Color Out of Space

Hollywood exiles unite for a proper Nicolas Cage comeback – with Richard Stanley recruiting the overblown star for the director’s own return after being famously fired a week into filming 1996’s The Island of Dr. Moreau. Stanley had previously made some excellently disturbing thrillers, but went back to documentaries after his own showbiz tale of terror. Now this adaptation of an H.P. Lovecraft story proves that Stanley can still make a great low-budget horror movie capable of stealing critical raves from major productions. Cage plays the head of a vaguely hippie family living a glamorous lifestyle in a rural setting. They don’t even mind having Tommy Chong as a shamanistic squatter lurking around the house. Things go wrong, however, after a meteor crashes onto their property and turns on the family with a burning rainbow of acid visions. Stanley stays true to Lovecraft’s pulp fiction roots, and Color has all the impact of Stuart Gordon famously bringing the author to video shelves in 1985’s Re-Animator. It’s also a much better calling card for Cage than 2018’s Mandy, which mostly exploited the actor’s recent weird performances. The notorious Oscar winner is much more effective in his amazing freak-outs here. In a shocking twist, Stanley even manages to rein Cage back in before the ending. That’s probably why we’re finally going to get National Treasure 3.

[NR]