Musique Fantastique

September 9, 2019

HEREDITY’s Colin Stetson Scores Richard Stanley’s COLOR OUT OF SPACE

-Randall D. Larson

Richard Stanley’s (HARDWARE, DUST DEVIL) latest film, coming after the disappointment of his ouster from New Line’s 1996 THE ISLAND OF DOCTOR MOREAU, a project he conceived and developed, is an adaptation of H. P. Lovecraft’s COLOR OUT OF SPACE. It is his first fiction movie since 1992, and stars Nicolas Cage, Joely Richardson, Madeleine Arthur, Brendan Meyer, and Tommy Chong.

Colin Stetson (HEREDITARY, RED DEAD REDEMPTION II, THE FIRST) has provided a synth-based score for the film, which is based on the classic H. P. Lovecraft story about a farm and the family that lives on it slowly being overrun by an otherworldly contamination (previously filmed  in 1965 as DIE, MONSTER DIE!, in 2008 as COLOUR FROM THE DARK, and in 2010 as DIE FARBE [The Color]).

The film had its premiere at last weekend at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). Reviewing the film after its TIFF debut, Variety’s Dennis Harvey wrote, “Stanley’s first narrative feature in decades is a fun, messy, deliberately over-the-top sci-fi horror.” Charles Bramesco of theplaylist wrote of the music: “Indie music world stalwart Colin Stetson contributes a score of sinister synths that reinforces the hallucinatory atmosphere, perfectly replicating the feeling of noise coming from the inside of your skull.”

Just prior to its TIFF premiere, RLJE Films acquired US distribution rights to the film, according to a report in The Hollywood Reporter.