History Film / ColorOutOfSpace2020

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

* AnimalisticAbomination: By the midpoint of the film, the Color infects Ezra's cat G-Spot, turning her into a creature with hairless translucent skin and misshapen glowing magenta eyes. [[spoiler:It later infects the Gardners' alpacas, turning them into [[BodyOfBodies a grotesque amalgam]] like something out of ''Film/TheThing1982''.]]

* [[spoiler:SoleSurvivor: Grant Ward at the end of the film, with the entire family and even the sheriff who accompanied him dead]].

''Color Out of Space'' is a 2020 SciFiHorror film based on the short story ''Literature/TheColourOutOfSpace'' by Creator/HPLovecraft. It is directed by [[Film/TheIslandOfDrMoreau Richard Stanley]] in his return to filmmaking after a 20 year absence and stars Creator/NicolasCage, Joely Richardson, Madeleine Arthur, Creator/ElliotKnight, and [[Creator/CheechAndChong Tommy Chong]].

* StayInTheKitchen: It's subtle, but this seems to be the attitude of Nathan, and to a lesser extent Theresa (see SlutShaming), towards Lavinia. Notably, her parents at various points hold her directly responsible for keeping her brothers out of trouble — which is understandable enough in Jack's case since he's much younger, but she and Benny are around the same age. This comes into even starker contrast later when Nathan puts Benny in charge of the household while the parents are gone — when most people with half a brain would know that Lavinia is significantly more intelligent and responsible than Benny is. Furthermore, Nathan's first response when seeing Lavinia doing something risky seems to be telling her to get back inside, while noticeably not admonishing his sons in the same way.

* StayInTheKitchen: It's subtle, but this seems to be the attitude of Nathan, and to a lesser extent Theresa (see SlutShaming), towards Lavinia. Notably, Nathan puts Benny in charge of the household while the parents are gone when most people with half a brain would know that Lavinia is significantly more intelligent and responsible than Benny is, and Nathan's first response when seeing Lavinia doing something risky seems to be telling her to get back inside.

* InsultOfEndearment / VitriolicBestBuds: Lavinia and Benny's loving sibling relationship is demonstrated through their creative insults for each other.

* InsultofEndearment / VitriolicBestBuds: Lavinia and Benny's loving sibling relationship is demonstrated through their creative insults for each other.

* TwoBeingsOneBody: Whilst the alpacas and [[spoiler:G-Spot and a bunch of other animals]] get [[spoiler:turned into {{Flesh Golem}}s]], [[spoiler:Theresa and Jack]] get attacked by the Color and fused into a gruesome, eight-limbed, two-headed moaning monstrosity, with either head retaining their minds [[(spoiler:initially)]].

* SupernaturalIsPurple: Magenta in this case, but it fulfills the role nonetheless. The titular Color is a StarfishAlien EnergyBeing that gives off a supernatural and otherworldly vibe, thanks to its incorporeal nature and the ability to [[TheCorruption corrupt whatever it touches]].

''Color Out of Space'' is a 2020 SciFiHorror film based on the short story ''Literature/TheColourOutOfSpace'' by Creator/HPLovecraft. It is directed by [[Film/TheIslandOfDrMoreau Richard Stanley]] in his return to filmmaking after a 20 year absence and stars Creator/NicolasCage, Joely Richardson, Madeleine Arthur, Elliot Knight, and [[Creator/CheechAndChong Tommy Chong]].

* AndIMustScream: [[spoiler:A direct hit from the Color's attack fuses Theresa and her son Jack into one heaving, whimpering mass of flesh.]]

* 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.]]

* AxCrazy: At the end of the film, [[spoiler:Nathan's reanimated and possessed corpse violently attacks Ward with its bare hands, either to beat him to death or feed him to the Color as it departs our world.]]

* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: Gender-flipped. [[spoiler: Lavinia ends up carving symbols all over her body that probably would have led to permanent scars had she survived, while Ward gets out covered in dust but without a single scar.]]
* BlackDudeDiesFirst: [[spoiler: {{Inverted}} when the only black character in the cast, Ward Phillips, is the SoleSurvivor, recounting the tale to the audience.]]

* BrownNote: The Color emits a noise that increases its hold over its victims.

* 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.]]

* 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...]]

