The Colour Out of Space
Encyclopedia
"The Colour Out of Space" is a short story
written by American fantasy author H. P. Lovecraft
in March 1927. In the tale, an unnamed narrator pieces together the story of an area known by the locals as the "blasted heath" in the wild hills west of Arkham
, Massachusetts
. Listening to the experiences of an old man by the name of Ammi Pierce, the narrator discovers that many years ago a meteorite crashed into lands then-owned by a farmer by the name of Nahum Gardner. Scientists were unable to determine its origins and the rock eventually shrank into nothingness, leaving something that is described "only by analogy", as a "colour". This "colour" infects the farmstead and drains the life force from anything living nearby; vegetation grows large, but tasteless, animals are driven mad and deformed into grotesque shapes, and the Gardner family members go insane or die one by one. After two weeks of no contact from the family, Pierce visits the site to find that the horror has destroyed the family and the house. Returning with six men to investigate the remains, Pierce witnesses the "colour" pour out of the well and blight everything that it touches before returning to the sky that spawned it. Turning back, however, he witnesses one small remnant of the creature slink back into the well, and is driven insane by the knowledge that the "colour" still lurks on the land.
Lovecraft began writing "The Colour Out of Space" immediately after finishing his previous short novel, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
, and in the midst of final revision on his horror fiction
essay "Supernatural Horror in Literature
". Seeking to create a form of life that was truly alien, he drew his inspiration from numerous fiction and nonfiction sources. First appearing in the September 1927 edition of Hugo Gernsback
's science fiction magazine Amazing Stories
, "The Colour Out of Space" became one of Lovecraft's most popular works and remained his personal favorite short story. It was adapted into feature film versions in 1965, 1987 and 2010.
of an unnamed surveyor from Boston
, "The Colour Out of Space" tells the story of the narrator's attempts to uncover the secrets behind a shunned place referred to be the locals of Arkham
as the "blasted heath". Unable to garner any information from the townspeople, the protagonist seeks out an old and allegedly crazy man by the name of Ammi Pierce who relates his personal experiences with a farmer who used to live on the cursed property, Nahum Gardner. Pierce claims that the troubles began when a meteorite
crashed into Gardner's lands in June 1882.
The meteorite never cools, but begins shrinking and local scientists are unable to discern its origins. As the stone shrinks, it leaves behind globules of colour that are referred to as such "only by analogy", as they do not fall within the range of anything known in the visible spectrum
. These remains eventually disappear but, the following season, Gardner's crops come in unnaturally large and abundantly. When he discovers that, despite their appearance, they are inedible, he accuses the meteorite of having poisoned the soil. Over the following year, the problem begins spreading to the surrounding vegetation and local animals, warping them in unusual ways. The plant life around the farmhouse becomes "slightly luminous in the dark", and Gardner's wife eventually goes mad, forcing him to lock her in the attic. During this time, Gardner begins to isolate his family from the rest of the town and Pierce slowly becomes his only contact with the outside world.
Soon after Gardner's wife becomes mad, the vegetation begins eroding into a grey powder and the water from the well becomes tainted. One of Gardner's sons, Thaddeus, goes insane like his mother and is similarly locked in a different room in the attic. The livestock begins turning grey and dying and, like the crops, their meat is tasteless and inedible. Thaddeus eventually dies and Merwin, another of Gardner's sons, goes missing during an excursion to retrieve water from the well. After two weeks of silence from Gardner, Pierce visits the farmstead and witnesses the tale's eponymous horror for the first time in the attic. Gardner's final son, Zenas, has disappeared and the "colour" has infected Nahum's wife, whom Pierce puts out of her misery. He then flees the decaying house as the horror destroys the last surviving resident, Nahum.
