This review is for the Blu-Ray version of 'The Color Out Of Space (Limited Edition) released by Brink in 2015.
First off, for the record I want to say that I am not a big fan of Lovecraft. Therefore I'm qualifying my review by stating that my score will be lower than that of fans of Lovecraft.
Please note that the language used in this movie is mostly German and you will need subtitles if you don't speak the language. There are some Americans in the movie who speak English.
This movie was made by student film makers in Germany and they have done an excellent job with a low budget. On that basis alone, this movie deserves 5 stars. However, I am rating this on the movie itself and the content in the release.
This movie does not follow the story exactly but does follow the original pretty close with most of the plot points. The obvious difference is that Lovecraft's story takes place in New England while this one takes place in Germany. The story of what happens as told by the inn patron follows Lovecraft's story very closely with some small differences.
PLOT: The movie opens with a young man of German descent driving through the woods of Germany in search of his father. He meets a couple of construction workers who tell him the road is blocked and the valley he is in is going to be flooded. They direct him through a back road to the town he is looking for. At an Inn he shows a picture of his father but nobody recognizes him. Once he drops an old picture of his father in an American army uniform during WW II one of the patrons recognizes the picture. He is then told the story of what happened in the valley during WW II.
A meteor had landed in the valley. A group of scientists came and took samples but the samples would just disappear. In addition the meteorite was shrinking. One day it simply disappeared. Strange things began happening in the valley. A family slowly goes crazy that lives nearby. The trees grow enlarged fruit but it is not edible. The land goes bad and the vegetation crumbles. Eventually a group of soldiers comes through the valley where they take the narrator down to the valley. He relays the strange events that followed. The visitor does not believe the narrator and he believes that he is crazy and leaves in a hurry to go find his father.
PERSONAL COMMENTS: I simply am not a fan of H.P. Lovecraft. I have read quite a few of his stories but not most of his stories. I have read enough to form an opinion. I basically read one collection which brought together most of his most famous works along with a few others. Some of the stories I read are 'The Dunwich Horror,' 'Call of Cthulhu, 'Rats in the Walls,' along with 'The Colour Out of Space.'
For the most part, I find the stories dull. I understand that they are not written the way a modern horror story is written. They are designed to build a feeling of horror. But I simply don't like the stories. For whatever the reason, I never really feel that horror. I guess it's just the modern world we live in. It feels like all the stories are written in a time period of hundreds of years ago or they feel like they are not in this country although most of the stories are set in New England. The stories just don't grip me and after having read one collection, I have no desire to read anymore. I pushed my way through the first one just to see what all the fuss was about. I am not disparaging anybody who is fan of Lovecraft. It is obvious the stories are very well written. It's just not to my taste.
The movie being in German does not bother me. I watch all movies with subtitles anyway even when in English.
I don't mind the movie being in black & white either. The only thing I might have done differently is to do the flashback sequences, most of the movie, in black and white and left modern day in color. Depicting the world war two era scenes in black and white is in my opinion a good idea. It also allowed the use of color to be especially effective for the alien being (alien essence?).
The color used for the alien's essence is purple but it could have been any color since the color is described as a color that can't be described. Perhaps the directors could have used a color that changes shades or colors for the color?....or a mixed color, sort of like a modern art painting?
I am never a fan of movies that use a flashback sequence or start with a scene in the modern world and then go back to a previous time. In this case, despite it being a horror movie, I lost all sense of horror for the person telling the story. What I mean is that if the person telling the story is alive and telling you the story then you know there is no possibility that harm can come to him in the past (unless of course he tells you he has been resurrected from the dead!)
RECOMMENDATIONS: I'm giving this release an overall 4 stars. If you were to rate this as a student film then I'd have to give it 5 stars. On that basis it is very well done and if I'm a professor grading this project I'm giving it an A+! If you are a fan of Lovecraft I am giving the plot 4 stars. If you do not like Lovecraft, like myself, then I'm giving the plot 2 to 2 1/2 stars. It gets an average of 3 to 3 1/2 stars. I am boosting it up to 4 stars because there were some good extra's. You get an extra scene and some featurette's along with an insert.
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