Home
Creators
Search Recent Random
Posts
Search DMs Popular Hash Lookup Tags Random
Importer
Import FAQ
Register Favorites Keys Review DMs Logout
Community
Telegram ThePornDude
Home Creators Posts Import Register Favorites Logout

Episode 498 - The Colour Out of Space Revisited (Patreon)

Published:
2020-05-07 21:50:48
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

Downloads

Content

We're making a journey back to woods no axe has ever cut - it's The Colour Out of Space by H.P. Lovecraft! We're talking the story and the new film adaptation by Richard Stanley.

Tenth anniversary posters, t-shirts, totes and more available now - grab 'em!

Thanks to Andrew Leman for the reading on the original episode!

Next up: The Dunwich Horror Revisited

Comments

It's a Ghost.

Woohoo, I watched this last month and am excited to hear what you think about it.

H P Lovecraft's Cat

Recording almost 40 days ago ,seems like months ago probably. Stuart Gordon apparently had health problems for a long time,on the Castle Freak episode of Joe Bobs Last Drive In ,he stated Stuart was unable to be bonded by major studios for films.In the movie the surveyor name is a nod to Lovecraft, Ho(Ward Phillips) .The Tommy Chong character reminds me of Richard Stanley, if you ever seen him in person. Just before Lavinia uses the Necronomicon you can catch a glimpse of the Odal (Estate) rune as Cage is watching the TV (a nod to Politegist ).You then see Lavina with the rune on her forehead.Everything is covered with the new dam project but Ward knows what is buried.

Karlandos

Long time listener, first time poster. It’s interesting to see you guys go over old episodes as it reminds me when I first listening having only the most scant knowledge of HPL coming out of high school and into the navy where the books and your guys podcast helped get through the monotony of deployment at sea That said, hearing the story anew makes me think of how close to home the story hits. Imagine people you know and care about but visit infrequently and hearing how bad things are happening to them but you have to live your own life and hope for the best wishing you had the money power and influence to help them but are powerless to act beyond your means just hoping things will work out. That said, I appreciate what you guys do and will gladly slog through 500+ episodes for that grade A weird fiction. Edit: I was writing this while listening and the little rap bits makes me wish there was a rapper who had lyrics with a lovecraftian bent

Ben Mund

Haven't listened to the episode yet, so now seems like a smart time to comment. This is my favorite Lovecraft story, and I just watched Nic Cage gradually Nic Caging it up to 11 in the Stanley adaptation. I wanted to hate it. I really did, But I kinda I liked it. A lot. Primarily because they chose not to go the happy-ending route, which is what I was expecting. Very eager to hear what you gents thought of it. Cagey Out of Space, baby.

Daisy

This episode was great! What a nice shot of nostalgia. It's so cool to hear you still agree with yourselves. Colour Out of Space is one of my favourites and I'm so glad you guys did this story for your first revisit. I haven't seen the Nic Cage version yet, and I think I may need to put it off a while longer. I guess it's this quarantine horsesh*t but I have had to carefully curate my media intake during this stress. I usually consume lots of dark content, but everything sucks guys. Chad's comment about not knowing if he can handle that intensity anymore in his 40's, I felt that. I've found myself turning things off, which must mean I am finally a grown up capable of making good choices. Maybe? Anyhoo, you two have a special talent for presenting tough content in a palatable manner and I am ever thankful for all you do.

Jason Thompson

AgggghhHGGGHHHH god I still have to watch this movie *sob* (skips 1/2 the episode)

The Call of Cassandra

As a transperson I really appreciate hearing what Chris had to say about him hearing himself make that joke and regretting it now. It often feels like nothing will ever change for the better. So hearing that even one person came to a more positive outlook is heartening. When you guys put out those three original stories a few months back, the one with the cats nearly made me rage quit, because of the negative way it portrayed a trans/crossdressing person. I do not know what you were thinking when you did that. Probably nothing at all is my guess, and probably most of the listeners simply thought of it as amusing. And I am not saying they should not feel however they may have about it. But it was not pleasant for me to listen to. I am not writing this to be antagonistic. I avoided saying anything at all at the time to insure that my emotions were not doing the talking. No one is perfect, certainly not me. We have all done things that we regret, because at the time we did not consider how it might affect someone else. Since then I have been mulling over whether or not I should continue listening. Chris' words in this episode at least puts a +1 in the continue category.

