What I’m watching: a comeback for a talented director

Date: 3/11/2020

What I’m watching: a comeback for a talented director.

On Blu-ray: The Color Out of Space

I’m always fascinated by the career trajectory of filmmakers. My late friend, producer Alex Gordon, employed a director named Edward Cahn on some of the low budget films he made in the 1950s. Cahn, as Alex told me, had a very promising career in the early 1930s – his western “Law and Order” is quite accomplished – but he made a decision to go to Great Britain to direct films there. Upon his return to Hollywood, Cahn discovered his career momentum had stalled and spent the rest of his life directing shorts such as a number of the “Our Gang” comedies, as well as B-movies.

If you watch some of his work, such as Alex’s “She Creature,” you see a director who is doing everything he can to elevate the story and to squeeze every dime out of the budget. I like and admire many of his films.

I thought about Cahn after watching director Richard Stanley’s adaptation of the H.P. Lovecraft’s short story, “The Colour Out of Space.” Stanley was an up-and-coming director who had helmed two science fiction/horror films, “Hardware” and “Dust Devil,” before tackling a larger budget adaptation of H. G. Wells’ “The Island of Doctor Moreau.”

Yes, this is the version with Marlon Brando in a weird kaftan with a little person dressed identically.

Stanley was fired and replaced from his own production after a week. The unmaking of that film is told in the documentary “Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley’s Island of Dr. Moreau.”

Although he has made several documentaries since that 1996 film, Stanley has been off the radar, although with “The Color Out of Space,” he returns triumphantly.

His film is a pretty faithful adaptation of the Lovecraft story. Nicolas Cage played Nathan, a man who has moved his family back to his father’s farm in Massachusetts. Nathan is planning some sort of life as a farmer, while his wife Theresa (Joely Richardson) is making money online as a financial advisor.

All of this changes when a meteorite crashed into their front yard and something starts living in their old well.

Stanley is successful in capturing Lovecraft’s vision of aliens that do not resemble humans in any way. The film has a truly hallucinogenic feel to it. Color plays a very major role in the film as it did in the short story.

The director, who co-wrote the screenplay, builds his story slowly but surely. Once it gets rolling he punctuates it with some truly horrific moments. They seem very appropriate and not gratuitous, unlike many other horror films.

I was impressed with the film. It certainly sticks fairly close to the source material, while updating it for 2020.

Although the cast members all have their moments, Cage’s father character is the lead in the film and Stanley is wise enough to use Cage’s odd, quirky energy to his advantage. Cage is effective both playing the well-meaning dad worrying about his alpacas – that’s a weirdly charming image – and as the man who has been altered and controlled by the alien force from the meteorite. This is a role that fits the actor like a glove.

Also, watch for a memorable performance by Tommy Chong as an off-the-grid squatter on Nathan’s property. Chong shows that he can easily handle a dramatic role.

This is a horror film that is both unique and effective.