* EvilSmellsBad: When the meteorite carrying the titular Color first crashes onto the Gardner's property, Nathan remarks that it smells awful. No one else does.
* FateWorseThanDeath: [[ImpliedTrope Implied]] to be [[spoiler: Benny's]] ultimate fate. [[spoiler: He's last seen inside the well, being engulfed by the Color while screaming in terror. An insane Nathan later off-handedly remarks to Ward and Pierce that he "lives in the well now".]]
** This may also be [[spoiler:Sam's]] fate, since we hear [[spoiler:his whining coming from the well when Benny tries to save him.]]

* {{Foreshadowing}}: [[spoiler: The runic symbol from the ''Necronomicon'' that Lavinia carves into her forehead can be briefly seen flickering on Ezra's monitors in the film's climax. Soon after, that same symbol comes back in a ''big'' way in Ward's vision of [[EldritchLocation the place the Color came from.]]]]

* GlowingEyesOfDoom: Both humans and animals who have succumbed to the Color's mental influence can display this. [[spoiler: All the Gardners - save for Benny - display this at the end. In Lavinia's case, the glow also emanates from the rune she carves into her forehead.]]

* HazardousWater: It is explicitly stated that the Color itself contaminating the water supply. Because the Gardner family's water comes from the well, the Color slowly drives them crazy and mutates the flora and fauna around them as they consume it. [[spoiler: And in the final scene, it's strongly implied that the water of the reservoir now covering the land tainted by the Color is also tainted, despite the Color's departure. [[FromBadToWorse And that water now supplies most of the US Eastern seaboard...]]]]
* HeelFaceRevolvingDoor: [[spoiler: Crazed Nathan does several of these near the end of the film in a matter of minutes: First, he betrays his daughter to feed her to his mutated wife and child, then he rescues her just moments later, then attempts to shoot the Color, then his possessed corpse violently attacks Ward when the Color leaves Earth.]]
* HumanoidAbomination: [[spoiler: Nathan seems to gradually turn into one, as he ingested the Color and had a mutated organism sting and burn his arms. As well, the thing that used to be Theresa and Jack is clearly one.]]

* {{Irony}}: [[spoiler: In the end, Ward, [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness the hydrologist,]] throws his cigarette into the new reservoir. Normally, this would count as littering. But given the nature of what's at the bottom of the reservoir, it makes little difference and he knows it.]]

** [[spoiler: Played straight with Lavinia, who's only seen doing rituals during the bulk of the movie, with no visible effect. Once she uses the Necronomicon, she makes things worse.]]
* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: It's unclear if the Necronomicon in this film contains any verifiably working magical rituals, or if it's just a mundane New Age book/fake Necronomicon like those that can be found in real life. [[spoiler:It certainly doesn't do Lavinia any good, and the rune she carves into her forehead is suspiciously similar to one on the Color's homeworld.]]

* NamedByTheAdaptation: Mrs. Gardener's name was not mentioned in the story, here she is named Theresa.
** The water surveyor of the original story becomes Ward here.
* NoBodyLeftBehind: The Gardners' home and the surrounding land are left mostly dust at the end. The color disintegrates [[spoiler: Lavinia]] in front of Ward, and this is also the ultimate fate of [[spoiler: Nathan, though in his case the dessicated remains of his hand - [[TragicKeepsake with the wedding ring still on]] - are shown]].

* NothingIsScarier: [[spoiler: Benny's fate]] is never seen. We only see the Color take him, and later that [[spoiler: Nathan describes him as "living in the well now."]] Depending on how you interpret that, some trace may remain [[spoiler: of Benny in the water supply.]]
* OffingTheOffspring: [[spoiler: Nathan ''almost'' does this with Lavinia, locking her in the attic with the mutated Theresa and Jack to "[[DeadlyEuphemism feed]]" them. Ultimately he saves her, but in the process he does kill Jack - though it could be argued that, at that point, Jack isn't even his son anymore.]]

* PapaWolf: [[ZigzaggedTrope Zigzagged]] with Nathan. [[spoiler:At first, driven insane by the Color's influence, he actively prevents Lavinia from escaping and attempts to feed her to the mutated and now-feral monster that was Theresa and Jack. He later appears to recover enough of his senses to kill the creature and save his daughter, and when he sees the Color emerging from the well close to Ward and Lavinia, his first reaction is to aim his shotgun at it. Unfortunately, [[NotQuiteTheRightThing this last act gets him killed.]]]]

