 Thanks for checking out this movie review video. This is for the 2019 release the color out of space or I'm sorry color out of space To be exact now this one was done by Richard Stanley Thank goodness Richard Stanley has come back for people who don't know although if you're pretty plugged into the horror community prior to Know this Richard Stanley took a very long hiatus from filmmaking after he made the film The island of dr. Moro. Well, he didn't even complete it. There's a really good documentary about it. I think it's called lost soul Look into it. I I originally saw it on Netflix I don't know if it's still on there because that was years ago But I think it's called lost soul and it's something about the island of dr. Moro in the title But it's a documentary about how Richard Stanley tried to get that film going all the things that went wrong What turned him him off a film for like 20 years or so like actually doing film But he was an up-and-coming director at that point He had been highly praised for his films dust devil and hardware and I've seen dust devil I've not seen hardware yet, but I do plan to so my point being it's really great to see him back after a long hiatus And being so turned off a film and this is a good film for him to come back with because I quite enjoyed it I'm not gonna do this isn't gonna be a spoiler review per se But I'm gonna talk about kind of thematic stuff in it So that might spoil the thematic things if you want to go in 100% blind But I'm not gonna tell you about the events of the film So I won't be spoiling that aspect of it. So anyway also just so people know there's a interview with Richard Stanley that Mick Garris did for the postmortem podcast with Mick Garris Definitely check that out. I'd listen to that a while back When this film would come out and Richard Stanley on that talks about How he came to make this film about writing the script and about directing it and kind of his mindset Going into it, which is very important I think for really putting things into context and seeing what the film actually is now to give you that background If you don't already know or haven't heard that interview he wrote it Because a he had a childhood filled with Lovecraft his he and his mother would read Lovecraft and He you know was a big fan of of his stories Now it's been very very hard for people to put Lovecraft Especially certain stories of Lovecraft into the film version of it Although people would point to things like reanimator and say that reanimator is like the best Lovecraft inspired film ever done Now people are saying color out of space is really well done a Thing like color out of space people have said is hard to do just because there's a lot in the stories apparently that are not Easy to do visually it's more of like dread and unknowns and space related Horrors that the human brain has a hard time kind of comprehending and therefore it's very very hard to put into film So yeah, so just know that so he he loved Lovecraft He would deal with his mom read it with him his mother all the time And then after he lost his mother to cancer is when he was working on this film and he you know part of his terrible ordeal Seeing his mother being taken by cancer and the the degradation that it does to to a loved one Mentally and physically is kind of what brought him to you know making the script in addition to you know His love of Lovecraft and that shared love with his mother So it's important to know that watching the film because it gives it more context in my opinion so It was written by Richard Stanley obviously was directed by written Richard Stanley, but also written by him and Scarlett Amaris Obviously based on color out of space the story by HP Lovecraft Stars Nicholas Cage He's the biggest star in this by far and I know people have really been loving some Nicholas Cage Especially with like Mandy which by the way this film is put out by Spectre vision who also put out Mandy and There are like visually some similarities between the two especially like color usage Which is really interesting to me and the Nick Cage, you know experience so if you liked Nick Cage and Mandy you'll probably like Nick Cage in color out of space just saying So there five other films you need to know this five other films came out in 2019 with Nick Cage in it So he had six films. He was in come out in 2019. That's crazy. This dude is still really really really working He's putting it in good for him Stanley says this is actually the first in a trilogy of Lovecraft Lovecraft films that he hopes to make the next one He's gonna work on is based on the Dunwitch horror Obviously know their Lovecraft because it's all about the Lovecraft the budget for this was 12 million dollars and it made a little bit under a million so financially not a success, but It's getting a lot a lot a lot of love since it made it to DVD and Blu-ray. So I'm sure it's gonna be alright. Oh And by the way if people didn't know Spectre vision the company that put this out The production company is owned by Elijah Wood. I don't know if people knew that but I feel like a lot of people know that at this point So the actual film They they very very early on have some tie-in have a tie-in to Lovecraft stories They reference the city of Arkham, which is something that's used a lot in Lovecraft stories And then later on there's actually a character who's wearing a mischatonic university shirt So it's just these kind of cool nods to Lovecraft That I like quite a bit I actually have a mischatonic university historical society shirt that I you can probably see I've worn in some of my reviews It's a really cool one If you know Stanley's history with Lovecraft and his mother's passing from cancer this film seems very personal And I already talked about that but it does feel very personal if you keep that in mind while you're watching the film You feel how personal it is Everything feels very remote with beautiful cinematography Focusing on nature very early on in the film. It's very important that aspect of it being very remote and closed off and a close Connection with nature the characters that is and I'll talk a little bit about the connection with nature The families established in a believable way with their dynamic Established very very early them as a cohesive family unit how they interact with each other It feels very believable They feel like real characters and they take enough time to actually Help you understand who they are as people and how they communicate with each other and how they feel about each other So it's a good setup for the actual characters so that when things start going crazy You care more it works good writing There's a point of starting to feel obsolete and less wanted as you age that's made in this There are actually a lot of points made in this film. It's not just a few overarching themes