‘Colour Out Of Space’ is a weird and wonderful film directed by Elliot Knight. Created by the film production company, SpectreVision whose co-founder and partner, Daniel Noah was a big fan of the original book by H.P Lovecraft’s 1927 book, ‘The Colour Out Of Space’.
The film is based around the Gardner family, who have left the busy city for the peace and quiet of the countryside. Nathan Gardner (Nicholas Cage) left the city and his job to spend more time taking care of his wife, Theresa Gardner (Joely Richardson) who has cancer. As the film starts, the audience is introduced to Lavinia (Madeleine Arthur), a teenage girl who is going through her rebellious phase and want to find herself. Arthur made her past acting debut in Tim Burton’s film, ‘Big Eyes’ as well as the young adult cult favourite, Netflix special ‘To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before’. And needless to say, she gives a stunning performance in Color Out Of Space too. She is approached by a young man, Ward (Elliot Knight also known for his role in American Gothic) who turns out to be a hydrologist conducting research on their neighbourhood. The setting is calm and makes the audience believe that they might’ve come to the wrong movie theatre. As a sci-fi horror, this opening sequence isn’t the stereotypical opener and leaves the audience lingering for more to find out whether this film really lives up to the sci-fi-horror genre–spoiler alert…it does.
As the Garner family joins at the dinner table, we are introduced to the other siblings: known for his ‘stoner’ persona and Jack being the goofy but adorable kid who lives in his imaginary friends and feeding his father’s alpacas in the stable, become quite the endearing family. As a result, keeping the audience engaged throughout the whole film. When their front yard is hit by a bright purple meteor, seemingly as Nathan Gardner (Nicholas Cage) expressed repeatedly, had a disturbing smell… regardless it disturbed most of their neighbourhood and left the local authorities in shock. What was the most shocking in the film was how each character was brilliant in expressing their shock and deterioration as the alien meteor began to affect all five of the Gardner family.
Hilliard and Arthur were both extremely engaging to watch as their performances showed concern and confusion as they wanted to find out why this thing was ruining their surroundings so much. Theresa Gardner, who was portrayed as the hardworking mother struggling with cancer, gave a thrilling performance which shocked audiences. Lastly, Nicholas Cage’s character Nathan Gardner was the highlight of the film. He gave a performance which was unforgettable, as he was portrayed the alpaca farmer who just wanted to take care of his family. His heroic role and most notably his return to the big screen after a long break in acting gave audiences the impression that he is here to stay and that we’ll be seeing more of him in movies in the near future.
Color Out of Space, the final verdict of the movie: it definitely suits the genre of sci-fi horror perfectly, with the sudden twists and turns leaving audiences questioning the strange objects and events that left the Gardner family morphing into aliens and causing their natural surroundings to deteriorate. The film was confusing at times, but anything that happened could only be part of the genre and the many unanswered questions left for the audience. Will there be a sequel to this film? We just have to wait and see.
COLOR OUT OF SPACE comes out in theatres on 28th February 2020 in the UK everywhere.