The Gardner family have moved out of the city and into the countryside of Arkham. Their peaceful existence of growing crops and raising Alpacas is interrupted by a meteorite landing in their garden that brings with it something alien. 

Based on H. P. Lovecraft’s short story from 1927 “The Colour Out Of Space” and adapted and directed by Richard Stanley this will be one of the craziest horror movies that you will ever see. 

The Gardner family are already a little peculiar. We meet daughter Lavinia (Madeleine Arthur) performing a witchcraft ceremony whilst patriarch Nathan (Nicholas Cage) calls Alpacas “the animals of the future” before drinking their milk fresh from the teat with a crazed expression on his face. His wife Theresa (Joely Richardson) does not wholly seem to have accepted countryside life, trading stocks in the attic over the internet whilst sons Benny (Brendan Meyer) and Jack (Julian Hilliard) are a pothead and the classic young child who “sees” things respectively. But when the asteroid arrives, bringing with it the colour from out of space it slowly turns them all insane. 

The colour, represented as a purplish hue starts slowly. We see odd plants start to appear, before it infects the water table and then starts to change all of the flora and fauna around. The result is a slow ratcheting of tension, a lot of gruesome body horror and Nicholas Cage channeling his inner crazy. 

Aside from a sub plot about a scientist (Elliot Knight) investigating the water table for a future reservoir who acts as our narrator and bookends the film there is very little plot. Just an unseen alien life form that wants to assimilate all around. 

Personally I could not tune into the weirdness on screen at all and kept thinking of how much better John Carpenter’s The Thing was. So much so that some reading would suggest a different Lovecraft story, “At The Mountains Of Madness” was the influence for the short story that led to that film. 

All I can say is kudos to Richard Stanley for bringing such a brave and crazy vision of insanity and alien life to the screen. If you can tune into his wavelength I am sure it will be quite a trip!