History Film / ColorOutOfSpace2020

''Color Out of Space'' is a 2020 science fiction/horror film based on Literature/TheColourOutOfSpace by Creator/HPLovecraft. It stars Creator/NicolasCage, Joely Richardson, Madeleine Arthur, Elliot Knight, and Tommy Chong.

* DevelopingDoomedCharacters: Unlike in the short story, in this film we get to spend a great deal of time getting to know the human characters.

%%* EldritchAbomination: The titular entity, driven home by a vision of its homeworld provided via [[PsychicLink psychic link.]] [[spoiler: It shows several disgusting writhing tentacled entities that are quite obviously other members of the Great Old Ones, the Color's fellow cosmic gods]]. Since this movie adapts a book by none other than Creator/HPLovecraft himself, [[SignatureStyle this is a given]].

* EvilDetectingDog: The Gardners' family dog, Sam, knows the Color is dangerous from square one.
* {{Fingore}}: The Color puts [[spoiler:Theresa]] into a trance, resulting in lopped off fingertips.

* ActionSurvivor: [[spoiler:Ward]] escapes several attacks from the Color operating through its various proxies and ultimately survives, despite not having any particular kind of edge or advantage that would help.
* AdaptationExpansion: The short story tells very little about the Gardners' life before the arrival of the meteor. Here, the entire first act is spent just getting to know them. There is also a scene of Arkham's mayor emphasizing how the new reservoir will provide water for much of the eastern seaboard.

%%* EldritchAbomination: The titular entity, driven home by a vision of its homeworld provided via [[PsychicLink psychic link.]]

* AdaptationalVillainy: The Color in the story drains its victims at an almost leisurely pace and it is deliberately left vague as to whether the Color even possesses the sentience to be aware of what it is doing. The Color in the film is much more aggressive, deliberately attacking, luring, and tormenting its prey.

* BeardOfSorrow: [[spoiler:Ward Phillips]] is shown to have grown one by the time of the film's epilogue.

* EldritchAbomination: The titular entity, driven home by a vision of its homeworld provided via [[PsychicLink psychic link.]]

* TheEndOrIsIt: [[spoiler:Unlike in the story we do not see the entity leave an offspring behind as it departs. But Ward suspects it regardless and refuses to drink from the new reservoir. Then, in the final shot a mutated mantis like the one seen earlier in the film goes flying by...]]
* WhamShot: When the condition of the mutated [[spoiler:alpacas]] and [[spoiler:Theresa and Jake]] are revealed.
** When the camera pulls upward near the end, revealing [[spoiler:the devastation of what is now the Blasted Heath.]]

Presented as a haunting recollection by hydrologist Ward Phillips (Knight,) he tells of how his work once took him to Arkham County to aid in the planning of a new water reservoir. There he befriends the Gardner family, led by struggling farmer Nathan (Cage), and his wife Theresa (Richardson), a cancer survivor who is struggling get her online brokerage business off the ground. Despite their woes, the Gardners are more or less happy until the night when a meteor that emits a strangely-colored light crashes onto their property. Ward quickly notices dangerous changes in the local water supply, but it quickly appears that his discoveries may come too late to help the Gardners, who must now struggle to survive against increasingly bizarre events that threaten to overwhelm their isolated farm.

Presented as a haunting recollection by hydrologist Ward Phillips (Knight,) he tells of how his work once took him to Arkham County to aid in the planning of a new water reservoir. There he befriends the Gardner family, led by struggling farmer Nathan (Cage), and his wife Theresa (Richardson), a cancer survivor who is struggling get her online brokerage business off the ground. Despite their woes, the Gardners are more or less happy until the night when a meteor that emits a strangely-colored light crashes onto their property. Knight quickly notices dangerous changes in the local water supply, but it quickly appears that his discoveries may come too late to help the Gardners, who must now struggle to survive against increasingly bizarre events that threaten to overwhelm their isolated farm.

* ActionSurvivor: [[spoiler:Ward]] escapes attacks from the Color operating through various proxies and ultimately survives, despite not having any particular kind of edge or advantage that would help.

* ApocalypticLog: [[spoiler: Ezra starts making recordings of the sounds emanating from the meteor underground, adding his own thoughts and theories as he goes. By the time these recordings are played near the end, they have become this trope.

%%* ApocalypticLog: By the time [[spoiler:Ezra's]] recordings are revisited, they have become this.
%%* BeardOfSorrow: [[spoiler:Ward Phillips]] by the time of the film's epilogue.

%%* TheStoner: Ezra, and Benny to a lesser degree.

* AdaptationalVillainy: The Color in the story drains its victims at an almost leisurely pace and it is deliberately left vague as to whether the Color even possesses the sentience to be aware of what it is doing. The Color in the film is much more aggressive, deliberately attacking, luring, and tormenting its prey. In the short story when Nahum is under the color's influence it renders him feebleminded but harmless. His film counterpart [[spoiler:Nathan,]] on the other hand becomes fully [[BrainwashedAndCrazy Brainwashed And Crazy.]]

* WhamShot:
** When the condition of the mutated [[spoiler:alpacas]] and [[spoiler:Theresa and Jake]] are revealed.

* ApocalypticLog: By the time [[spoiler:Ezra's]] recordings are revisited, they have become this.
* BeardOfSorrow: [[spoiler:Ward Phillips]] by the time of the film's epilogue.

* AdaptationalVillainy: The Color in the story drains its victims at an almost leisurely pace and it is deliberately left vague as to whether the Color even possesses the sentience to be aware of what it is doing. The Color in the film is much more aggressive, deliberately attacking, luring, and tormenting its prey.
** In the short story when Nahum is under the color's influence it renders him feebleminded but harmless. His film counterpart [[spoiler:Nathan,]] on the other hand becomes fully [[BrainwashedAndCrazy Brainwashed And Crazy.]]

* TheStoner: Ezra, and Benny to a lesser degree.

* WhamShot: When the condition of the mutated [[spoiler:alpacas]] and [[spoiler:Theresa and Jake]] are revealed.

* WhenTreesAttack: A mutated tree lashes out kills [[spoiler:Sheriff Pierce.]]

* Fingore: The Color puts [[spoiler:Theresa]] into a trance, resulting in lopped off fingertips.

* CompositeCharacter: The nameless water surveyor from the short story and Ammi Pierce, the local man he interviews, are here merged into the single character of Ward Phillips. Likewise, the half-dozen anonymous lawmen who accompany Ammi on his final journey to the farm are rolled into the singular character of the town sheriff, whose name does happen to be [[ContinuityNod Pierce.]]

* GodzillaThreshold: When it becomes apparent that escape from the Color is impossible, Lavinia, a white witch, turns to the evil magic of the Necronomicon for help. [[spoiler:Not only does it not work, but it is implied that it [[NiceJobBreakingItHero speeds Lavinia's doom]] due to the rune she inscribes on her forehead actually representing a structure found on the creature's homeworld.]]

* GenderFlip: The Gardners' middle son from the story is replaced by a daughter, Lavinia.

!!This work contains examples of the following: