Lovecraft back at the movies

This is getting 84% on RT, which is decent. It's Nicolas Cage, so you'll have to deal with his usual histrionics, but that could be an asset in an HPL story where, naturally, everyone goes nuts.

But the first thing that occurs to me is: 1. We just had Annihilation a couple years ago, which is The Colo(u)r Out of Space. 2. This is a more faithful adaptation... but does that make it any better? The trailer looks OK and it appears that there's more thought put into it than the typical slasher/shocker film, even if Tommy Chong is doing the meta cameo as the local shaman. Maybe?

I've heard amazing things about this movie.

The folks at Roger Ebert loved it. Will go see for myself then.

Really want to see this because it’s a Richard Stanley movie...the biggest thing he’s done in decades. Hardware is one of my all time favorite movies and Dust Devil is brilliant.

Island of Dr. Moreau was supposed to be his big Hollywood breakout but he got fired off it. And boy, it really turned out...

Watched this last night and enjoyed it. It wasn't quite as unhinged as Mandy though and it wasn't nearly as good as Annihilation.

I saw it Wednesday night.
I've been tracking the film since word of pre-production, and could not wait to see it.
Context:
I love H.P. Lovecraft. Dunwich Horror, Rats in the Wall, Dagon, and PIckman's Model are personal favorites.
I love Nicholas Cage. I think his career is fascinating with incredible work followed by rubbish phone-in efforts. This, coupled with a public persona that fairly gonzo. One of my favorite films of all time stars Cage; Adaptation.
I love Richard Stanley. Dust Devil is brilliant. And if no one has seen it, find the documentary of 'The Island of Dr. Moreau' film production. It is an amazing account of a project going to hell in a hand basket.

It was exciting to walk into The Color out of Space, because it could go either way. It could be great. It could be a train wreck.

For a science fiction film, it was fine. For a Cage vehicle, it was fine. For a Lovecraft adaptation, it was one of the best. For a Stanley directorial effort, it was great.

It was less phantasmagorical than Mandy, and there was less Cage freak out (though some). That was good. But the visuals were very clever for what is an obviously modest budget. There are some peculiar character traits that I felt were unnecessary (from the daughter and mayor in particular). There is some book end narration that seems a little forced, but I appreciated the primary source referenced.

For a story written in 1927, it's adapted fairly well into a 2020 setting. Personally, I found Annihilation a better film. However, Annihilation is a much looser interpretation (?) of the story. I'd suggest, "inspired by" more so than adapted. Also, the other two books in that trilogy are the classic 'law-of-diminishing-returns.' That sours my overall impression of the otherwise neat Portman led flick.

One of the best parts? After the film, the theater screened a 15 minute Q&A with Stanley and Cage. Interviewer? Patton Oswald! It was hysterical. Patton was cutting jokes. Nic Cage LOOKED like a joke (dyed hair and beard with heavy metal studded leather jacket), and Richard Stanley looked AND acted as though he just escaped from the Coo Coo Nest. The main take away? Stanley is developing a Lovecraft TRILOGY. He's currently writing the treatment for a Dunwhich Horror* adaptation and no word of what film three would entail.

*There are some Dunwich Horrorr elements introduced in this film.

Bring it on Stanley. I will see whatever you direct. Keep up the good work.

I thought it was great, one of the more truly horrifying movies I've seen. I lean toward thinking Cage was a distraction here more than a help, as his predictable Cage-iness sometimes worked well to lighten the mood a bit and sometimes broke my engagement.

In terms of recent adaptations, there was also Die Farbe from 2010, which was also very good,

Die Fabre was good. It was a closer adaptation to the source material, with enough differences to make things interesting. It's an impressive effort considering the budget, but it does suffer. The camera work and editing was lacking. It needed to be much tighter.

And...
None of us really need to discuss 1965's 'Die, Monster, Die!'

Although Boris Karloff is great.

I enjoyed it. While my wife also enjoyed it, she thought there were two separate films contained in it that should be separate. The madness aspect and the body horror/monstrosity portion. She didn't feel they really went together. While I don't necessarily disagree, I was fine with it and just chalked it up to the various forms of corruption.

It was fun.

Edit - Something that always bugs me (though maybe it shouldn't?) is the needless referencing of other mythos elements. Mainly the weather report on the TV mentioning all the Lovecraft locales in a single sentence. Seems too much like pandering to me. Especially since they made it seem like all those places were right next to each other, like it's the Arkham metro area or something

Disgustipater wrote: Edit - Something that always bugs me (though maybe it shouldn't?) is the needless referencing of other mythos elements. Mainly the weather report on the TV mentioning all the Lovecraft locales in a single sentence. Seems too much like pandering to me. Especially since they made it seem like all those places were right next to each other, like it's the Arkham metro area or something

That's just bait for the HPL fans. They already have Dunwich Horror in the planning stages, so you could argue that it's setup for the subsequent films. But it's usually just to show that it wasn't someone handed a script that seemed like a decent movie project, but is instead a creative team aware of the source and demonstrating that. Otherwise, that kind of thing would've been cut.

Disgustipater wrote:
Edit - Something that always bugs me (though maybe it shouldn't?) is the needless referencing of other mythos elements. Mainly the weather report on the TV mentioning all the Lovecraft locales in a single sentence. Seems too much like pandering to me. Especially since they made it seem like all those places were right next to each other, like it's the Arkham metro area or something

I was fine with it. The mentioned locations are all part of the same geographic region. I didn't see it any differently than my local news' weather report.

The phrase "Lovecraft Country" occurs in popular discussions of Lovecraft's connection to the western MA region. The Harvard Law Record used the phrase in an October 20, 2005 article:

Many Lovecraft stories take place in "Lovecraft Country"—the fictional North Shore towns of Arkham, Innsmouth, Kingsport, and Dunwich (perhaps fictional equivalents of Ipswich, Salem/Danvers, Marblehead, or Newburyport).[10]

I was going to go see this this weekend but it's only playing at one place that's an hour away. Guess I'll keep an eye out for a wider release.