Text © Richard Gary/Indie Horror Films,
2012
Images from the Internet
Brink Vision
86 minutes, 2010 / 2012
Brinkvision.com
Die-Farbe.com
MVDvisual.com
Images from the Internet
The
Color Out of Space
Directed and
screenplay by Huan Yu Brink Vision
86 minutes, 2010 / 2012
Brinkvision.com
Die-Farbe.com
MVDvisual.com
This is hardly the first adaptation of HP Lovecraft’s
well-known 1927 short story of a meteorite hitting the earth, and the evil
effects it has on a household (or community, depending on the version). Just
off the top of my head, there’s Die
Monster Die (1965) with Boris Karloff and Nick Adams, The Curse (1987) with Claude Akins and Wil Wheaton, and arguably
the Stephen King episode of Creepshow (1982).
This version is also known as Die Farbe, or “The Color,” because this is a German production,
though early parts are filmed in English, and the rest, which takes place in the
Germany countryside, is in Deutsche with English subtitles.
The previous versions were generally really bad, cheesy
horror films (i.e., fun), but this one has an arty-indie feel to it (i.e., not
pretentious), to which the number of world-wide festival winning and
nominations bend. It’s filmed in black and white, except for when the “color” appears,
drenching specific objects in a purplish-pink hue.
It has been way too many years since I’ve read the
original story to speak to its accuracy, so I am going to take this film on its
own story merits.
In present time, a scientist who was an American soldier
stationed in rural Germany at the end of Dubya-Dubya Duce, goes back there and
disappears. His son investigates in the small town in which he had been, and is
told by a local (and we see in a series of long and detailed flashback) how a meteorite
landed in the village even before the war. The stone, however, starts to
disappear / evaporate.
Soon, all the fruit in the area start to grow Monsanto
size, with a weird aftertaste. Hit the hardest is the farm on which the space
rock landed. Everything starts to die, the mom goes mad, everyone gets sick,
and slowly the family starts to melt into lavender droplets.
Over time, this effect would have a lasting influence
that… well, I’m going to stop there, because the film is worth seeing, and I
don’t want to give it all away. The effects, both physical and graphic are
worth seeing. The look of the film is astonishingly crisp, thanks to a
home-made camera (apparently called the DRAKE) that evidently makes HD looks
like 55mm film stock. While the movie is nearly completely humorless (sans a
scene where a German native mocks an American’s grammar), it is also uses the
contrast of light and dark to its utmost, and the digital effects are sometimes
quite understated, and others a bit shocking.
The extras has a couple of the film’s trailers, the
availability of subtitles in many languages, a “lost” scene, a 22-minute day-by-day
making-of featurette (in German with subtitles), and a fascinating 6-1/2 minute
special effects explanation that shows how they used layers of mattes so
effectively. The under 7-minute “Science Horror” short is the one to really
watch, as it explains a bit of the subtle ending, and tells about how Lovecraft’s
story about an alien parasite has some scientific lineage.
There is little gore (certainly no more than an episode
of Bones or CSI), and certainly no sex, just a good story that will keep you at
attention.
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