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TIFF 2019: Color Out of Space Review

Thanks to Highball.TV for sponsoring ThatShelf’s 2019 TIFF Coverage!

There are a handful of great American actors who reached a point in their career where their performances began looking like self-parodies. I’m talking about guys like Al Pacino, Christopher Walken, and self-caricature Hall of Famer, Nicolas Cage. But in Cage’s latest picture, the horror/sci-fi mash-up, Color Out of Space, he takes his schtick to a whole other level. Cage’s batshit insane highlight reel of Cage-isms is the only memorable aspect of this two-hour slog.

Director Richard Stanley’s Color Out of Space is an adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s classic short story. The plot centres on the Gardner family who live on a remote New England farm. Their lives get derailed when a malevolent force falls from space and crashes onto their farm. Everything seems fine at first, but slowly each member of the family falls under the entity’s dark spell.

This film works best as a platform for Cage to run through all his infamous acting tics. Color Out of Space lacks the suspense of a good horror flick and the thoughtful themes found in better sci-fi. This movie doesn’t scare you, thrill you, or challenge you to look at the world through a new lens. It just kind of hangs there in creative no man’s land.

Color Out of Space lacks emotional colour due to its dull characters and lack of tension. All that’s left to entertain viewers are some decent VFX and an unhinged Cage performance – which depending on your taste, is a blessing or a curse.

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Thanks to Highball.TV for sponsoring ThatShelf’s 2019 TIFF Coverage



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