Color Out of Space (2019)

☆ ☆ ☆

Color Out of Space (2019) – R. Stanley

So, Nicolas Cage is making six movies a year these days?  He’s on a roll, a tear, and really is the go-to actor for over-the-top madness (still).  This version of the H. P. Lovecraft story is clearly designed as an acid trip (no need for actual drugs).  I had read the story a few years ago (and I’ve just scanned it again now) but had no specific memories of it. The film seems true to the story though we see more from the insider’s point-of-view perhaps. As usual with this sort of film, things start out rather ordinary: Cage playing Nathan Gardner is at home in rural Arkham (presumably New England) with his wife (Joelly Richardson) and three children, when a meteorite crashes in their front yard.  A hydrologist (Elliot Knight) surveying the area stops by to investigate, including visiting the home of the squatter (Tommy Chong – still smoking!). Gradually, some weird shit starts to happen (the youngest son seems zombified, Richardson starts to lose it).  Cage holds on, perhaps drinking too much, until things just completely melt down.  As does he.  As does the plot.  And the visuals.  But if this is your sort of thing, then perhaps this one is somewhat better than the usual crap out there aiming to be thrilling but ending up only incoherent).  The director is Richard Stanley, last seen getting fired from the Brando version of The Island of Dr. Moreau; apparently this is the first of an intended trilogy of Lovecraft adaptations.