Wow, so how many movie versions of H.P.Lovecraft’s The Colour Out of Space are there? Probably more than I know, but I know the great one from 1987, The Curse, with a young Wil Wheaton and with Claude Akins who plays a super great religious fanatic. And then the recent ones- a German one called Die Farbe (The Color) which not only is in German but is mostly in black and white, so it has a built-in artsiness to it. And of course the much ballyhooed Color Out of Space with Nicholas Cage which marked the return of director Richard Stanley in 2019.
This one is an indie, Italian production with English dialog, on the minimal side, feels almost like a stage play. Set in Italy, early 1940s, during World War 2.
Farming family- husband and wife, and the wife’s younger sister, about 20 years old, who they’re looking after because she has some behavioral issues. Things aren’t going great, but they’re getting by. Unexplained and coincidental, but one day, the vegetables grow to gargantuan size, nagging minor injuries disappear, and the daughter who hasn’t barely said a word in her entire life starts to speak again. All good news, right? Not entirely.
The water in the well and the trees start to have a weird glow to them. We start seeing some concerning behavior, particularly in the wife. Some violent nightmares that we’re not sure if they’re real or just nightmares. This one also has a religious angle to it, but it’s not as clear as the Claude Akins version. In this one, they just keep showing crucifixes. And the sister says ‘our god doesn’t love us, does he?’ And later someone spits on a crucifix. But none of those pieces are put together to mean anything in the movie.
Anyway, the wife becomes so erratic that the husband locks her in the attic. The husband has a young priest come over to check out the wife. After seeing the wife, the priest ends up hurriedly fleeing the farm in shocked horror. But the priest returns, and at this point, the movie tries to pick up some speed. But the movie just doesn’t have much edge to it. Ya, there are some bloody bits, but there’s no dramatic tension to go along with it. There’s just no fear in this movie. Even the cosmic / supernatural / interdimensional stuff doesn’t have any bite to it.
The actors are amateurs, but I’ve seen worse. In any event, not recommended.
B-movie Roundup 