Coming off the success of “Mandy,” chameleon-extraordinaire Nicolas Cage has more or less decided to go a similar route with the fantasy/horror thriller “Color Out of Space.”
I saw this Richard Stanley-directed sci-fi/horror vehicle last month at Montreal’s FNC film festival and it was nowhere in the same batshit-crazy level as “Mandy.” There are a few interesting moments here and there, but nothing to write home about.
You can see, based on the just-released first trailer, that this HP Lovecraft adaptation is about a family man (Cage) who finds a crashed meteorite in his front yard. The rock is of unknown origins, but then it mysteriously disappears. This sets off a series of events as a hostile unknown entity starts to haunt the man and his family at their isolated country home.
The movie premiered at TIFF under the Midnight Madness sidebar. It didn’t make much noise at that festival, but the overall reaction was somewhat positive. An 85% rating on Rotten Tomatoes may be a little too high a score, it will no doubt go down, especially considering it’s a deliberately over-the-top movie that loses its firm footing as it goes along. I did feel as though Cage was running through the motions with this one, even with his gonzo-brand of acting taking over the movie’s final hour.
This is Stanley’s first film since being fired from “The Island of Dr. Moreau” back in 1996.
“Color Out of Space” is expected to arrive in theaters on January 24, 2020.