10 Best Sci-Fi Horror Movies Of The 2020's (So Far)

Richard Stanley's psychedelic thriller kicks things off with a meteorite landing by an isolated farmstead, owned by Nathan Gardner (Nicolas Cage). The space rock irradiates the area, affecting everyone in Nathan's family, either psychologically or physiologically. And since this is a HP Lovecraft adaptation, it isn't long before things go in a cerebral and nightmarish direction.

What makes Lovecraft iconic is how his cosmic stories don't abide by the laws of reality, which makes them extremely unnerving and widely unpredictable.

Fortunately, the director nails this aspect perfectly. Even after the meteorite distorts space-time, urges Nathan's wife to nonchalantly chop her fingers off, and the local animals fuse together, there's never any idea where the story is going next. But since there's always a looming sense that things can (and will) get significantly worse, the tension keeps escalating.

Even though excessive special effects could've undermined the otherworldly elements, the filmmakers used a beautiful mix of subtle CGI, prosthetics, puppetry, animatronics, and luminescent lightning, making everything look suitably out-of-this-world.

Considering how difficult it is to bring HP Lovecraft's work to the big screen, it was bold for Richard Stanley to adapt Colour Out of Space, especially since the director's last adaptation, Island of Dr Moreau, was an unmitigated disaster. 

Against the odds, Stanley capture the cosmic horror and existential dread of the source material, devising one of the best Lovecraftian movies ever.