Pierce returns to the farmstead shortly after with six other men, including a doctor, who begin examining Nahum's remains. They discover Merwin and Zenas' eroding skeletons at the bottom of the well, as well as remnants of several other creatures. As they reflect upon their discoveries in the house, a light begins to emit from the well that eventually transforms into the "colour" and begins pouring out, spreading over everything nearby. The men flee the house just as the horror blights the land and then shoots towards the sky. Pierce alone turns back after the "colour" has gone and witnesses a small part of it try to follow the rest, only to fail and return to the well. The knowledge that part of the alien still resides on earth is sufficient to alter his mental state. When some of the men return the following day, there is nothing remaining but a dead horse and acres of grey dust, and the surrounding area is quickly abandoned by all of its remaining residents.
Lovecraft began writing "The Colour Out of Space" in March 1927, immediately after completing The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
. As he wrote the tale, however, he was also typing the final draft of his horror fiction
essay Supernatural Horror in Literature
. Although the author himself claimed that his inspiration was the newly-constructed Scituate Reservoir
in Rhode Island
, Lovecraft scholar S. T. Joshi
believes that the planned Quabbin Reservoir
in Massachusetts
must have influenced him as well. American writer and pulp fiction enthusiast Will Murray
cites paranormal investigator Charles Fort
, and the "thunderstones" (lightning-drawing rocks that may have fallen from the sky) he describes in The Book of the Damned
, as possible inspirations for the behavior of the meteorite.
Lovecraft was dismayed at the all-too human depiction of "aliens" in other works of fiction, and his goal for "Colour" was to create an entity that was truly alien. In doing so, he drew inspiration from a number of sources describing colors outside of the visible spectrum. Most notably, Joshi points to Hugh Elliott's Modern Science and Materialism, a 1919 nonfiction book that mentions the "extremely limited" senses of humans, such that of the many "aethereal waves" striking the eyes, "the majority cannot be perceived by the retina at all". This concept had previously been used in Lovecraft's 1920 short story "From Beyond
". Completed by the end of March, "The Colour Out of Space" was first published in Hugo Gernsback
's science fiction magazine Amazing Stories
in September 1927.
anthology of The Best American Short Stories, appearing in the 1928 "Roll of Honor". Gernsback paid Lovecraft only $25 (approximately $ in present day terms) and was late in doing so, leading Lovecraft to refer to the publisher as "Hugo the Rat". He never again submitted anything to the publication. Lovecraft did not write another major short story until the following year, when he crafted "The Dunwich Horror
", although he did pen "History of the Necronomicon
" and "Ibid
" as minor works in-between, as well as an account of a Halloween
night's dream that he called "The Very Old Folk
".
In addition to being his personal favorite of all of his short stories, critics have considered "The Colour Out of Space" to be one of Lovecraft's best works, as well as the first to establish his trademark blending of science fiction and horror. Lovecraft scholar Donald R. Burleson referred to the tale as "one of his stylistically and conceptually finest short stories". Joshi praises the work as one of Lovecraft's best and most frightening, particularly for the vagueness of the description of the story's eponymous horror. He also lauded the work as Lovecraft's most successful attempt to create something entirely outside of the human experience, as the creature's motive (if any) is unknown and it is impossible to discern whether or not the "colour" is emotional, moral, or even conscious. His only criticism is that it is "just a little too long". The text of "The Colour Out of Space", like many of Lovecraft's works, has fallen into public domain and can be accessed in several compilations of the author's work as well as on the Internet.
, directed by Daniel Haller
, is based on "The Colour Out of Space". Nick Adams plays a scientist by the name of Stephen Reinhart who travels to England with is fiancee (played by Suzan Farmer
) to visit her parents Nahum (Boris Karloff
) and Letitia (Freda Jackson
). There he discovers that Nahum is keeping a space rock in his basement and using it to grow giant vegetation. The rock has driven Nahum and Letitia insane and, in the film's climax, it transforms Nahum into a glowing monster. Lovecraft scholar Don G. Smith claims that, of the scenes that are derived from Lovecraft's work, the "blasted heath doesn't live up to Lovecraft's description" and asserts that overall the film does not successfully capture Lovecraft's intent to "play... with the idea of an alien life form completely different from anything humans can imagine". Smith considers Haller's work to be an imitation of Roger Corman
's Edgar Allan Poe
films rather than a serious attempt at adapting Lovecraft's tale.
