Die Farbe (2010 German indie adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's The Colour Out of Space)

BLOT: (23 Dec 2010 - 05:17:43 PM)

Die Farbe (2010 German indie adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's The Colour Out of Space)

When Jonathan Davis tries to track down his missing father, thought to be in Germany, he comes across a small and somewhat cut off village near a newly filling resevoir. Here Jonathan meants Amin Pierske, an old German villager who briefly met Jonathan's father right after the war (World War II I believe, but not sure if they ever really say what year this is supposed to be). Amin took Dr. Davis (the father had been a medical officer) down to see a blighted farm, a "blasted heath" to quote the original story, while the American army was doing a post-war sweep of the farms, and from here the story jumps back before the war and tells the story of the Gärteners, the family who used to live there in that decayed place.

The story Amin gives plays out something like this. One day a meterorite came down and carshed nearby his and the Gärtener's farms. Scientific probing into it found strange plastic properties, and the whole thing started to waste away with whole chunks subliming after only a day or two. After cracking it open, a strange orb was found that suddenly vanished, and then later a electrical storm resulted in many bolts of lightning hitting the remaining stone, rendering it into smoldering nothing. Life went on for Nahum Gärtener and his family, though things became weirder and harder to bear. Snows melted a little too fast on the farm. Plants would give forth plenty of huge fruit just for the crop to have a horrible, spoiled aftertaste. The animals and insects began to grow larger and more fertile. As it started wearing down, though, the spoilage in the plants became more prominent and the animals started dying. The Gärteners begin to break down, too, turning pale and suffering delusions, especially the wife. Soon the sons break down and two of them go missing. The trees sway back and forth even when there is no breeze. Human flash begins to grow ashen and go awry to match the mind, and all the the time a strange, indescribable color creeps over the land.

As hinted in the above paragraph, Die Farbe mostly sticks to the plot of the original short story—"The Colour Out of Space"—with the biggest changes in the initial story being the time-shift to about 50 or so years later and a location-shift to Germany. Rather than a surveyor plotting out a potential resevoir, we have a youngish American there to look for his missing father and the resevoir is already being filled due to the recent construction of a dam (rather than forthcoming). Still, most of the story is pretty close to the source material. A few thing are elided, some others are delved into moreso than the original, but nothing too astray. Until the ending, where a handful of differences are cast in, most minor—like soldiers being there at the well instead of police detectives and various medical folk from the town—but a couple of major ones—without spoiling the story too much, there is suggestion of there being more afoot than in the original. The overall package is respectful to the original, but willing to branch out, and it works as cinematic narrative. As the ending wraps up, the changes work and, there at the end, where a few sharp gotcha grabs could have been used, the film makers respectfully allow implication to finish the job.

The acting is mostly superb for such a low-key number, and much of the staging and timing and other bits of direction are likewise well done; so perhaps the biggest deal will be the special effects. A few places suffer some strange CG insertions such as an early scene between Davis and a friend of the father's. Apparently, the scene was shot around a desk but in front of a green screen. The backdrop in that room, as well as the proceeding one in Miskatonic's library (though the interior is just rows of books that could have been any library), appear to be computer graphics with the actors and a minimal amount of props digitally placed, and not without glitch, in front. A later scene involves the soldiers sweeping a beam of their flashlight across the deserted Gärtener house, and the beam is a CG enhancement that gives an almost Edward Gorey illustration sort of unreality. Computer graphics are also used to represent a couple of heavily infected bodies. These scenes are all case-by-case. Some moments the oddness of them is better for it, in others it comes across as a videogame cutscene. Most prominently, the colour [as opposed to color, or maybe I could say "die farbe"] itself is CG (and more on it in a second) and while not all of it really grooves into the scene it is meant to be part of, it at least becomes effective when it counts the most. Just keep in mind, if you do not like CG in horror: avoid this movie. Nearly all of the key horror scenes, but not all, rely on it as the core of the effect.

As for the colour, a neat little conceit is used. The whole thing is black and white, a grey-tone experience. Except for the color, which is a bright purplish hue. While this matches, slightly, the "violet gas" referred to elsewhere in Lovecraft's vision, in also acts as a bit of meta-filmmaking. For characters in a black and white chromatic universe, any actual color at all is thrust out of normal experience. How do people who see in tones of grey contemplate purple? They do not.

The climax of this colour coming forth from the well scene. Mileage may vary with having the indescribable so clearly portrayed (not that what is portrayed is altogether easily described) but the strange epic nature of the encounter, devoid of all but circumstantial menace after completely destroying an innocent family's lives, gives the movie a punch you did not realize it had been missing for half an hour. It makes earlier scenes with clearly breeze moved tree branches (down to the inclusion of a breeze sound effect, which might be a slightly foley mistake) feel a bit plain in comparison.

The whole package is nice. One of the better members of a still growing family of low-key but passionately indie Lovecraftian horror adaptations. A few flaws pepper the piece. The early CG as well as American aspects and accents—presumably they are meant to be talking non-accented American English—unfortunately trip up the movie early on, even though it regains its footing. The insanity that sets into the family is realized well, but still feels like it could have a bit more of an audio-visual experience. The most damning criticism of the movie is that it is primarily made for those who know and love the story. Little of it acts as a hooks to bring a completely untrained viewer in. We are even deprived of the emotional heart of the blighted family by seeing it, as true to the story, mind you, from a third person perspective. Elementally, all the bits are there but in some places other bits might have been used to better effect.

All in all, a Good adaptation of "The Colour Out of Space" and a worthy purchase for fans of that story and for fans of low-budget, fan-driven filmmaking. If that sentence does not apply to you, then it is better to be thought of as a mostly Fair film with some flaws and some moments of well-played genius. Those in the second group should maybe rent it or borrow it, instead. The DVD includes a few extras, including a deleted scene and some discussion on the behind-the-scenes thoughts. It does have English subtitles as well as a handful of other languages, and the movie itself is shot in a mixture of German and English, but mostly German. You can find out more and see some bits at Die-Farbe.com, the official site. Also check out the trailer, which will go a long way to letting you into a taste of it.

LABEL(s): Horror

BY WEEK: 2010, Week 51
BY MONTH: December 2010