Sweatin' to the Great Oldies

This was a very interesting listen. With plenty of time these days, I have been revisiting films and stories I have not experienced in many years with varying reactions. Sometimes I am relieved to find something just as good as I remembered it being. Sometimes I see something new. And sometimes I am mortified. I have not watched the Stanley Colour yet. I'll probably have to do it bit by bit with the lights on and something to distract me because body horror horrifies me. I thought the recent Annihilation to be the best take on Colour out of Space in recent memory. Certainly the best Weird film in recent history. I'm afraid I can't recall if my boon companions opined on the film at all - if no, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

William Gross

I can't be the only person who heard the Whipporwils!! I only knew what they even sound like because you guys played a clip in your Dunwhich Horror Episode! They were creepy tweeting all over the place!

Devin Morse

My friend and I started calling the Stanley film Humor Out of Place. There might be some Lovecraft stories you can let Nic Cage turn into a comedy. This was not one of them. However, aside from being a gorgeous film as you say, I really appreciated the deep cuts: the surveyor reads a book version of The Willows, and the news company's logo is the twig Elder Sign.

Matt Baldwin

The original text mentions woodchucks several times. Eg “The proportions of its body seemed slightly altered in a queer way impossible to describe, while its face had taken on an expression which no one ever saw in a woodchuck before”. Sadly no woodchucks in this movie. Not even one that raps! And yes Chris you are spot on, Cage’s acting was off putting at times. A slow burn was needed, and a rapping woodchuck.

Mandy Reznor (She/It)

I actually didn't interpret the family appearing in the den near the end as time going wonky--I assumed that even in death, they were still *with* the Colour, and would be taken with It wherever it was going. Per Cage, I rather liked his performance in this. Then again, it was pretty much what I expected. Well...except for the alpaca milking. Also, Chris, thank you for being so concerned with that joke. I can remember even way back then feeling a twinge of discomfort at it, and I tried to just forget about it. Being reminded of it in this light was a pleasant surprise.

Stacy Schumacher

I really enjoyed this film version of Colour out of Space, as did the friends I saw it in the theatre with (last year). I mentioned this in a community comment, but one of the things I really noticed in an audience setting was the audience chuckling at Nic Cage. I don't know if it was intentionally done by Stanley, or just something I interpreted. At the beginning of the film, there are moments honestly played for laughs, but as the movie got more tense, and the horror unfolded to tragedy, the audience chuckling at 'zany-Nic-Cage' reminded me of the tense awkward laugh someone (yes, me) might do at a haunted house. That really added to the strange surreal nature of the film as I experienced it. I had also watched Die Farbe not long before seeing this film, and watched Annihilation not long after. I enjoyed all three, with their different themes and tones, and think there's room for different interpretations of this story. Or maybe I'm just easy to please. Anyways - it was great to hear your thoughts on it, and your revisiting this story. The moments of empathy and feeling the two of you express during some stories is a big part of why this podcast isn't just some review show.

Cayle Anderson

Slightly off topic, but since we're revisiting Lovecraft again I thought I would chime in. The most recent episode of "Last Podcast on the Left" was focused on Gef the talking mongoose. Gef was a spirit/ cryptid/ fae/ alien? that interacted with a family on the Isle of Mann in the early 1930's. As there was apparently nothing more important going on in Europe at the time Gef got lots of mentions in the press. The interesting thing with regards to HPL is that Gef was described as having a weasel like body with a man's face and human hands, which sounds an awful lot like Brown Jenkin from "Dreams in the Witch House" and I'm wondering if HPL was influenced by the story.

