Starring: Nicolas Cage, Joely Richardson, Madeline Arthur, Elliott Knight, Tommy Chong, Brendan Maher, Julian Hillyard, Josh C.Waller, Q'orianka Kilcher
Distributor: Monster Pictures
Runtime: 111 mins. Reviewed in Feb 2020
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At times more than spaced out!
Here is an adaptation, 21st-century interpretation, of a short story by celebrated horror and supernatural writer, HP Lovecraft. Although Lovecraft died in 1937, his stories have been continually popular, some film versions in the late 1960s and an ever-increasing number of adaptations, especially of short stories, from the 1980s to the present, over 200.
The Lovecraft story here has been adapted by South African director, Richard Stanley, who made an impact in 1990 with Hardware, made a few feature films but fell foul of Hollywood in being sacked from the 1996 The Island of Dr Moreau. This is his first feature film since then although he has been busy with documentaries.
This might be described as an ever more-weirdening film.
While we start with an American nuclear family living out in the woods, escaping from the city, managing their own farm (cultivating and milking llamas), there is something of an eerie voice-over introducing us to the remote woods where they live, suggesting something will threaten.
We get something of an intimation of this when the teenage daughter, Lavinia (Madeline Arthur) is seen performing witchcraft-like rituals and incantations in the forest – but, concerned with the healing of her mother’s illness. She has a younger teenage brother, Benny, who smokes pot and gives the impression that he is generally unreliable. This contrasts with the little brother, Jack, bespectacled, reading, a little intellectual.
But, Nicolas Cage has top billing. In recent years he has made almost 5 films per year, lots of thrillers, many of his characters manic, so that it is difficult to discern whether he is acting manically or his character is becoming ever more mad. He is the father, resenting his overbearing father from the past, yet beginning to repeat the patriarchal domination. His wife is played by Joely Richardson, working from home, a strong-minded character, devoted to her children, but with the terminal illness.
That might seem enough to work on. However, there is more, much much more.
Suddenly, in their yard, there is a close encounter of the whatever kind. A mysterious spaceship, a huge hole in the ground, bright lights, colours out of space. We never see the creatures who have descended to earth nor do we know what their mission is. However, they proceed to wreak a lot of havoc. At first, the family explores the mystery, dad even going on television though making a bit of a hash of his interview. Lavinia has also encountered a student who is doing investigations of the terrain and its water content, Ward (Elliott Knight). He is called in for some expertise by the Mayor and the sheriff.
And, from there, everything goes downhill for the family. If we hadn’t realised before, this is a horror variation on the close encounter theme and the consequent madness and destruction of the family. If the arrival of the spacecraft seemed a touch apocalyptic, then the immediate consequences on the family are visualised as apocalypticer. And, not to be outdone, the film goes into full throttle weirdness and madness, apocalypticest! There are quite a number of disturbing visuals, the ill mother on the couch gradually absorbing her little son, the llamas going berserk, and death and destruction all round.
After the press preview, some of the reviewers were discussing and condemning this film as if it were claiming to be high, intelligent drama. It is obviously not. It is for the horror-fest fans and made accordingly. A bit too much for mainstream audiences – but it should be very popular with the horror devotees.
Peter Malone MSC is an Associate of the Australian Catholic Office for Film and Broadcasting.
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