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Played straight with Sheriff Pierce, who respects Ward's expertise and rides to the rescue with him as soon as he learns what's going on. {{Averted}} with the mayor who will not let the possibility of extraterrestrial contamination stand in the way of the new water reservoir.
* RelatedInTheAdaptation: Kinda. Lavinia Gardener is clearly based on Lavinia Whateley, an important side character in ''Literature/TheDunwichHorror'', but it's unclear if she's meant to be the same character.
* RightForTheWrongReasons: [[spoiler: When Theresa and Jack become fused together, Nathan's sanity deteriorates fast. First, he intends to MercyKill them, but stops at the last second. Then, he decides to feed Lavinia to his wife. Shortly after that, he begins to hallucinate that his entire family is alive and well on the couch downstairs. When Ward and the Sheriff find Theresa about to consume Lavinia, Nathan shoots her first and unintentionally saves his daughter, with the logic, "They're not my family."]]

* ScrewThisImOutOfHere: Tried, unsuccessfully, by Lavinia. [[spoiler: she tries to flee on horseback, but the Color spooks the animal and causes it to run away. After crossing the DespairEventHorizon, Lavinia rejects any sort of escape even being possible.]]

* SlutShaming: An unthinking Theresa tells Lavinia that with the "way [she's] dressed" she needs to think about the "signals" she's sending to Ward, which ''deeply'' upsets Lavinia. To Theresa's credit, she appears to realize what a hurtful thing it is to say, but the damage is done.
* StarfishAliens: Since the film is based on the short story by Creator/HPLovecraft, the titular Color is both this and an EldritchAbomination. [[spoiler:The closest the film ever gets to showing its 'form' is a brief glimpse of a glowing mass [[LightIsNotGood with tendrils made of light]], and the writhing column of magenta light erupting from the well in the film's climax.]]
* TheStoner: Ezra, who seems to spend most of his time in his shack getting high, and Benny to a lesser degree. With Benny his family seems to give him crap about it more than he actually does it.

* TitleDrop: At end, Ward, as he considers everything that happened, describes the creature as "a color out of space".
* ThousandYardStare: [[spoiler: Ward]], in the final shots of the film, displays an empty, haunted look as he looks on the water reservoir that covers the Gardners' home and recollects on the events that traumatized him.
** Nathan gets it [[spoiler: whenever he watches TV under the Color's influence.]]

* TragicKeepsake: [[spoiler: Lavinia's compass becomes this to Ward]]

* VerticalKidnapping: [[spoiler:Sheriff Pierce is grabbed and impaled by a mutated tree as he passes underneath it.]]
* VoiceOfTheLegion: As Ezra's final recording progresses, his voice becomes deep, gravelly, and echoic due to the Color affecting him.

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

** "Ward Phillips" is an obvious reference to Ho'''Ward Phillips''' Lovecraft. He's seen reading a copy of [[Creator/AlgernonBlackwood]]'s ''The Willows'', the author's favorite horror story.

* AbusiveParents: It is implied that Nathan's father was an abusive [[TheAlcoholic alcoholic]]. While Nathan himself tries to keep from being this, the [[TheCorruption Color's influence]] and the TraumaCongaLine it puts him through drives him into fits of rage, [[spoiler:shouting at his kids when things don't go his way and eventually attempting to feed his oldest daughter to the monster his wife and youngest son had become.]]

* PoliceAreUseless: Averted with Sheriff Pierce, who's shown as competent and proactive once he learns that something's wrong (see ReasonableAuthorityFigure). [[Spoiler: Not that it helps him or anyone else in the end.]]

* RightForTheWrongReasons: [[spoiler:When Theresa and Jack become fused together, Nathan's sanity deteriorates fast. First, he intends to MercyKill them, but stops at the last second. Then, he decides to feed Lavinia to his wife. Shortly after that, he begins to hallucinate that his entire family is alive and well on the couch downstairs. When Ward and the Sheriff find Theresa about to consume Lavinia, Nathan shoots her first and unintentionally saves his daughter, with the logic, "They're not my family."]]

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

* HazardousWater: It is explicitly stated that the Color itself contaminating the water supply. Because the Gardner family's water comes from the well, the Color slowly drives them crazy and mutates the flora and fauna around them as they consume it.

* HumanoidAbomination: [[spoiler: Nathan seems to gradually turn into one, as he ingested the Color and had a mutated organism sting and burn his arms.]]

* {{Irony}}: [[spoiler: In the end, Ward, [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness the hydrologist,]] throws his cigarette into the new reservoir. Normally, this would count as littering. But given the nature of what's at the bottom of the reservoir, it makes little difference.]]

** Subverted with Ezra, who's implied to be a bit nuts, but still has the best understanding of what's going on. [[spoiler: Not that it saves him.]]

* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: It's unclear if the Necronomicon in this film contains any verifiably working magical rituals, or if it's just a mundane New Age book. [[spoiler:It certainly doesn't do Lavinia any good, and the rune she carves into her forehead is suspiciously similar to one on the Color's homeworld.]]

* NoBodyLeftBehind: The Gardners' home is left mostly dust at the end. The color disintegrates [[spoiler: Lavinia]] in front of Ward, and this is also the ultimate fate of [[spoiler: Nathan, though in his case the dessicated remains of his hand - [[TragicKeepsake with the wedding ring still on]] - are shown]].

** "Ward Phillips" is an obvious reference to Ho'''Ward Phillips''' Lovecraft. He's seen reading a copy of ''The Willows'', the author's favorite horror story.

* SupernaturalIsPurple: Magenta in this case, but it fulfills the role nonetheless. The titular Color is a StarfishAlien that gives off a supernatural and otherworldly vibe, thanks to its incorporeal nature and the ability to [[TheCorruption corrupt whatever it touches]].

* ThousandYardStare: [[spoiler: Ward]], in the final shots of the film, displays an empty, haunted look as he looks on the water reservoir that covers the Gardner's home and recollects on the events that traumatized him.

* TooDumbToLive: [[spoiler: Benny thinks he hears the family's dog, Sam, in the well and intentionally climbs in, practically serving himself up to the Color. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]], however, by the Color's influence on the Gardner's deteroriating mental state, making his actions more the result of being BrainwashedAndCrazy rather than genuine idiocy.]]

* AbusiveParents: It is implied that Nathan's father was an abusive [[TheAlcoholic alcoholic]]. While Nathan himself tries to keep from being this, the [[TheCorruption Color's influence]] and the TraumaCongaLine it puts him through drives him into fits of rage, [[spoiler:shouting at his kids when things don't go his way and his attempt to feed his oldest daughter to the monster his wife and youngest son had become.]]

* DevelopingDoomedCharacters: Unlike in the short story, in this film, we get to spend a great deal of time getting to know the human characters, showing them as a rather dysfunctional family undergoing hard times even before they become victims of one of the Old Ones. You learn Nathan is a struggling gardener and father with anger issues who's also TheAlcoholic, stemming from his abusive father. Theresa is a highly stressed real-estate agent and haggard mother who's just recovered from breast cancer, and thus feels ugly because of it and comes off as somewhat insensitive to her husband and kids. Benny is a stoner who'd rather hang out with the residential hermit Ezra. Lavinia is a withdrawn goth who has taken up Wiccan arts as a form of coping, and Jack is even moreso withdrawn and hardly talks to his parents or siblings, only really connecting with their dog Sam. Despite these issues, it's clear at least in the beginning that they love each other. [[spoiler:Which makes it even more heartbreaking when the Color's arrival disrupts their lives and ends up directly ruining their lives before directly consuming them.]]

* HazardousWater: It is explicitly stated that the Color itself contaminating the water supply. Because the Gardner family's water comes from he well, the color slowly drives them crazy and mutates the flora and fauna around them as they consume it.

* HazardousWater: It is explicitly stated that the Color itself contaminating the water supply. Because the Philips family's water comes from he well, the color slowly drives them crazy and mutates the flora and fauna around them as they consume it.

-->'''Benny:''' Harpy. Harridan. Hairy ax-wound.
-->'''Lavinia:''' Maggot dick.

* ChekhovsGun: [[spoiler: The Gardners' wine cellar, briefly seen while they're having dinner early in the film, allows Ward to survive the Color's parting shot.]]

* DissonantSerenity: [[spoiler: Nathan's insanity culminates in this. Where previously he was living up to [[Creator/NicolasCage actor's reputation]] in his manically spectacular breakdown, his final scenes have him eerily mild, and even cheerful when delivering a MercyKill to his mutated wife and child. His reaction to receiving a lethal a gunshot wound is to simply stare at the blood on his hand and dreamily remark: "It's beautiful. [[AlienKudzu Like the flowers]]."]]

