YMMV / Color Out of Space (2020)

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • The Color puts its victims through all sorts of strife seemingly by existing, ranging from cosmic horror to realistic terrors such as poverty and family strife. It's entirely possible that the Color is a sentient being that savours torment, in the same way a cat plays with its prey as it kills it. It's also possible that Ezra is correct, and that the Color is terraforming the area. It might not even be sapient or alive.
  • Is Benny a simple lazy pothead who smokes simply for his own pleasure? Or is he simply a teenager who turned to smoking due to the stress of his mother's breast cancer diagnosis in the very recent past, and now is dealing with the aftermath of getting in the habit?
  • Did the Color affect time itself, or just the main character's understanding of passing time? Similar to doing something for so much, you lose track of what time it is, and end up wasting hours without noticing.
• Awesome Music: Colin Stetson’s soundtrack progresses from natural sounding strings to oppressive, unnatural synth in a truly incredible way.
• Friendly Fandoms: With fans of Annihilation (2018): the stories have very complementary themes and they share similar cinematography, enough so that double billing them has become popular.
• Funny Moments: When the Gardners are featured on the news, Nathan complains that the segment makes him seem like a delusional hick due to his monotonous voice and unkempt hair. When asked if he'd been drinking before he saw the meteor, Nathan admits to having a bourbon, the chyron attached to the segment refers to him as a "bourbon connoisseur", making him look even worse. That's on top of "UFO Witness" and "Amateur Farmer."
• Heartwarming Moments: The collective Gardners sharing a family meal together. For being a rather dysfunctional family at times, it's clear they still love one another and enjoy each other's company regardless. This feels like a calm in the storm before the titular color comes and destroys what little harmony they had to begin with.
• He Really Can Act: Tommy Chong of all people manages to sound genuinely disturbing on the recording his character Ezra left behind.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • The funny thing about Nicolas Cage starring in the film is that it wasn't too long ago that he played a monochromatic noir version of Spider-Man with the joke being that being from a black-and-white universe and thus had never seen colors before. Here in the movie, Cage plays a victim of a sentient entity that is nothing but color.
  • Given how much of a bigot Lovecraft was, that the makers of the movie decided to not only Gender Flip one of his characters as well as having an African American actor play a Composite Character of some others, but made her the main protagonist and him the Sole Survivor, can inspire some chuckles to some.
• Narm: The color Magenta may have been chosen for Fridge Brilliance reasons but it's still not a color most people associate with a Cosmic Horror Story.
• Narm Charm: Once Nathan goes full Cage his performance slips towards Peter Lowe, but since Nathan starts off an even-tempered, soft-spoken struggling farmer and loving father at first, something Cage can do just as well, the transition into his more trademark hammy psycho mode is just that more disturbing.
  • Ward does get visibly flustered when Lavinia asks if he's looking at her legs. Also, Theresa does pick up on Lavinia's attraction to Ward and only remarks on how she's dressed and the signals she's sending; if Ward were too old for her, you'd expect a mother to pick up on that and say something.
    • Although that scene adds further questions since her reaction goes far beyond embarrassment, to being legitimately emotionally overwhelmed.
• Squick: Nathan kissing Theresa after she's been mutated. He gets pink mucus all over his mouth, but keeps kissing her.
  • Whatever the Color does to Nathan that gives him horrible rashes and scarring across his arms, which - naturally - he can't help but scratch.
• Woobie Family: The Gardners are a likable bunch with next to no jerkass traits until the Color corrupts them, making their fates undeserved and thus more terrifying. Not helping is that before they're all consumed by the Color, it destroys their livelihoods and traumatizes them.

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