Color Out Of Space

We tackle 2019’s ‘Color Out of Space,’ a Nicolas Cage-led adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s story, inspired by our recent disappointment with ‘The Curse.’

We talk about why Cage is unfairly maligned, how this film captures Lovecraft’s bleak, unknowable cosmic horror, and why the movie’s cinematography and surreal color effects are such a standout.

From the meteor hitting the family farm to the contaminated well water, warped time, and terrifying body-horror transformations, we break down what worked, what felt unnecessary (including some exposition), and why the film still lands as a gorgeous, disturbing ride.

We also compare story vs. movie elements, discuss the ending’s lingering dread, and touch on director Richard Stanley’s comeback and hoped-for Lovecraft trilogy.

chainsawhorror.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/13…

Expand to read episode transcript

Automatic Transcript

Color Out Of Space (2019)

Episode 494, 2 Guys and a Chainsaw Horror Movie Review Podcast

Todd: Hello and welcome to another episode of Two Guys and a Chainsaw I’m Todd.

Craig: And I’m Craig

Todd: This week we’re doing a film that came out in 2019. 2019 doesn’t seem like that long ago to me- No … but actually it’s been a while. It’s been, like, seven years, so I guess it’s an older movie, whose standards you’re going by.

But, you know, we’ve always been apologists for Nicolas Cage. Both Craig and I think that he is an unfairly maligned actor. Did you see that interview that I posted to our patrons recently?

Craig: I don’t think so.

Todd: So I found an interview with him that The New York Times just did just last month or two, and it was very extensive and, you know, they just talked to him.

I mean, Nicolas Cage, I like the guy. I love his work. I think he’s an actor who does a lot of different interesting things, and he’s not afraid to be crazy, and I think people love to make fun of him. But there comes this tipping point where it’s just the thing you do, right? “Oh, Nicolas Cage, like, he’s this crazy guy, and, and we make fun of him, and he’s not serious,” and all that.

But don’t get me wrong, he’s, he’s eccentric. As an individual, he’s clearly eccentric. He seems to know that. He’s very self-aware, and he takes all these different projects, and he’s just interested in doing different stuff. He wants to stretch himself as an actor and do different things. And he also has his own little shtick, but I have no problem with the guy.

In fact, I really enjoy almost everything I see him in. And I, I… So anyway, I like Nicolas Cage, and I think you were inspired to pick this movie because of a movie we did recently, right?

Craig: Just a couple weeks ago, I think. Yeah.

Todd: Yeah. What was the connection? I can’t rem-

Craig: We watched The Curse. I don’t rem- the, the ’80s.

Wil Wheaton-

Todd: Right …

Craig: the family on the farm. And I think both of us were aware that it was based on a Lovecraft story, but in looking into that movie, we, you know, found specifically that it was based on the Lovecraft story, The Color Out of Space. And we knew that this was another adaptation of the same story.

And, and both of us were left underwhelmed by The Curse. So I thought, while it’s still fresh in mind, why not do 2019’s Color Out of Space and see, you know… We’ll, of course, talk about it on its own merits, but I figured we could draw comparisons to the other one, too.

Todd: There you go. Yeah. And, and I think that’s, that’s apropos.

Like, like, there’s a lot to talk about as far as comparing these two films. Have you read the original story?

Craig: I- yesterday I did, after, after I watched this. Yeah, after I watched this, I was, um, curious, and I had time, so I, uh, listened to it and read along at the same time. Have you? You said you might, but I, I know you’ve been really busy.

Todd: God, I wanted to, but I’m traveling through Thailand with my family right now. I’ve been in Japan, I’ve been in Thailand, and it’s me and my parents and Kenji, and we’ve just been so busy that it was- Enough for me to just watch this movie. I actually woke up at 5:00 AM to watch this movie- Ugh … just to make sure that I could see it Yeah

before he woke up and before we got busy with our day, and now it’s evening time and we’re recording this. So, um- Yeah, ’cause I knew if I waited till evening I might not give myself the time. We might be-

Craig: Sure …

Todd: stuck in a taxi in Bangkok traffic somewhere, and I’d be freaking out. So I managed to watch this, and I didn’t do any research or anything on it, but, uh, I really enjoyed it a lot.

Craig: Good.

Todd: I was really glad you picked it. I’m gonna just show all my cards at once. I thought it was a little long

Craig: Yeah.

Todd: But aside from that, like what a well-made movie. And I felt like, not having read the short story, just n- being familiar, I’ve read a few Lovecraft short stories. I was like, “This has to be a far better adaptation of the short story than The Curse ended up being.”

Am I right or wrong about that?

Craig: No, it is. It’s better. Honestly, in, you know, having seen them both now and then reading the story afterwards, they both kind of draw from the same elements of the story kind of in different ways. Like, there are certainly things that happen, like specific details of the narrative that happen in both movies.

And, and in terms of that, neither of them really deviates a ton from the overall story, but that’s kind of the thing with Lovecraft stories. I’ve, I’ve said… God, it’s probably been years ago, we talked about Lovecraft, and I said that I’m a huge fan of his intellectual property. Reading him is a challenge for me, not because the text is challenging, you know, it’s, it’s relatively common language, but he writes in a really vague manner.

Like, all of his… Not all, but most of the stories that I’ve read are, are told from a first narrator’s perspective, and it sounds very much like folklore, and it kind of sounds like if an old, gosh, I don’t know, you know, some old bearded man telling you some story that his grandpappy told him. And so-

Todd: It’s very narrated, right?

It’s not

Craig: like a- It, it’s very narrated, and there’s not a whole lot of detail. Like-

Todd: Yeah …

Craig: you really have to fill in the blanks with your imagination, which is good. I mean, I think that that’s, you know, a, an appropriate technique for storytelling. It’s

Todd: part of his appeal, I think, honestly.

Craig: Right. But when I say, like, I’m a fan of his intellectual property, like the whole Cthulhu mythos and that whole universe that he built, you know, the, y- you know, a, a, a whole, you know, communities and, and different cities and towns and universities and-

all of these ancient gods and all of these stories interconnected, like all of that is, is, is great. I, I’m super on board with it. And I really like all of the things that had been influenced by… Like, I love Lovecraftian stuff. Like, I love The Thing and any, you know-

Todd: Yeah …

Craig: big Kaiju-type thing and… But all of that is so visual and so fantastic, and when you read it in his stories, it’s suggested.

Like-

Todd: Yeah, he’s vague there. Well-

Craig: It’s very, very vague

Todd: It’s definitely worth talking about. It, it’s a little stodgy too, right? It’s a very old school way of writing, I think. But what you say, it, it’s like a guy imparting a story without giving a lot of detail. Like Stephen King he is not.

Craig: Right.

Todd: Uh, he’s like the opposite.

He’s gonna tell you the general gist of what happened, but your brain is gonna have to fill in the details. And I think that, I think that’s why he’s mined so much for material.

Craig: Well, and that makes sense.

Todd: Number one it’s public domain, so it’s free to mine. But yeah, you’re… Number two, you can then take this one story and you can really g- fill in the detail yourself however you want.

And what …