The Colour

Horrorphile

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Die Farbe (The Colour)

March 30th 2011 00:54

Thousands of meteors penetrate the earth’s stratosphere every day, but most are scorched before they are observed by the naked eye. Only some are big enough to actually impact into the earth, and those whose trail and impact have been witnessed are known as meteorites. Most of these remnants are composed of stone or iron, some are fragments from a comet, or originate from the asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars. And there are even meteors that have possibly come from somewhere beyond our solar system, blasted through the cosmos by a supernova or furiously catapulted by a collision.

H.P. Lovecraft’s short story The Colour Out of Space tells the tale of one such interstellar meteoroid that impacted on earth and the cosmic darkness that emanated and poisoned the landscape and its local inhabitants. German director Huan Vu has made an impressive adaptation of the story, The Colour (2010), capturing Lovecraft’s palpable, yet elusive, but oh so distinctive atmosphere of overwhelming, otherworldly dread. Another feature adaptation, from Italy, titled The Colour from the Dark, made two years earlier, I'm interested in seeing also.

It is the mid-70s and Jonathan Davis (Ingo Heise) discovers his father, a doctor, has disappeared. His tracks lead to Germany, to the Swabian-Franconian Forest, where his father was stationed after the Second World War. Jonathan sets out to find him and bring him home, but his conversations with a curious elder, Amin Gärtener, exposes a mysterious and frightening secret held deep in the woods.

The movie narrative shifts back and forth as Amin tells the story of the Gärtener family who bore the brunt of the effects and affectation of the meteorite that infected the land and everything on it. The flora grew to abnormally large sizes, yet the huge fruit borne from it tasted rotten, the insects that feed on the fruit also became enlarged, then the animals began dying, the harvests ruining, the villagers turning pale and suffering delusions.

And a strange exotic colour begins to creep across the countryside.

Director Vu’s screenplay shifts the location of Lovecraft’s story from America to Germany and has the action take place fifty years later, but essentially he stays true to the story’s plot, and certainly adheres to the wondrous darkness that permeates Lovecraft’s narrative and ideas. The Colour is one of the best Lovecraft feature adaptations for its atmospheric qualities alone.

The beautiful cinematography is a monochrome with a wide grey-tone palette. However the colour out of space is actually in colour, a luminescent violet-purple hue. This adds an excellent visual displacement to the motif of the alien presence. The production design and art direction is very good also, although some of the green screen is obvious and the CG work of the dark cosmic colour itself wasn’t as impressively menacing as I had hoped.

The acting is solid enough (although the German actors playing Americans weren’t very convincing) and the soundtrack is very effective. While the pace of the movie is languid, very much on a slow burn, the mood and tone is powerful; oneiric in its cinematic presence. It is these elements that are the movie’s strongest and most memorable. While not as phantasmogorical or quite as primordial as other Lovecraftian tales, The Colour captures a disquieting melancholy, a dank and morbid intelligence that only the Germans could elicit. The Colour shines a translucent darklight for Lovecraftian geeks.

Here’s the trailer:

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Posted By: Bryn - Category: movie reviews

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Comments

7 Comments. [ Add A Comment ]

Comment by David O'Connell

March 30th 2011 04:14

20/20 Filmsight
Screen Fanatic

Very interesting stuff Bryn, loved the original story and curious to see how it's survived adaptation. It doesn't exactly scream out with cinematic qualities or depth.

Comment by Bryn

March 30th 2011 04:49

Horrorphile

Definitely a mood piece then one. What it lacks in drama it makes up for in atmosphere which it has in spades. Perhaps it's too atmospheric for its own good. The funny thing is, I came away from it initially feeling somewhat underwhelmed, but the damn thing has been lingering in my head for days.

Comment by Matt Shea

March 30th 2011 05:12

I've been hearing some encouraging things about this, Bryn. It looks fantastic -- will have to get my hands on it, although I've never (hat of shame) read any Lovecraft.

Comment by Bryn

August 30th 2011 00:18

Horrorphile

Hi Shawn,
Not available at the moment as it's still waiting to secure proper distribution. I got sent a DVD from the director himself. Where do you live? There's a strong chance the movie will screen at next year's Sydney International Horror & Science Fiction Film Festival.