Another adaptation, 1987's The Curse
, was directed by David Keith
and more closely follows the plot of Lovecraft's work. A meteorite lands on the property of Nathan Hayes (Claude Akins
) and local physician Alan Forbes (Cooper Huckabee
) is unable to explain why the rock keeps shrinking. He is dissuaded from contacting the authorities by Charlie Davidson (Steve Carlisle), a realtor who does not want the new arrival to discourage the Tennessee Valley Authority
(TVA) from establishing a new reservoir in the area. As the rock disappears, a glowing colour seeps out and into the ground. Within a few weeks, the farm's crops bloom but are soon discovered to be inedible. Shortly after, the local animals, as well as Nathan's wife, begin to go mad and a previously unknown element is discovered in the property's well. Soon Nathan and his son Cyrus (Malcolm Danare) are driven insane as well and begin terrorizing those who come to the farm, including the other children Zack (Wil Wheaton
) and Alice (Amy Wheaton). In the film's conclusion, they are saved by TVA representative Carl Willis (John Schneider
) and the house collapses. Lovecraft scholar Charles P. Mitchell referred to the film as faithful to the author's original work, but claimed that "[t]he last twenty minutes of the film are so disjointed that they virtually ruin the entire film".
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
written by American fantasy author H. P. Lovecraft
H. P. Lovecraft
Howard Phillips Lovecraft --often credited as H.P. Lovecraft — was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction, especially the subgenre known as weird fiction....
in March 1927. In the tale, an unnamed narrator pieces together the story of an area known by the locals as the "blasted heath" in the wild hills west of Arkham
Arkham
Arkham is a fictional city in Massachusetts, part of the Lovecraft Country setting created by H. P. Lovecraft and is featured in many of his stories, as well as those of other Cthulhu Mythos writers....
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
. Listening to the experiences of an old man by the name of Ammi Pierce, the narrator discovers that many years ago a meteorite crashed into lands then-owned by a farmer by the name of Nahum Gardner. Scientists were unable to determine its origins and the rock eventually shrank into nothingness, leaving something that is described "only by analogy", as a "colour". This "colour" infects the farmstead and drains the life force from anything living nearby; vegetation grows large, but tasteless, animals are driven mad and deformed into grotesque shapes, and the Gardner family members go insane or die one by one. After two weeks of no contact from the family, Pierce visits the site to find that the horror has destroyed the family and the house. Returning with six men to investigate the remains, Pierce witnesses the "colour" pour out of the well and blight everything that it touches before returning to the sky that spawned it. Turning back, however, he witnesses one small remnant of the creature slink back into the well, and is driven insane by the knowledge that the "colour" still lurks on the land.
Lovecraft began writing "The Colour Out of Space" immediately after finishing his previous short novel, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward is a short novel by H. P. Lovecraft, written in early 1927, but not published during the author's liftetime...
, and in the midst of final revision on his horror fiction
Horror fiction
Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...
essay "Supernatural Horror in Literature
Supernatural Horror in Literature
"Supernatural Horror in Literature" is a long essay by the celebrated horror writer H. P. Lovecraft surveying the field of horror fiction. It was written between November 1925 and May 1927 and revised in 1933-1934. It was first published in 1927 in the one-shot magazine The Recluse...
". Seeking to create a form of life that was truly alien, he drew his inspiration from numerous fiction and nonfiction sources. First appearing in the September 1927 edition of Hugo Gernsback
Hugo Gernsback
Hugo Gernsback , born Hugo Gernsbacher, was a Luxembourgian American inventor, writer, editor, and magazine publisher, best remembered for publications that included the first science fiction magazine. His contributions to the genre as publisher were so significant that, along with H. G...
's science fiction magazine Amazing Stories
Amazing Stories
Amazing Stories was an American science fiction magazine launched in April 1926 by Hugo Gernsback's Experimenter Publishing. It was the first magazine devoted solely to science fiction...
