H.P. Lovecraft | Monster Zone

Starring Paul Dorsch, Jürgen Heimüller, Ingo Heise, Michael Kausch, Philipp Jacobs, Olaf Krätke, Marco Leibnitz, Ralf Lichtenberg and Patrick Pierce. Written and directed by Huân Vu. Produced by Jan Roth, Peter Tillisch and Huân Vu for Sphärentor Filmproduktionen.

This adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s 1927 short story ‘The Colour Out of Space’, about the weird effects a meteorite has on local people, animals and plants, switches the tale’s location from the hills near the fictional US town of Arkham over to the Schwäbisch-Fränkischen Forest in Germany.

I like DIE, MONSTER, DIE! (aka MONSTER OF TERROR), which was the colourful, hokey 1965 adaptation of the H.P. Lovecraft story that starred Boris Karloff and Nick Adams. I also dig the Richard Stanley-directed version, COLOR OUT OF SPACE (2019), which featured a scenery-chewing turn from Nic Cage and some mutated alpacas! And, I’m glad to say, this low budget German production (original title DIE FARBE) is also well worth a watch.

THE COLOR OUT OF SPACE/DIE FARBE is a lot more faithful to the story than DIE, MONSTER, DIE! was, but, for me, it is less impactful than the 2019 adaptation, which was unquestionably more in-your-face thanks to its psychedelic cosmic horror and its snatches of THING-style body mutations.

A victim of the alien colour briefly seen in THE COLOR OUT OF SPACE (2010) — A victim of the alien colour seen in THE COLOR OUT OF SPACE (2010)

Unlike the 2019 Richard Stanley release, this interpretation, made by German-Vietnamese director Huân Vu, moves at a rather stately pace, which I guess is kind of fitting as Lovecraft’s original stories were not exactly fast-moving yarns. The movie also boasts effective b&w cinematography that helps the production evoke a creepy Lovecraftian mood.

The lack of budget does hinder certain moments, unfortunately, such as the scenes in which we’re meant to believe the pollution from the meteorite has created infected, moving trees, but this mutant woodland is obviously just a series of shots of normal, everyday trees blowing in the wind.

Above: some shots of an oversized mutant wasp briefly seen perched on a woman's head. I would've liked a few more scenes like this! — Above: some shots of an oversized mutant wasp briefly seen perched on a woman’s head. I would’ve liked a few more scenes like this!

The decision to shoot THE COLOR OUT OF SPACE in black and white helps to clearly highlight the new alien colour when it is featured on-screen, but it’s pretty damn hard to make a purple colour particularly scary (and some of the CGI colour blobs are not that realistic). Even so, this German film has gained many fans who consider this to be the adaptation that best captures the mood of the original story, and I definitely appreciate all the effort that was put into this modestly-budgeted production.

The film is mainly shot in b&w... — The film is mainly shot in b&w…

...but occasionally the alien colour purple appears on-screen — …but occasionally the alien colour purple appears on-screen

Starring Jeffrey Combs, Tony Azito, Juan Fernández, Brian Yuzna, Bruce Payne, Belinda Bauer, David Warner, Bess Meyer, Signy Coleman, Obba Babatundé and Richard Lynch. Written by Brent V. Friedman, Christophe Gans, Kazunori Itô and Brian Yuzna. Directed by Christophe (BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF) Gans, Shûsuke (GAMERA: GUARDIAN OF THE UNIVERSE) Kaneko and Brian (SOCIETY) Yuzna.

This Lovecraftian horror anthology movie features three segments (‘The Drowned’, ‘The Cold’ and ‘Whispers’) and a wraparound tale (‘The Library’) that has Jeffrey Combs playing H. P. Lovecraft himself, hunting down the Necronomicon in a library.

Of the stories, ‘The Drowned’ and ‘Whispers’ are the best of the bunch. ‘The Drowned’, for instance, boasts a fair amount of tentacles, including a massive, cyclopean tentacle-critter, which, of course, is something you definitely want to see in a Lovecraft movie!

A huge, one-eyed tentacle-monster rises!

But it’s the 3rd story, ‘Whispers’, that is the standout tale for me. This segment just gradually gets more and more gory, outlandish and batshit crazy as it progresses.

Signy Coleman plays a cop who finds herself in a cavern of horrors

‘Whispers’ features a cavern inhabited by otherworldly winged creatures that need human victims to enable them to reproduce, so be prepared for gonzo prosthetics, body parts, blood and bat-critters that have their mouths in their bellies!

NECRONOMICON: BOOK OF THE DEAD isn’t big budget, the acting is variable, and I think the production would’ve been better if Brian Yuzna had directed all the segments – but the film certainly pulls out all the stops to offer us loads of old-school practical FX, gore, slime & blood, courtesy of a bunch of special makeup and animatronic effects artists that includes the talented likes of John Carl Buechler, Screaming Mad George, Steve Johnson, Todd Masters and Tom Savini.