* 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]].
* EldritchLocation: It can be argued that the Color is slowly turning the Gardner's land into this. [[spoiler: Its homeworld is ''undoubtedly'' this: A confusing, fleshy landscape covered by writhing tentacles - some gigantic in size - dominated by towering structures of alien design, the most prominent of which has the same shape as the runic symbol from Lavinia's ''Necronomicon''. A black sun hangs in the sky, [[AlienSky which is bathed in a light identical to that of the Color.]]]]
* ElectromagneticGhosts: While it's not a ghost, the color interferes with technology in the nearby area, including cell phones, televisions, the Gardners' internet router, and [[spoiler:Ezra's recordings]].
* 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...]]
* EvilDetectingDog: The Gardners' family dog, Sam, knows the Color is dangerous from square one. [[spoiler:And he ends up being one of its first victims alongside the alpacas.]]

* FateWorseThanDeath: [[ImpliedTrope Implied]] to be [[spoiler: Benny's]] ultimate fate. [[spoiler: He's last seen inside the well, being engulfed by the Color while screaming in terror. An insane Nathan later off-handedly remarks to Ward and Pierce that he "Lives in the well now."]]

* {{Foreshadowing}}: [[spoiler: The runic symbol from ''Necronomicon'' that Lavinia carves into her forehead can be briefly seen flickering on Ezra's monitors in the film's climax. Soon after, that same symbol comes back in a ''big'' way in Ward's vision of [[EldritchLocation the place the Color came from.]]]]

* GlowingEyesOfDoom: Both humans and animals who have succumbed to the Color's mental influence can display this. [[spoiler: All the Gardners - save for Benny - display this at the end. In Lavinia's case, the glow also emanates from the rune she carves into her forehead]].
* 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.]]
* HeelFaceRevolvingDoor: [[spoiler: Crazed Nathan does several of these near the end of the film in a matter of minutes: First he betrays his daughter to feed her to his mutated wife and child, then he rescues her just moments later, then attempts to shoot the Color, then his possessed corpse violently attacks Ward when the Color leaves Earth.]]
* HumanoidAbomination: [[spoiler: Nathan seems to be gradually turning into one, as he has ingested the Color and had a mutated organism sting and burn his arms.]]

* IRejectYourReality: Nathan's coping mechanism as madness consumes him seems to be "everything is normal, nothing is wrong" with a side-order of getting angry at everyone else when anything ''does'' go wrong, like losing his shit at the mutated tomatoes tasting horrible despite him "following all the instructions" on growing crops. [[spoiler:By the end when Ward and the sheriff shows up he's so deep in denial that he claims his family is right there with him in the living room talking with him.]]
* IronicEcho: Early in the film, when [[spoiler:Nathan]] bemoans the lack of nearby hospitals, the mayor sardonically responds, "Welcome to life in the Sticks." Much later, when Ward and the Sherrif come by to check on the place, [[spoiler:Nathan]], having completely lost [[spoiler:his]] mind, feebly writes off the bizarre events as "Life in the Sticks."
* {{Irony}}: [[spoiler: In the end, Ward, [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness the hydrologist]], throws his cigarette into the new reservoir. Normally, this would count as littering. But given the nature of what's at the bottom of the reservoir, it makes little difference.]]
* KnowNothingKnowItAll: Even before the Color begins working on his mind, it's blatantly obvious Nathan's not the best farmer and is just winging it. The best example is how he repeatedly insists that alpacas are a great livestock even though they aren't in-demand, while using them for their milk, rather than what's really valuable - their fleece.

* MercyKill: Nathan is forced to do this to [[spoiler: the alpaca herd,]] and then again later when [[spoiler:Jake and Theresa are fused. In the latter case he fails to go through with it. He does eventually kill them, but at that point he no longer even recognizes them as his family.]]

** Ezra owns a black cat named "G-Spot." Suffice to say [[Literature/TheRatsInTheWalls this is not the first black cat with an offensive name in H.P. Lovecraft's stories]].

** 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, or simply just operates on BlueAndOrangeMorality due to its utterly alien nature and is thus indifferent to lesser forms of life, as Chthulu was originally described. The Color in the film appears much more aggressive, seemingly deliberately attacking, luring, and tormenting its prey. It goes so far as to directly influence the negative changes and deterioration of the Gardners' already shaky mental status, not to mention simply poisoning them with its essence polluting the well water.
** 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.

* AdaptedOut: The researches from the nearby university are nowhere to be seen in this movie, while in the short story they lead important research on meteor's origin, although they didn't come into a distinct conclusion.