Connie McBee

The Grapes of Wrath from Outer Space.

Allison Albright

Probably my favorite thing about Lovecraft is that the majority of his stories recognize that bad things happen not because of something we did, but because we live in a vast and indifferent universe and that’s just how it is. That's probably the reason that his work made such an impression on me when I read it as a kid and the reason I occasionally pick it up again as an adult. The Colour Out of Space is such a good example of this. The thing that comes and ruins everyone's lives isn't even "evil" or malevolent as far as we can tell. It's just doing the thing that it does. So much fiction, and especially horror, ends up coming off as some kind of morality play - oh the bad thing was because there's an evil spirit or the devil or a serial killer or whatever and you're in danger of it because of something you did and it wants to hurt you because it is bad because it just is. Which is just so childish. The bad thing is geo-political or socio-economic forces that most of us are barely aware of and which are far beyond our control. The bad thing is global warming or a disease or an accident. Those are the things that scare me and what Lovecraft does so well is translate those fears into monsters and aliens and mysterious forces that let me take them in small, manageable doses. Anyway, I also wanted to add that I totally bought one of those t shirts back in 2010 and it is still one of my favorite shirts.

Clayton Patteson

I found Cage extremely relatable. I tend to handle worsening situations with a mild decent into irritable madness, coupled with ever increasing gesticulation.

Mary Kate Jenkins

First off, thank you for covering this movie. I just watched it myself recently and thought it was a great representation of what a Lovecraft film could be. I wanted to speak to the point of Lavinia’s magical practices. I saw it as the film makers showing us that even magic doesn’t stand a chance against the malignant forces of the universe, not that she brought it on herself. Really, what is a solitary Wiccan to an Elder God bent on destruction? I was wondering where her character was heading in the film; she had her paperback Necronimicon, her rituals, and her self-inflicted skin sigils, and at first glance it seems like there’s no pay off because they don’t protect her at all. But when I thought about it afterwards, it was not only to show us the direction her particular madness took (like her brother’s obsession with the well, Cage’s obsession with the alpacas, and her mother’s obsession with her work) but also to let us know there’s nothing we can do, magic or no magic, when the time is ripe for our obliteration. Additionally, I know neither of you had much to say about the flash of the other planet that Ward gets from Lavinia, but I thought that moment was great! It was the moment any character in a Lovecraft story sees the hideous, non-Euclidean, Cyclopean horrors they are facing right before that patented Lovecraft fainting spell. Also, did you see Ward Phillips reading his copy of The Willows!! Love you guys, love the show!

Pete Williams

I assumed Lavinia was reverting to self harming when she cut the sigils into herself. I thought there was a vague reference to her having some mental health issues. I haven't watched it since seeing it at the Dublin horrorthon last Halloween, though, so maybe my memory is playing tricks.

Minisodes

Hey guys - Watching the trailer a few months back got me really excited. Those hundred and thirty seconds gave me more of a sense of cosmic horror than I think many other Lovecraft movies combined have managed. The sounds, the colours, the cinematography - even the choice of Mr Cage as the protagonist seem perfectly calibrated to me. It then occurred to me about half way through your show that I absolutely do not want to watch this. The alpaca melding and the degrading remolding of mother and son sounds all together too much for me to handle. That is not to say that it sounds like a poor choice on the part of the film-makers, but watching family and animals suffer in this way terrifies me utterly, even if it is the natural conclusion of cosmic horror unchecked. Of all Lovecraft's stories, TCOOS I find to be the most chilling, because there is a true sense of the unknown regarding its nature and the awful consequences of its interactions with our world. Lovecraft's mythos has been wonderfully curated and explored, but all too often the temptation to explore the origins of his entities rather erodes the brand of horror that Lovecraft is most famous for. I know of no explanation as to the origin or purpose of this 'meteorite' and that, in my mind, preserves its awfulness. I know that many fans avoid the screen adaptations because they are either misrepresentations of the original tales or simply don't hit the mark. Now that I am faced with what sounds like a film that captures something of Lovecraft's cosmic horror, I feel a weird sense of guilt at not paying the price of admission. It's not like I've been clamoring for this film, but the arrival of a big budget Lovecraft movie is something of a treat. Rather than gratefully accepting this, I'm going to climb back onto my 'placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity'. All the alpacas are anatomically independent of one another there. Love the show and keep up the amazing work.

