Movie Review: The Color Out of Space (Die Farbe)

Here's a 2010 adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's The Colour Out of Space that better depicts the atmosphere of the original story than the 2020 adaptation that stared Nicolas Cage (reviewed here along with a more complete outline of the story).  Even so, this too is a heavy adaptation that jumps across the Atlantic to a remote farming region in Germany.  The story also jumps around in time between the late 1930s, to just after WWII, and into what looks like the early-mid 1970s.  This is in contrast to the original setting of Somewhere Up In New England, the 1880s, and the late 1920s.  OK, wherever, whenever, whatever.  It doesn't matter much where and when you're located, having a meteor carrying The Colour land in your back 40 always seems to be a harbinger of madness and ultimately doom.

The downside of this movie is that it started as a student film that graduated into an indie movie.  You know that drill: off-kilter pacing, a basic but serviceable cast, limited effects budget.  The parts in English are over-dubbed, while the bulk of the story is in German and subtitled.  The upside is that instead of the modern gore-fest in the 2020 adaptation, The Colour's effects are much as described in the story: the life and color are slowly drained from the afflicted farm and family, leaving ashen husks.  Really, this is a much better way for a filmmaker to go, regardless of budget.  Finally, I have seldom seen a special effect available only in a B&W film used so effectively.  (No, no spoilers here.  You'll have to watch it.)

So which film version is better?  The 2020 version has its charms – better pacing and acting to name two – but this 2010 version sticks more closely to the atmosphere of the original story.  I'll give both three out of four stars, but this one is a nose ahead of the more modern adaptation.

I'm still holding out hope for a version that is set in the original's place and times that just tells the damn story as written, but I suppose that's too much to ask.

Final note, this film may be hard to find in the usual places.  The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society keeps the DVD in stock however.  Here's a link.