Colour out of Space (3 Stars)

This film is based on a short story written by H. P. Lovecraft in 1927. It's evidently a popular story, because this is the fifth adaptation as a film. Concerning the film's title, H. P. Lovecraft was a rarity: he was an American author who knew how to spell. He called his story "The Colour out of Space", spelling "colour" correctly. The people responsible for the film, probably the studio executives, are less educated and have spelt the word as "color". The fault obviously doesn't lie with the director, because Richard Stanley is from South Africa, where the word is spelt correctly.

I haven't yet read the story itself, although I intend to do so soon. It's available online, because all of H. P. Lovecraft's writings are now in the public domain. My thoughts in this review are based on the film itself.

Nathan Gardner (Nicolas Cage) lives on a farm that lies an hour's drive from the nearest town. He has a wife and three children. There's an old hippy squatting on his land in a makeshift hut. Nathan must be a nice guy. Most American farmers wouldn't allow that. The only other person around is a young hydrologist who is examining the ground water to decide whether a dam can be built, flooding the local countryside.

A meteorite lands in Nathan's garden. This is the beginning of the story. Strange things happen. Beautiful new flowers appear. Strange colours are seen at night. The family members go insane, in varying degrees.

That's all I'll say about the plot. I find the film very dissatisfying. It's a science fiction film, but many random terrifying events occur the way they do in supernatural films. It's impossible to piece together any logic between the different happenings. At the end the hydrologist, acting as a narrator, says that everything that happened was beyond our understanding. That's just a flimsy excuse for the film not making sense.

The film is also badly structured. When people in a film go mad, we need one sane person to act as an anchor, someone we can relate to. All five family members go insane, one at a time. For most of the film the daughter seemed to be the anchor of sanity, until she started carving words into her arm to cast a Wiccan protection spell. Do Wiccans really do that? The spell doesn't even work. The hydrologist remains sane, but he's absent for most of the film, so he doesn't qualify as our anchor of sanity.

The film is visually appealing because of its bright colours. There's a psychedelic feel to it. The music is terrific, including songs by Burzum and Mayhem. It's just a pity that the story is so bad. I'm sure that H. P. Lovecraft's original story was better. I'll find out soon.

Success Rate:  - 6.0

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