Thomas Paynter

Watching the movie I had the reaction that this isn't really a story. A series of bad things happening to a family until they are all dead is not really a story, is it, just a series of events. I don't recall having that reaction to Lovecraft's short, perhaps because of the investigative, retrospective nature of it. There's a movement or change from "the world is rational" to "there are strange things that obey their own rules, and I am not going to drink that water." But the movie is just this, this, and this happen. Nothing the characters do or think really makes any difference. It's like a bomb went off in their house, except slower. A bomb going off is not a story. I liked the movie moderately well, but I think this is a weakness at its core.

Nickthulhu

I often hear people describe Lovecraft as a good story teller but a bad writer. It’s obvious they say this because his tales are not character driven and rely on plot as we know, the character just being a vessel to deliver the plot. However, I think there is more significance to this than usually considered. The greatest writers, in my opinion, usually construct the text itself to mirror the story. In the case of Lovecraft, it would make sense that his characters are simply sort of stand-ins for the mythos to play with, since his theory of cosmicism places the desires and drives of man as nothing in the scope of an inimical universe. I guess another example of the text mirroring the context of the story could be found in Dracula. You could say the epistolatory manner in which the tale is constructed could mirror the lack of certainty in the story or inability for the characters to understand the elusive and uncertain nature of Dracula. It’s only in the end when the notes are compared that they finally reach an understanding of how to defeat the fiend.

Zane Graves

I'm really surprised to see that I seem to be in the minority on the Color Out of Space movie: I really hated it, and have thought it was only moderately better than an Asylum production. Several of my friends have mentioned seeing it and how good they thought it was, and the second social distancing is over I'm going to be shaking people by the shoulders, screaming, "DID WE SEE THE SAME MOVIE?!" Nic Cage just Nic Cage-ing all over the place, with no rhyme or reason. The endless pile of weird, unmotivated choices the director seemed to make, which made me spend more time questioning, "Was this intentional, or the best you could do on this eight dollar budget?" THE TREE. But I always felt COoS was a somber, quiet ghost story, so as soon as I saw the trailer was all shotguns to fight off Purple, I knew the mark was missed.

MagnanimouseDX

Patreon won't let me access the rest of your episodes even though I'm paying for them.

Peter Larsen

Revisiting the “Dunwich Horror?!“ Everyone does that! Blaze new (old) trails and revisit “He” and “The Street!”

Matthew Sanborn Smith

Just want point out that Tommy Chong was in The Color Out of Space and his daughter, Rae Dawn Chong, was in Commando, so push those two big circles in your Venn diagram a little closer together.

Realm of Plastic (edited)

