Color Out of Space has no interest in the highbrow horror trend

Tired of horror movies masquerading as indie darlings? Here comes Nicolas Cage with your trashy, over-the-top reprieve.

Color Out of Space.
(Image credit: Courtesy image)

When H.P. Lovecraft published "The Colour Out of Space" in Amazing Stories in 1927, he wrote with eldritch poeticism of "a frightful messenger from unformed realms of infinity beyond all Nature as we know it." In director Richard Stanley's film adaptation, out Friday, you might brace for something a little more along the lines of Nicolas Cage shouting, "Do you know how much those animals cost us? They are alpacas! Alpacas!!!"

This isn't necessarily a bad thing. What it is, though, is unexpected. Maybe not from Stanley, whose last outing as a director was in 1996 when he was famously fired from The Island of Dr. Moreau, but certainly for 2020, when so-called "elevated horror" is unquestionably the cinéma du jour. But even as the rest of the horror genre seems to be clamoring toward self-serious auteurism, Color Out of Space harkens back to horror's more trashy, gonzo, B-movie roots — and is ultimately all the more bold and brilliant for it.

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Jeva Lange

Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.