COLOR OUT OF SPACE marks the first time that director Richard Stanley has directed a feature film in over 25 films. He has directed documentaries in the meanwhile and even directed two short films. The story of how he was fired from his last feature film is the stuff of legend (and the subject of a wonderful documentary). Richard Stanley is an eccentric director with a big belief in the occult and huge love for H.P. Lovecraft. Elijah Wood and his producing partners felt that Stanley's script for COLOR OUT OF SPACE captured the cosmic horror of Lovecraft';s stories.

Actor Nicolas Cage delivers another fun and bizarre performance as Nathan Gardner who moved his family out to the middle of nowhere to start a farm and raise Alpacas (the meat of the future). A strange meteor crashes in the yard of the Gardner farm and it starts to infect the ground, water, and all living things. The Gardner family begins to experience mood swings and missing time. A man doing the analysis of the water for a big artificial lake project (which is already a done deal for the Mayor as she already has the contracts signed) discovers something weird about the water and he tries to warn the garner family and the Mayor about it.

Mood and style are the big stars of Richard Stanley's latest movie. It brings out a sense of cosmic horror which starts as a foreboding feeling at the back of your neck as you're plunged into the story of the movie. The mood of the movie reminds me of the films of Panos Cosmostas (BEYOND THE BLACK RAINBOW and MANDY which starred Nicolas Cage) and Stanley's previous movie, DUST DEVIL (which I should go rewatch soon). I do wish the characters were more developed because COLOR OUT OF SPACE is a big foreboding horror mood piece It is great to see Stanley direct another movie after all of these years of studios being afraid of working with him since he was fired from directing THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU. I hope this is the start of many more movies for Richard Stanley to direct other than the H.P. Lovecraft adaptation he has in development with the same producers of this film.

SPECIAL FEATURES:
About 13 minutes of deleted and extended scenes

THE MAKING OF COLOR OF SPACE is a making-of featurette that is over twenty minutes and it features interviews with co-writer/ director Richard Stanley, the producers, and cast about how the project came to together, the casting, filming in Portugal, and the VFX of the movie.
Photo gallery of the Gardner farm house

FINAL ANALYSIS: COLOR OUT OF SPACE is an overdue return for director Richard Stanley. If you loved this film, go check out his other two feature films (HARDWARE and DUST DEVIL). If you're already a fan of his work, please watch COLOR OUT OF SPACE and hope he makes his adaptation of THE DUNWICH HORROR soon.

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