Comment edits

2026-09-10 01:00 Hey guys! Mild negativity alert! I expected to enjoy this retrospective more than I did - it turns out you guys didn't have much to add beyond what was covered in the original episode! Eek! After taking the first half of the show to establish that fact, you had a lot less time to talk about the movie than you would normally have for the story of the week, which is a real shame because I think it has a lot to unpack, and I was really looking forward to your usual detailed and thoughtful analysis. I feel it was a missed opportunity. You're still my favourite podcast though! ;-D As for the movie, I finally got around to watching it in preparation for your episode just last night. I'd wanted to see it in the cinema, but here in the UK it was only screened in about 4 places, for one night only, with a sign on the door saying 'beware of the leopard'. Out of interest, where did Chris watch it? I enjoyed the movie, and it's great to see a pretty faithful Lovecraft adaptation on screen, but taking a step back from my Lovecraft fandom I found a lot to nitpick. As you guys noted regarding the scene in which Lavinia cuts herself, there were a lot of elements that seemed to be thrown in just to get a reaction without having much relationship to the themes or plot. It also fell into the cheap horror trap of having characters do stupid things for no good reason, like when Benny climbed in to the well with the world collapsing around him, to rescue the dog he'd never previously cared about that clearly wasn't in there, even though he'd just abandoned his own dying mother with barely a shrug. Ward disappeared for half the film only to pop up at the end just so that he could witness the final events and justify the closing narration. And why the hell did everyone keep deferring to the hydrologist on matters that were clearly well outside his area of expertise anyway? And, and, and - the part where Lavinia said 'it won't let us leave' - no, no, no! Cosmic horror means that the menace doesn't give a damn about you and its motivations, if any, are impossible to fathom - it does NOT 'not want you to leave'! So cheesy! Gaah! The best part of the film for me was the sequence near the end with the alien landscape and the purple vortex snaking into the sky - that more than anything else was like Lovecraft's words brought to life so vividly and perfectly that it gave me goosebumps!
2020-05-12 12:33

Red Sauce

Hearing Chris speak in support of transgender and non-binary people restored my soul. I'm non-binary, and it meant a great deal to me that this podcast, an enduring fixture of Lovecraft fandom, took a stance in favor of gender autonomy and gender diversity.

Christine M

I agree the movie left the cancer situation a bit ambiguous, but here's my impression as a breast cancer survivor. One of the hard things is there's no definitive point where you're "cured." You have surgery, you go through the medical regimens called for, and then . . . you just watch and wait. Did a stray cell escape and take up residence elsewhere? Only time and repeated testing will tell. I didn't get the impression Lavinia's ritual brought the horror on them - more that it was shown to be an utterly useless attempt to exert control over the universe, especially with its echo later when she cuts herself. None of that crap mattered. The limits of our control over scary situations is definitely a theme of the story, and underlined nicely here. (Oh by the way, I'm about to hit the 5-year anniversary of being done with chemo and radiation, which makes me as close to "normal risk" as a cancer survivor can be!)

Jeffrey Dummett

Would give the movie five stars solely for the scene of Nick Cage throwing the rotten fruit into the trash. SLAM DUNK!

David

I don’t comment very often but I’d like to say thank you (and all the Patrons and fans of the show!) for sharing this wonderful niche of you lives with us. I’ve been following the show from episode 1, and I’ve re-listened to shows many times over the years. The two of you, your wives, and all of your guests are jewels amongst the cosmic horror haunted stars. Looking forward to revisiting more Lovecraft! Thanks again. Best wishes.

Peter Larsen

One of the things I really appreciate about Chris and Chad is that they are willing to go back and look at earlier episodes and especially some jokes and say "oh, crap, that was not good, I am sorry I said that, and I've been working to do better." A simple, honest apology does wonders, in my experience, when you realize that you screwed up.

Dan Pratt

Hey, it was great to hear you doing some reflection and commentary on your old shows. With that in mind, I’m starting a new podcast where I talk about what I was doing at the time I first listened to each HPLLP episode. I’m then hoping that you guys will do a separate podcast where you reflect on my reflections.

Eric - Speaker in Digressions

I think the mom was losing clients because of bad internet rather than illness or unhygienic creepiness of office.

rjbrock

Long time listener, first time commenter. Chris and Chad, thanks for all the work you put into this. I appreciate your insight and all the interesting authors you've introduced me to. As for this story: my apologies if this has been pointed out before but I noticed Lovecraft refers to the 3 professors as "wise men" on multiple occasions, and since the Gardner farm is located west of Arkham it stands to reason the professors traveled from the east to get there. So the Colour Out of Space includes 3 wise men who travel from the east in search of a shooting star. That's right: the Colour Out of Space is a Christmas story.