It's a few quick moments of other points being made And this is one of them a kind of feeling of as you age you're kind of aging out of life You're aging out of society. You're you're having less of a usefulness people don't want you as much You start to feel obsolete and sometimes that's Based off of how society treats you or how other people treat you but sometimes it's based on just your own personal feeling and It's not really based on anything else happening, you know outside of your own brain But there's that's an interesting point that's made in this film. The color is described Because as we all know it's color out of space. It literally has to do with a color coming out of space That's not a spoiler if you've seen the trailer. It's 100% in there and actually, you know If you know the title it's 100% in there But anyway, so the color that comes out of space is described by Nathan Nichols cage's character as pink at first But then he says it's a color. He's never seen before This shows the natural human reaction of Trying to tie everything to something you already know But some things don't fit in what humans know and I thought this was a really interesting moment because his initial reaction is to make sense of what's going on and That's any humans initial reaction is trying to make sense of what's going on and how do you do that? You tie it to what you already know But then he steps back and he says well It's not like any color I've ever seen and that's kind of an indicator that it's something else and that's kind of an indicator of Doubt kind of creeping in and saying, you know, maybe what I know Is out the window at this point and that and that plays to the audience as well One of the characters in this film at one point is holding a book up and you can see the title clearly And it is called the willows now. This is a book written by Algernon Blackwood. I looked it up Who influenced the writings of HP Lovecraft by the way this particular book the willows ties in very closely to Color out of space. So if you know the story, you know where the film is going So showing that book in the film is a very clear indicator of what is going to happen Not the exact events, but you know the underlying progression of the film what is going on so I Would say don't look it up prior to seeing the film look it up after seeing the film There's a kind of horrific moment where you know things have turned and a terrible impact is actually starting and it's It's not played out super horrifically. That's why I said kind of horrific like the thing that happens is horrific But everything around it seems much less horrific. It's downplayed quite a bit, which is an interesting moment film-wise There's a noise used in here From time to time that sounds like tinnitus, you know when you get that like ringing in your ear That you kind of can't can't explain why it's happening So I was looking into tinnitus a little bit because I was like it sounds definitely like tinnitus because I've had that And it's a problem. They say medically speaking. It's not a problem itself But it is an indicator potential symptom of other underlying problems now some of the stuff They said is you know having trauma to the ears But also just aging in general But I think it's in there as just like an indicator especially early on in the film of a symptom Popping up to indicate that there is something wrong that something has changed that there's an event that has occurred that has kicked this tinnitus off and and things are There's an underlying thing that needs to be addressed basically that's creating this symptom The pink and purple colors in this look great and they're used in very very cool ways The color is amazing and the combination of the pinks and purples are really really cool And then at at certain points they also mix in a little bit of blue So it looks great Well, and that's in general like the directing is really good in this that cinematography is really good The practical effects when they're done are really good and the CG used in this art It's used in interesting ways, and it looks really good. So overall visually a very nice film There's a point of when there's a point made that when communication is hindered or non-existent things tend to rapidly break down and I think that's kind of a pointed message that's kind of put to You know now with society forever with society is when you don't effectively communicate or you can't There's so much room for issues to occur based off of that inability to communicate or just communicate properly Cage is acting by the way makes me laugh sometimes He has really weird ways of delivering certain things and that's definitely on display in this film But I like that. I think it's a quirky thing I think it's kind of fun to have those weird line deliveries because it's kind of funny But it doesn't take you out of the film. It doesn't ruin anything if anything it kind of adds to it by being quirky So I like that this raises a point of how sensitive the human body is to stimuli and Raises a question of how much build-up of foreign bodies the human body can take before the whole system basically goes haywire now it's interesting because It kind of feels to me like There are two Levels in this film and it's the human body level and it's the body of nature as in mother nature as in the entire earth that are having The same thing occur at the same time and it's how does the earth react? How does the human body react now? There's also a pointed Message here about things like pollutants like how much of a pollutant Do you think that human bodies can take before it builds up to a point that there are negative reactions to it? But then it's not just that it's you know chemicals. It's pollutants It's you know natural Stimulation from things outside the body things that work their way inside the body in different ways It just kind of makes you think about that whole idea of foreign bodies because foreign bodies can be a lot of things I mean even allergens, you know when when pollen gets into your body that causes reactions that aren't I Mean I was gonna say aren't beneficial to your body, but it doesn't feel good It changes you it makes you it makes you live differently in a in a less comfortable way And then also to that point, you know going back to what I was saying partially inspired the script for Stanley Cancer, you know the foreign body of cancer getting into the body and spreading. So I think that's a play well You can get an extended Kate Nicholas Cage freakout scene in this kind of like a Mandy, but toned back a lot So for all you people who watch Mandy and you like that Nicholas Cage freakout scene You get a much lesser version of that, but it's fun to watch in this There's some echoes of the film the thing in this Echoes it's not like a hundred percent or anything, but if you see it, you will