Color Out Of Space Review

Color Out Of Space
Director: Richard Stanley
Cast Headliners: Nicolas Cage, Joely Richardson, Elliot Knight, Madeleine Arthur, Tommy Chong, SPACE
Original Release Date: January 22nd, 2020(limited)

  One can just look at the formula of  the Color Out OF Space and expect something that's some kind of entertaining.... the unique cult horror writer H.P Lovecraft adapted into a piece starring the sometimes manically amazing Nicolas Cage with lost-since-the-90s director Richard Stanley making a proper return to feature length material. Some aspects work well and some aspects very much do not however it's identity is felt when it needs to be.
In what feels both a bit clever yet also a bit archaic (drawn directly from the early 20th century original novella) premise a water surveyor Ward Phillips (Elliot Knight)  has to come to a mysterious forested area where he meets the equally oddball Gardner family. This includes Wiccan-practicing teenage daughter Lavinia(Madeleine Arthur), stoner teenage son Benny(Brendan Meyer), curious youngest son Jack(Julian Hillard), cancer-remisssioned business-addict mother Theresa(Joely Richardson), and wackiest of all but kind-hearted alpaca farming-and-cuisine enthusiast father Nathan(Nicolas Cage). There's also an adjacent squatter on the large property in paranoid hippie Ezra(Tommy Chong who's delightfully silly in the few scenes he does get). 
Their lives are soon changed by the impact of an ominous meteorite from space which draws lightning into it then releasing flashes of the titular “color” energy into its surroundings as its corrupts the plants, minds of the Gardners and others, and maybe more into something bizarre and alien before it somehow vanishes. This descent into various forms of madnesses is the main throughline of the film.
It's narrative conceit with its small set of locations and the mundane turned terrifying definitely brings to mind classic influences such as The Shining, The Thing, and even the contemporary Annihilation (especially in regards to the visuals mixing some picturesque beauty in with the mutations).  These themes may seem like mundane tropes but one may wonder if its perhaps instead that these works were in part influenced by Lovecraft's work. It can be a slow burn at times but by the end it becomes overwhelmingly horrific and even exciting if held back by budget. 
The small main cast, Cage aside, is nothing quite to write home about. Knight, Arthur, and Meyer do alright if slightly cheesily as teenagers facing the adversities that come.  Richardson has some drama but the occasionally subpar script leaves these aspects feeling hollow so things work best when there's fear compared to emotion. There's various other smaller townspeople and civic service parts that are cheesy as well.
However where cheese mostly works is Nicolas Cage as Nathan. On a scale from “actually objectively amazing” to “So bad or weird he's amazing” he lands somewhere in the middle. Some wonderful bursts of his trademark manic-delivery do occur but they're not always used in the right ways. One will laugh often times on purpose actually which is surprising in the sci-fi horror at play but other times one will also awkwardly laugh at what the point of the thing they just witnessed which perhaps fits the unexplainable Lovecraftian nature of things. He is able to deliver some bits of caring emotion at rare times or otherwise fierce toughness.
One can't help but think of a recent Cage genre piece in 2018's Mandy which shares not only the rage of Cage but also some producers and a general ambiance. This film is inferior to that one  due to slightly less “hell yeah” appeal and a more generic plot / aesthetic but it is shared in its use of colors, blood, and a synthy-score  here by Colin Stetson. Both are set in dark backwoods and have things be more and more trippy although as mentioned its less purposefully crafted or filled with metaphor here due to the shallowness of its characters and no clear villains. 
Director Richard Stanley's approach helps that ambiance although one can maybe see why he doesn't get a ton of work. He's best at the general vagueness of forests or mountains or the “Color”filled skies. Some up close work is shaky feeling . The CGI can be ….quite poor at times which is understandable due to its relatively lower budget. This takes away from some sequences which could be truly nightmare-inducing but perhaps its on purpose that things are seldom scene. However things improve by the climax with some final scenes that are truly beautiful. 

It's a movie plagued by some crafting flaws aside from just its cosmic radiation. However fans of Cage or these vein of sci-fi will find some enjoyment to be sure if they understand the kind of approach its going for . 7.45 out of 10 .