. To be clear, Annihilation wasn't an adaptation of The Colour Out of Space; Jeff Vandermeer, the author of the Annihilation novel, notably hates Lovecraft. Yet the comparisons are undeniably there. Both feature an alien presence visualized through purple distortions, mutating nature and humans being driven mad. Plus, both Annihilation and Stanley's Color Out of Space ground this cosmic horror in extremely direct cancer metaphors.

Annihilation is much more successful in turning this premise into something emotionally affecting and satisfying to watch. If you've seen Annihilation and want something similar, Color Out of Space might make for a passable matinee. If you haven't seen either movie, however, seek out Annihilation.

But at least Color Out of Space gave us one of the coolest movie posters ever.

Opening Friday, director Richard Stanley's Color Out of Space stars Nicolas Cage, Joely Richardson, Madeleine Arthur, Q'orianka Kilcher, Brendan Meyer, Tommy Chong and Elliot Knight.

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