know what I mean There appears to be an aspect of dementia explored in this film as well Which is shown heavily in a scene toward the end now I think this may be tied into what had gone on with Richard Stanley and his mother that that's Particularly seen was kind of inspired by that just because in the podcast interview I listened to with Mick Garris he had kind of talked about the degradation of his mother physically, but also mentally Because of the cancer, so I think that that dementia what I think is kind of making a point about dimension how You know weird and sometimes, you know heartbreaking it basically is I think that's kind of where it probably spawns from Lots of visual effects in the end that are really interesting really cool It's like a visual explosion basically at the end and it's very engaging. You know, sometimes you have in films where there's a lot of Interesting cool stuff going on and then by the time you get to the end of the film it kind of peters out and you're just like Oh, okay, but this one's not that way I feel like it keeps you interested all the way through and the end is a Good payoff in my opinion and at least visually it is very very engaging at the end most engaging at the end I would argue So all the technical components of this film I thought were really good like I talked about you know cinematography directing acting all that type of stuff Really good the CG and the practical effects you so good It's kind of a slow pace to this film But you actually need that for the realistic gradual build-up of the actual story also the development introduction and development of the characters and their relationships and changes that occur with those relationships, so It is kind of slow. It's an hour and 50 minute film So it seems like maybe it's kind of long, but it doesn't feel that long even though you're very Cognizant of the fact that it is kind of slow paced you need it for the story though. It works There's such a focus on nature in this and the characters all have strong ties to nature in different ways. There's a witchcraft tie. There's Communing with nature through marijuana. There's farming and there's animal husbandry in this But there's also modern draws that are seeking to pull people away from their connection to nature Those being things like video games fast food and telework Nathan who's Nicholas Cage's character in this Nathan Gardner is the only one who doesn't have a modern connection Which is very interesting. It kind of paints him as more of a in tune with nature individual, which You know may lead me May leave him a little more open to certain things. That's all I'm gonna say I want to be cryptic about it. Hopefully that was cryptic enough Mother earth has a foreign body embed itself and changes occur which feels like cancer It's kind of goes back to what I was saying about, you know How many foreign bodies can the human body take but how many foreign bodies can the earth take basically? It changes the natural state of things, but also how the infected body interacts with things around it now anytime you have You know an infection or you have like I was talking about allergens or just foreign bodies chemicals build up in your body or in nature it elicits different responses and that goes from a normal state a Normal static state where things are comfortable and easy to an elevated state where things become more erratic things become More disturbing more dangerous They change and and a lot of in in those instances. They're usually not changing for the good. They're changing negatively At the least in an uncomfortable way Now my last thought on this is what if everything we know is flipped on its head and our senses can't be trusted any longer How do we deal with that and I think that's a very key set of questions that are at play in this film And I think that's one of the coolest things about this film in my opinion Like I was saying earlier people say that Lovecraft is really really hard to adapt to film because it deals with these types of concepts of trying to Visualize trying to process Something that you don't know something that doesn't fit into normal human knowledge something. That's from out Out of this world basically a color out of space in this instance and What happens when that shows up and it doesn't line up with what we know it doesn't line up with what is Normal for our senses you have a hard time Processing what's going on or what's in front of you or what's going on around you? And that's one of the interesting things about this film for that reason though. I think while you're watching the film You can have a lot of moments of confusion I felt a lot of the time when I was watching this like I know what's going on on the screen but I was trying to think like what's really going on like thematically what's trying to be said and and What what else is going on past what we can't see on the screen here and Story-wise what's really going on and it's just it gets confusing at times And you feel like you start to like lag lag behind a little bit with the film Because you're still trying to think about something that just happened while the film still moves. So for this reason I think this film Would probably need more watches. I only watch it once when I'm doing this review because that's how I do reviews but I think it can use many more watches I think you'll catch other things when you go through it and for that reason I think this could be a good one for me to do one of my discussion live streams Because there's a lot there's a lot of material there. It's very dense in that sense. So I dig this film Obviously, I really did now out of five stars with half stars in play. What am I gonna give it? It's not a perfect film. It's not the best thing I've ever seen but I did quite like it I'm gonna give it a four star rating I I did quite like it. I thought the themes were very interesting No, you know what I'm gonna bump it up It's for it's gotta be four and a half for me at the moment the more I think about it And I do think about it quite a bit after watching it. Yeah, it's gonna be a four and a half stars for me It's really good Yeah, and that's what makes sense to me rating wise So thanks everyone for checking this out real quick. Do me a quick favor hit that subscribe button If you like anything I do this review or any other reviews I appreciate that it keeps me going if you're already subscribed hit that thumbs up Just to let me know that you're still watching put some comments down there Certainly if you want to talk about this film, I will warn people I will allow spoilers in the comments So if you haven't seen the film don't look at the comments then go watch the film come back Then you we can comment and we can talk about spoilers down there. So let's talk But thanks everyone for checking this out and until next time keep it real