* AnimalisticAbomination: By the midpoint of the film, the Color infects Ezra's cat G-Spot, turning her into a creature with hairless translucent skin and misshapen glowing magenta eyes. [[spoiler:It later infects the Gardners' alpacas, turning them into [[BodyOfBodies a grotesque amalgam]] like something out of ''Film/TheThing1982'']].

* BloodMagic: Tried, unsuccessfully, by Lavinia at the mid-point of the color's infestation. [[spoiler: Unfortunately, she decides to rely on a ritual from her copy of the ''[[TomeOfEldritchLore Necronomicon]]'' for protection. While she stays sane longer than Nathan, it ultimately does nothing to help her, and it's implied it makes her final descent to madness ''worse''.]]
* BloodierAndGorier: Like many other Lovecraftian adaptations, this one is much more graphic and violent than the original story. [[spoiler: The film adds conjunction of bodies of mother and son and their violent death. Lavinia cuts wounds on herself. Also, there is a scene when alpacas become like a creature from ''The Thing''. None of this happened in the original story]].

* BrightIsNotGood: The Color is VERY bright, and characters keep referring to it as "beautiful."

* CigaretteOfAnxiety: At the end, after everything that has happened, the very traumatized [[spoiler: Ward]], who had steadfastly rejected Ezra's repeated offers of getting a hit from his blunt, quietly smokes a cigarette as he considers everything that happened to the Gardners and the horrible implications of it.

** Ezra has a cat and hears strange noises coming from within his home, not unlike [[Literature/TheRatsInTheWalls Mr. Delapoer]], is an old eccentric living in a rural area who makes recordings of a strange alien presence, as does [[Literature/TheWhispererInDarkness Henry Akely]] and shares his name with a minor character in ''Literature/TheCaseOfCharlesDexterWard''.
* CosmicHorrorStory: Given the story's [[Creator/HPLovecraft author]], such a bleak tone is unsurprising. [[spoiler: The EldritchAbomination cannot be stopped from its goals, the Gardners all go mad and die horribly, Ward is left traumatized by his experiences, there are countless other creatures just as terrible out in the vastness of space, and said abomination's passage may have tainted the water supply for most of the Eastern Seaboard.]]
* TheCorruption: Plants and animals infected by the Color are mutated -- as seen with the preying mantis emerging from the well and Ezra's cat G-Spot. As the Color's power grows and its taint increases, the foliage and even the mist on the Gardners' property takes on an eerie purple hue.
* DeadlyEuphemism: [[spoiler: Nathan, driven insane by the Color, drags Lavinia to the attic and locks her in with the mutated creature that was Theresa and Jack, telling her: "If there's one thing that families do, they stay together. [[FedToTheBeast Now feed your mother.]]"]]
* DecoyProtagonist: Despite the prominence of Cage in the poster and advertisements, Lavinia and Ward are the real leads.
* DeliberatelyMonochrome: What the Blasted Heath is represented as. [[spoiler: The Color's departure from Earth drains the entire area around the Gardner's farm of ''any'' color, leaving it a white-and-grey ashen wasteland. Viewers may be forgiven for thinking the film has switched to Black-and-White photography until they look closely at Ward and camera pans out to reveal the surrounding green forest.]]

* DevelopingDoomedCharacters: Unlike in the short story, in this film we get to spend a great deal of time getting to know the human characters, showing them as a rather dysfunctional family undergoing hard times even before they become victims of one of the Old Ones. You learn Nathan is a struggling gardener and father with anger issues who's also TheAlcoholic, stemming from his abusive father. Theresa is a highly stressed real-estate agent and haggard mother who's just recovered from breast cancer, and thus feels ugly because of it and comes off as somewhat insensitive to her husband and kids; Benny is a stoner who'd rather hang out with the residential hermit Ezra; Lavinia is a withdrawn goth who has taken up Wiccan arts as a form of coping; and Jack is even moreso withdrawn and hardly talks to his parents or siblings, only really connecting with their dog Sam. Despite these issues, it's clear at least in the beginning that they love each other. [[spoiler:Which makes it even more heartbreaking when the Color's arrival disrupts their lives and ends up directly ruining their lives before directly consuming them.]]

->''"I hope the dam water that covers will be very deep, but even then, I'll never drink it. There are only a few of us who remember the strange days now. What touched this place cannot be quantified or understood by human science, or our basic concept, our perception of reality. It was just... a color out of space. A messenger from realms whose existence stuns the brain and numbs us with the gulfs that it throws open before our frenzied eyes."''