Color Out of Space is Nicolas Cage’s latest dabbling in out there, insanity inducing horror after the success of Mandy. The story concerns a family who have suffered recent trauma and have moved out to the country side only to have a meteor land on their property. As the meteor begins to change and mutate all life around it, this becomes the kind of gross out horror that you would watch back to back with The Thing. Going in to it, I was aware that it was getting good reviews but I must admit that I really liked what is going on here.

There seems to have been a marriage in cult movie heaven between Cage, horror author HP Lovecraft and director Richard Stanley. If you haven’t heard of Stanley, you should look him up as his career is interesting enough to be a movie itself. This is an adaptation of Lovecraft’s short story but he seems to have also included wider aspects from the writer’s universe; the place names are all from his stories and his ideas are painted all over the film. Thankfully, the movie itself is way better than I ever could have suspected for a few reasons.

First of all, it is genuinely unnerving in places. I am not normally easily scared and it may have been because I was on my own watching this late at night, but Color Out of Space is scary as hell. And hellish is the only word that can be used to describe the fantastic creature effects that are used here. In the best possible way, they recall the effects of classic body horror movies like The Thing or anything by David Cronenberg. The special effects across the board are awesome and while there are occasional dodgy moments, this only adds to the late night, 1980’s horror vibe.

I also found the synth heavy score by Colin Stetson to be equally unsettling and at times, the music contains strange noises that seem like they’re coming from the events onscreen. As you may have already guessed, this film really goes for broke and it is to its credit that it mostly succeeds. There are a couple of story beats that feel a bit tacked on but all in all, everything feels remarkably well crafted. One final note goes to the strong acting from everyone involved as each character is required to lose the plot due to the forces at hand.

Madeleine Arthur is especially terrific as the witchcraft practising daughter who seems to be the most clued in to what is happening. And of course, Cage goes berserk. But not in the way you might expect as this is not simply a redo of any of his previous crazed antics. Instead, it takes a good hour or so for him to finally crack and there are many hints to suggest that the alien force is simply amplifying the insecurities of each of the characters. Cage shows this effectively in a nuanced performance that is more than simply a Jack Torrance carbon copy. Lets hope he keeps up his current streak of brilliantly bizarre horror mayhem.

Disclaimer Notice: Any thoughts and opinions expressed here are solely my own. Any images (copyrighted or otherwise) have been used according to Creative Commons and if needed, have been referenced to the best of my knowledge.

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