, "The Colour Out of Space" became one of Lovecraft's most popular works and remained his personal favorite short story. It was adapted into feature film versions in 1965, 1987 and 2010.
Synopsis
Written in the first-person perspectiveFirst-person narrative
First-person point of view is a narrative mode where a story is narrated by one character at a time, speaking for and about themselves. First-person narrative may be singular, plural or multiple as well as being an authoritative, reliable or deceptive "voice" and represents point of view in the...
of an unnamed surveyor from Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, "The Colour Out of Space" tells the story of the narrator's attempts to uncover the secrets behind a shunned place referred to be the locals of Arkham
Arkham
Arkham is a fictional city in Massachusetts, part of the Lovecraft Country setting created by H. P. Lovecraft and is featured in many of his stories, as well as those of other Cthulhu Mythos writers....
as the "blasted heath". Unable to garner any information from the townspeople, the protagonist seeks out an old and allegedly crazy man by the name of Ammi Pierce who relates his personal experiences with a farmer who used to live on the cursed property, Nahum Gardner. Pierce claims that the troubles began when a meteorite
Meteorite
A meteorite is a natural object originating in outer space that survives impact with the Earth's surface. Meteorites can be big or small. Most meteorites derive from small astronomical objects called meteoroids, but they are also sometimes produced by impacts of asteroids...
crashed into Gardner's lands in June 1882.
The meteorite never cools, but begins shrinking and local scientists are unable to discern its origins. As the stone shrinks, it leaves behind globules of colour that are referred to as such "only by analogy", as they do not fall within the range of anything known in the visible spectrum
Visible spectrum
The visible spectrum is the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that is visible to the human eye. Electromagnetic radiation in this range of wavelengths is called visible light or simply light. A typical human eye will respond to wavelengths from about 390 to 750 nm. In terms of...
. These remains eventually disappear but, the following season, Gardner's crops come in unnaturally large and abundantly. When he discovers that, despite their appearance, they are inedible, he accuses the meteorite of having poisoned the soil. Over the following year, the problem begins spreading to the surrounding vegetation and local animals, warping them in unusual ways. The plant life around the farmhouse becomes "slightly luminous in the dark", and Gardner's wife eventually goes mad, forcing him to lock her in the attic. During this time, Gardner begins to isolate his family from the rest of the town and Pierce slowly becomes his only contact with the outside world.
Soon after Gardner's wife becomes mad, the vegetation begins eroding into a grey powder and the water from the well becomes tainted. One of Gardner's sons, Thaddeus, goes insane like his mother and is similarly locked in a different room in the attic. The livestock begins turning grey and dying and, like the crops, their meat is tasteless and inedible. Thaddeus eventually dies and Merwin, another of Gardner's sons, goes missing during an excursion to retrieve water from the well. After two weeks of silence from Gardner, Pierce visits the farmstead and witnesses the tale's eponymous horror for the first time in the attic. Gardner's final son, Zenas, has disappeared and the "colour" has infected Nahum's wife, whom Pierce puts out of her misery. He then flees the decaying house as the horror destroys the last surviving resident, Nahum.
Pierce returns to the farmstead shortly after with six other men, including a doctor, who begin examining Nahum's remains. They discover Merwin and Zenas' eroding skeletons at the bottom of the well, as well as remnants of several other creatures. As they reflect upon their discoveries in the house, a light begins to emit from the well that eventually transforms into the "colour" and begins pouring out, spreading over everything nearby. The men flee the house just as the horror blights the land and then shoots towards the sky. Pierce alone turns back after the "colour" has gone and witnesses a small part of it try to follow the rest, only to fail and return to the well. The knowledge that part of the alien still resides on earth is sufficient to alter his mental state. When some of the men return the following day, there is nothing remaining but a dead horse and acres of grey dust, and the surrounding area is quickly abandoned by all of its remaining residents.
