An odd re-telling of H.P. Lovecraft's The Colour Out of Space with many of the interesting parts removed.

My first problem here is the film is set in Italy but the actors are from different countries and all speak English with their own accents, so you might have Debbie Rochon (she's somehow in it) say "hello Giovanni, where is Luigi?" and an Irish guy go "I don't know Lucia, maybe having bruscetta with Pietro in Bologna" and it sounds all kinds of wrong. I could be accused of nitpicking to nitpick that, but movies need to create an illusion and it's hard to keep the viewer immersed when that illusion is shattered every time an actor speaks. These are not exactly master thespians to begin with and the sceenplay was probably either translated from Italian without nuance or written in English as a second language so the effect is really exaggerated.

I wouldn't notice if this were acid trip Fulci Italian but this movie is trying to be dead serious non-camp, so bad actors delivering poor dialogue in the wrong language really stands out. I was basically only able to enjoy some of the parts where nobody was talking.

Of which there are quite a few. One of the characters is even conveniently mute for most of the film. Basically the whole movie is half of HPL's story - the part where the family descend into madness. Hour and a half of that, which I fine I guess. I'll watch people have blood-soaked hallucinations. The part that is completely missing is central to the story and its atmosphere though.

I guess the screenwriter is assuming you've read The Colour Out of Space and already know how something got in the well, but a weird coloured meteorite streaking through the sky and hitting the Earth is a pretty cool thing to put in a movie. The scientific study of the object was also essential to me in creating the feel of cosmic unknown that pervades the story. Doesn't feel like Lovecraft with all of that cut out.

Nor does the wife spitting at a crucifix or a priest performing an exorcism. One could argue it was just the woman's Judeo-Xtian culture being triggered by delusion, but again this is supposed to be Lovecraft, the antithesis of that tired old demon possession rigamarole. I'm saying this is the one time Germans (die Farbe) beat Italians at horror.

Now the big question: do I dare watch the new Nicholas Cage one? It's like there's this huge train wreck and blimp on fire and Gallagher show with 10000 watermelons on the edge of my peripheral vision and I'm trying not to look.