Color Out of Space

An outdoor screening at the Luna in Leederville was the perfect venue for a right oddity, Color Out of Space. This is a blackly comic, horror sci-fi from the near-forgotten director, Richard Stanley. He made a couple of 'small' films back in the early 90s (Hardware, Dust Devil) and was then fired from his highest-profile film to date, The Island of Dr. Moreau in 1995. So, this would be Stanley's feature return. And who better to take the lead in your comeback film than Nicolas Cage?

Color Out of Space is based on a 1927 short story by long-dead dickhead, H.P. Lovecraft. It deals with the aftermath of a meteorite landing near a remote farmhouse and how it affects the people, and life in general, surrounding it. The story has been adapted several times and has influenced many other productions, notably Alex Garland's Annihilation (a film I didn't love, but have had cause to reference a few times since seeing it.)

Color begins with a voice over by narrator and audience surrogate, Ward, the Hydrologist, that goes on about the occult creepiness of Arkham, the area where the Gardners live. This feels like it should be important but might just be a massive red herring - that's how it felt for me by the end. I promise I won't go on like this but the very next scene is of the Gardner daughter, Lavinia, performing some sort of ritual, which we learn will hopefully rid her mother of cancer. Stonking great metaphor alert here, as this seems to be the theme of the film, the invasiveness, the trauma, the pestilence of the thing.

Let's check off the genres on show here. Sci-fi. Quite impressive effects on a reasonably small budget, I'm guessing, and nicely downplayed cosmic interloper. Horror. Scary enough, especially at the start before the Grand Guignol/Body Horror took over. Comedy. The winner here, mainly thanks to Cage. He plays late-period him superbly well and some of his delivery is right on the mark. Offering Ward a drink of warm alpaca milk was perfectly weird, but taking bites out of hugely deformed tomatoes while going berserk and throwing them in the bin cranked up the madness. His snap back to normality immediately following this scene tickled me no end. Most of his stuff is on point, even upbraiding his daughter by shouting "La-vin-i-errrrr!" in that strange accent he sometimes pulls out - is it Californian stoner or faux-English fop via Canada? Or just © Cage™? The Color script is primarily a vehicle for Cage to reach into his bag of tricks, like a bloody, manic Felix the Cat. Joely Richardson even gets in on the act, as her ludicrous "Dinner's ready" marks the beginning of the surreal descent.

This isn't a brilliant film by a long chalk but there's enough in here to like. It plays a little long but time, as well as matter, was also a victim in the film. Perhaps this extended to the actual run-time. But any film that has Cage repeatedly punch the interior roof of a car, like John Goodman in Raising Arizona, AND has transmogrifying alpacas, is alright in my book.

As an addendum, here's a query - when did Cage start to go....odd? Aside from this one, I don't think he's made a good role/film choice since The Weatherman in 2005 (maybe Kick-Ass in 2010 but he'd already started going off the rails by then). Admittedly, there are a lot I haven't seen, but these days he appears to take any old dross and he has basically transcended good or bad performances. He's now simply Cage.

UPDATE: Roly has an explanation as to why Cage has made so many, ahhhm, eclectic choices in the last decade or so. Listen to the podcast below for details...

See also:

As we're on the subject, here are two of Cage's very best - the Coen Brothers' Raising Arizona (1987) and Spike Jonze's Adaptation (2002). Both show Cage as he can be, not how he usually is.

SPOILERS IN POD!!!

Listen to "Color Out of Space" on Spreaker.