Background
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward is a short novel by H. P. Lovecraft, written in early 1927, but not published during the author's liftetime...
. As he wrote the tale, however, he was also typing the final draft of his horror fiction
Horror fiction
Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...
essay Supernatural Horror in Literature
Supernatural Horror in Literature
"Supernatural Horror in Literature" is a long essay by the celebrated horror writer H. P. Lovecraft surveying the field of horror fiction. It was written between November 1925 and May 1927 and revised in 1933-1934. It was first published in 1927 in the one-shot magazine The Recluse...
. Although the author himself claimed that his inspiration was the newly-constructed Scituate Reservoir
Scituate Reservoir
The Scituate Reservoir is the largest inland body of water in the state of Rhode Island. It has an aggregate capacity of and a surface area of 5.3 square miles...
in Rhode Island
Rhode Island
The state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, more commonly referred to as Rhode Island , is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area...
, Lovecraft scholar S. T. Joshi
S. T. Joshi
Sunand Tryambak Joshi — known as S. T. Joshi — is an award-winning Indian American literary critic, novelist, and a leading figure in the study of Howard Phillips Lovecraft and other authors of weird and fantastic fiction...
believes that the planned Quabbin Reservoir
Quabbin Reservoir
The Quabbin Reservoir is the largest inland body of water in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and was built between 1930 and 1939. Today along with the Wachusett Reservoir, it is the primary water supply for Boston, some to the east, as well as 40 other communities in Greater Boston...
in Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
must have influenced him as well. American writer and pulp fiction enthusiast Will Murray
Will Murray (writer)
Will Murray is the author of more than fifty novels, a scholar of pulp fiction and a writer of numorous comic books. Much of his fiction has been published under pseudonyms.-Novels and magazines:...
cites paranormal investigator Charles Fort
Charles Fort
Charles Hoy Fort was an American writer and researcher into anomalous phenomena. Today, the terms Fortean and Forteana are used to characterize various such phenomena. Fort's books sold well and are still in print today.-Biography:Charles Hoy Fort was born in 1874 in Albany, New York, of Dutch...
, and the "thunderstones" (lightning-drawing rocks that may have fallen from the sky) he describes in The Book of the Damned
The Book of the Damned
The Book of the Damned was the first published nonfiction work of the author Charles Fort . Dealing with various types of anomalous phenomena including UFOs, strange falls of both organic and inorganic materials from the sky, odd weather patterns, the possible existence of creatures generally held...
, as possible inspirations for the behavior of the meteorite.
Lovecraft was dismayed at the all-too human depiction of "aliens" in other works of fiction, and his goal for "Colour" was to create an entity that was truly alien. In doing so, he drew inspiration from a number of sources describing colors outside of the visible spectrum. Most notably, Joshi points to Hugh Elliott's Modern Science and Materialism, a 1919 nonfiction book that mentions the "extremely limited" senses of humans, such that of the many "aethereal waves" striking the eyes, "the majority cannot be perceived by the retina at all". This concept had previously been used in Lovecraft's 1920 short story "From Beyond
From Beyond (short story)
"From Beyond" is a short story by science fiction and horror fiction writer H. P. Lovecraft. It was written in 1920 and was first published in The Fantasy Fan in June 1934 .-Synopsis:...
". Completed by the end of March, "The Colour Out of Space" was first published in Hugo Gernsback
Hugo Gernsback
Hugo Gernsback , born Hugo Gernsbacher, was a Luxembourgian American inventor, writer, editor, and magazine publisher, best remembered for publications that included the first science fiction magazine. His contributions to the genre as publisher were so significant that, along with H. G...
's science fiction magazine Amazing Stories
Amazing Stories
Amazing Stories was an American science fiction magazine launched in April 1926 by Hugo Gernsback's Experimenter Publishing. It was the first magazine devoted solely to science fiction...
in September 1927.
