Die Farbe (The Color Out of Space) - DVD

I consider Germany's 'Die Farbe', the HPL Historical Society's 'Whisperer in Darkness' and Christian Matzke's 'Nyarlathotep' on YouTube to be the 3 best evocations of the world of HPL on film. All 3 of these capture the mood, look and mindscape of Lovecraft's writings, each in their own way. IMOO of course.

Full length feature, well done film. The script, acting, cinematography, and pacing are excellent. If you haven't seen this, do yourself a favor. One of a handful of truly great Lovecraft films.

For this reviewer, the standard by which fan-craft films are held is peaked by HPLHS's production of "The Call of Cthulhu". Watching the film with this in mind, there was a general sense of something absent in "Die Farbe", which failed to capture the qualities of Lovecraft (and weird fiction in general). Most egregious was its pacing: after half the film, any and all sense of unease or creepiness one would hope for had been sucked dry in long, drawn-out scenes. This hinted toward an answer for why Lovecraft is so challenging to adapt directly - namely, that his stories are often short, which helps the spooky atmosphere - as such, it seems justifiably hard to turn them into feature-length films. The adjustments made to the story at hand were perfectly acceptable of an adaption (a back and forth from post-war to Weimar Germany), though the "twist" ending was simply unnecessary and added little to the film. Of the extras included, the one to watch was a BTS on the creative team's special effects - in that department, the movie did a truly remarkable job worthy of praise. All-in-all, however, not a film this fan will be watching again.

Die Farbe is based on the H.P. Lovecraft story The Colour out of Space. As you can imagine, my expectations were pretty darn high! So, did Die Farbe manage to live up to them or not? Yes and no, though definitely mostly yes.
To start of with the less than great parts, my two main complaints are that across the field, there is a tendency to overact, and throughout, the CGI isn't consistently well integrated. Of course, both of these things help give the film a slight touch of the otherwordly.

On the positive side, we can begin with a very nicely adapted script. It takes some freedoms in telling the story, but they work well, and are believable within the world they play out.
There is also the visual side of the film. We get camera work which vary between working standard and some very nice and innovative shots. The film is held in black and white, and it too looks really good and works well with the frame of the story.
Despite the slight overacting, I found the characters likeable and relatable, especially young Ammi (here Armin) who has to stand witness to the decay of his freinds and neighbours the Gardners (here Gärtener).
Finally, a positive note to the score, which was very well written.

So, Die Farbe was a very positive experience, although there are some kinks I am sure director Huan Vu will work out given more experience in the future.

This is an excerpt of my 2015 Letterboxd review, found here:
https://letterboxd.com/caatnilsson/film/the-colour-out-of-space/

I Think This Is A Very Good Rendition Of Lovecraft's Story. It Does Quite A Good Job Of Conveying The Horror and Despair,That The Colour Brought With It. I Think The Characters Are Well Done. Although,There Are Some Changes In The Movie,As Compared To The Written Story,On The Whole,It Sticks Closely Enough To It.