Antonio A Barroso

This podcast episode changed my life! I was a young an impressionable grad student who loved H.P. Lovecraft and wanted to make him the focus of a class paper. Chris and Chad mentioned the Quabbin Reservoir as an inspiration for the story, and I so I started researching. Many years later, I turned that paper into my thesis. Just last year I presented a conference paper version of my thesis at NecronomiCon. I got to meet Chris and Chad there, and telling them about my paper was the second best part of the con. The best part was when Chad called me a "sexy motherfucker." Thanks for everything, guys!

Alex Beal

Finally listened to this episode tonight after waiting until I had watched the new movie. This is probably my favorite Lovecraft story, and I was cautiously optimistic because I heard good reviews. I watched it in two parts (I got to the point maybe halfway through right before shit really hit the fan the first night and then had to go to bed because I'm old now I guess) and what really struck me at first is that it felt like a John Carpenter film. Something about the way it was filmed, the music, I'm not entirely sure what it was but it felt like Carpenter (and in a good way). My opinion of the movie boomeranged throughout watching it. The opening with the narration won me over (although at this point I'm used to weird tales opening with fantastically read narration so maybe I'm biased). The generic Wiccanesque ritual stuff threw up a red flag. I mean a pentagram tattoo of all the cliched things. But then Ward showed up with his Miskatonic U shirt and they dropped some occult version of technobabble that was less cliched and I was back onboard. For a while the movie was looking good, albeit a slight hiccup with the stoner older brother. I mean come on you have Tommy Chong with some solid acting in a solidly written role and you have to throw in that stereotype? Poor kid's going to get smoked out from Tommy's first line without him even trying. Then we got to the body horror and it felt like it was ripping off The Thing. The alpacas in the barn had to be an homage to (or a rip off of if you're feeling pessimistic) the scene with the huskies. Then the weird creature in the shower made me worried that it was going to go the route that so many Lovecraft-inspired movies have gone and give up the weirdness for generic body horror and monsters. All that and (as you guys mentioned) Nicholas Cage almost descending into self-parody as Nathan degenerated turned me right back off. I was reminded of the bit from Community where Abed watches too much Nicholas Cage trying to decide if he's a good or bad actor (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1XCUo_Uu8M). But then I got to the end and it won me right back when things got Weird again. The weird blurriness of movements, the family being back but not back, that brief psychedlic explosion. That was some good stuff. You guys mentioned a couple of things that made me reconsider parts of it. If it was going with a more book-friendly vibe we would have watched the family slowly deteriorate and literally crumble to pieces in some cases. I completely forgot that Joely Richardson's character in the movie had battled (was battling?) cancer. While listening to the podcast suddenly the huge parallels between the effects of the color and cancer jumped out at me. I watched my stepfather battle prostate cancer for around five years and finally pass away when I was 18. In a "true to book" kind of movie the deterioration of Nathan/Nahum and his family experienced would look a lot like that in fast motion with a side of dementia. While a movie like that might have been "better" from an artistic perspective and certainly much more horrifying I have no desire to watch it. That particular revelation made me much less harsh on how the deterioration of the Gardener family was depicted. This has gotten WAY too long for a Patreon comment but here we are(and in all honesty I started writing this a couple of hours ago and I've had a couple of drinks) so I'll also add that the reason I started listening to podcasts way back in 2010 was because I was taking my dog Sam (the same name as the dog in the movie although my Sam was a black lab) on long walks after dark and that's how HP Podcraft became one of my favorite podcasts. He passed away a few years ago at the far too young age of 7 and some of my best memories are walking out of our old apartment complex with Sam and back into an older suburban neighborhood while listening to you guys (and Lehman) reading and talking about weird fiction. Congrats on 10 fantastic years and I hope you keep going for many more (but no pressure). Also my coworker asked me what I thought of the movie before I had finished it so I'm probably going to just copy-paste those first few paragraphs to him via Skype at 8AM. THAT is true horror.