Reception and legacy
"The Colour Out of Space" became the only work from Amazing Stories to make Edward O'Brien'sEdward Joseph Harrington O'Brien
Edward Joseph Harrington O'Brien was a U.S. author, poet, editor and anthologist.He was noted for compiling an annual collection of short stories by U.S. authors, The Best American Short Stories.-External links:...
anthology of The Best American Short Stories, appearing in the 1928 "Roll of Honor". Gernsback paid Lovecraft only $25 (approximately $ in present day terms) and was late in doing so, leading Lovecraft to refer to the publisher as "Hugo the Rat". He never again submitted anything to the publication. Lovecraft did not write another major short story until the following year, when he crafted "The Dunwich Horror
The Dunwich Horror
"The Dunwich Horror" is a short story by H. P. Lovecraft. Written in 1928, it was first published in the April 1929 issue of Weird Tales . It takes place in Dunwich, a fictional town in Massachusetts...
", although he did pen "History of the Necronomicon
History of the Necronomicon
"History of the Necronomicon" is a short story written by H. P. Lovecraft in 1927, and published in 1938. It describes the fictional book the Necronomicon, a now-famous element used in several of his stories....
" and "Ibid
Ibid (short story)
"Ibid" is a parody by American horror fiction writer H. P. Lovecraft, written in 1927 or 1928 and first published in the January 1938 issue of O-Wash-Ta-Nong.- Summary :...
" as minor works in-between, as well as an account of a Halloween
Halloween
Hallowe'en , also known as Halloween or All Hallows' Eve, is a yearly holiday observed around the world on October 31, the night before All Saints' Day...
night's dream that he called "The Very Old Folk
The Very Old Folk
"The Very Old Folk" is a short story by American horror fiction writer H. P. Lovecraft. It is reportedly a recording of a dream, where the main protagonist is a Roman military official in Hispania. The countryside is, every year, ravaged by terrible hill people who kidnap citizens and perform cruel...
".
In addition to being his personal favorite of all of his short stories, critics have considered "The Colour Out of Space" to be one of Lovecraft's best works, as well as the first to establish his trademark blending of science fiction and horror. Lovecraft scholar Donald R. Burleson referred to the tale as "one of his stylistically and conceptually finest short stories". Joshi praises the work as one of Lovecraft's best and most frightening, particularly for the vagueness of the description of the story's eponymous horror. He also lauded the work as Lovecraft's most successful attempt to create something entirely outside of the human experience, as the creature's motive (if any) is unknown and it is impossible to discern whether or not the "colour" is emotional, moral, or even conscious. His only criticism is that it is "just a little too long". The text of "The Colour Out of Space", like many of Lovecraft's works, has fallen into public domain and can be accessed in several compilations of the author's work as well as on the Internet.
Film adaptations
The 1965 film Die, Monster, Die!Die, Monster, Die!
Die, Monster, Die! is a 1965 horror film directed by Daniel Haller. The film is a loose adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's story The Colour Out of Space. The story is about an American scientist who pays a visit to the estate of his fiancée's family...
, directed by Daniel Haller
Daniel Haller
Daniel Haller is an American film and television director, production designer, and art director. Haller studied at the renowned Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles....
, is based on "The Colour Out of Space". Nick Adams plays a scientist by the name of Stephen Reinhart who travels to England with is fiancee (played by Suzan Farmer
Suzan Farmer
Suzan Farmer is an English actress, mainly on television.She first appeared in an episode of the Patrick McGoohan series Danger Man entitled No Marks for Servility and went on to feature in many other ITC series in the 1960s and 70s including UFO, The Saint, Man in a Suitcase and The Persuaders!...
) to visit her parents Nahum (Boris Karloff
Boris Karloff
William Henry Pratt , better known by his stage name Boris Karloff, was an English actor.Karloff is best remembered for his roles in horror films and his portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in Frankenstein , Bride of Frankenstein , and Son of Frankenstein...
) and Letitia (Freda Jackson
Freda Jackson
Freda Maud Jackson was an English stage actress who also worked in film and TV. Born in Nottingham, she was famous for her stage role as the cruel landlady Mrs. Voray in the play No Room at the Inn in the mid-1940s; she appeared in the film adaptation of 1948...
