MOVIE REVIEW: Color Out of Space

 

While in a remote part of New England, a young hydrologist named Ward Phillips is introduced to a man that has inherited his father’s farm and the man’s family. The following night a brightly glowing meteor falls onto the farm and is promptly destroyed by lightning. Afterwards, Phillips finds that there are contaminants in the groundwater and warns the family not to drink the water coming from their well. However, strangely colored plants and animals soon begin to appear, and then the farm’s livestock, and the family themselves, begin to mutate into horrible and strange lifeforms. Can anyone be saved from the color from space?

This is a 2019 film based on the story “The Colour Out of Space” written by H.P. Lovecraft. This version brings the story into the 21^st century, but the characters and sequence of events are basically the same. Nicholas Cage stars as the itinerant farmer, with Joely Richardson (In Darkness) as his wife, Madeleine Arthur (To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before) as the daughter, and Elliot Knight (Life Sentence) as the young hydrologist. Though this does not have the creepy eeriness of the short story, it is a palatable horror movie with good acting and a passable script. There are scenes of violence and gore, so this is not recommended for young children.