). There he discovers that Nahum is keeping a space rock in his basement and using it to grow giant vegetation. The rock has driven Nahum and Letitia insane and, in the film's climax, it transforms Nahum into a glowing monster. Lovecraft scholar Don G. Smith claims that, of the scenes that are derived from Lovecraft's work, the "blasted heath doesn't live up to Lovecraft's description" and asserts that overall the film does not successfully capture Lovecraft's intent to "play... with the idea of an alien life form completely different from anything humans can imagine". Smith considers Haller's work to be an imitation of Roger Corman
Roger Corman
Roger William Corman is an American film producer, director and actor. He has mostly worked on low-budget B movies. Some of Corman's work has an established critical reputation, such as his cycle of films adapted from the tales of Edgar Allan Poe, and in 2009 he won an Honorary Academy Award for...
's Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...
films rather than a serious attempt at adapting Lovecraft's tale.
Another adaptation, 1987's The Curse
The Curse (1987 film)
The Curse is a 1987 horror film adaptation of H. P. Lovecraft's The Colour Out of Space directed by David Keith.-Plot:Nathan Hayes is a religious man trying to hold onto his farm and keep his family in line. A real estate developer is trying to buy most of the farm property in the area, including Mr...
, was directed by David Keith
David Keith
David Lemuel Keith is an American actor and director. He received Golden Globe nominations for Best Supporting Actor and New Star of the Year – Actor for his performance in An Officer and a Gentleman.-Career:...
and more closely follows the plot of Lovecraft's work. A meteorite lands on the property of Nathan Hayes (Claude Akins
Claude Akins
Claude Marion Akins was an American actor with a long career on stage, screen and television.Powerful in appearance and voice, Akins could be counted on to play the clever tough guy, on the side of good or bad, in movies and television. He is best remembered as Sheriff Lobo in the 1970s TV series...
) and local physician Alan Forbes (Cooper Huckabee
Cooper Huckabee
Cooper Huckabee is an film and television actor.-Early life:Huckabee attended Davidson High School in Mobile, Alabama. At USM, he received an Athletic Administration Degree.-Acting career:...
) is unable to explain why the rock keeps shrinking. He is dissuaded from contacting the authorities by Charlie Davidson (Steve Carlisle), a realtor who does not want the new arrival to discourage the Tennessee Valley Authority
Tennessee Valley Authority
The Tennessee Valley Authority is a federally owned corporation in the United States created by congressional charter in May 1933 to provide navigation, flood control, electricity generation, fertilizer manufacturing, and economic development in the Tennessee Valley, a region particularly affected...
(TVA) from establishing a new reservoir in the area. As the rock disappears, a glowing colour seeps out and into the ground. Within a few weeks, the farm's crops bloom but are soon discovered to be inedible. Shortly after, the local animals, as well as Nathan's wife, begin to go mad and a previously unknown element is discovered in the property's well. Soon Nathan and his son Cyrus (Malcolm Danare) are driven insane as well and begin terrorizing those who come to the farm, including the other children Zack (Wil Wheaton
Wil Wheaton
Richard William "Wil" Wheaton III is an American actor and writer. As an actor, he is best known for his portrayals of Wesley Crusher on the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation, Gordie Lachance in the film Stand by Me and Joey Trotta in Toy Soldiers...
) and Alice (Amy Wheaton). In the film's conclusion, they are saved by TVA representative Carl Willis (John Schneider
John Schneider (television actor)
John Richard Schneider III is an American actor and singer. He is best known for his portrayal of Bo Duke in the 1980s American television series The Dukes of Hazzard, and as Jonathan Kent on Smallville, a 2001 television adaptation of Superman.Alongside his acting career, Schneider performed as a...
) and the house collapses. Lovecraft scholar Charles P. Mitchell referred to the film as faithful to the author's original work, but claimed that "[t]he last twenty minutes of the film are so disjointed that they virtually ruin the entire film".