COLOUR FROM THE DARK

In the midst of World War II, an Italian farming family tries to make ends meet, between the scarcity of the harvest and the eternal wait for Luigi to return from the front unharmed. One day, while Pietro and Alice try to retrieve a bucket that fell into the well, a foul-smelling substance is released from the hole, contaminating the water Pietro uses to irrigate the fields and to quench the family's thirst. From that moment on, something changes in all the family members, starting with Lucia, Pietro's wife and Alice's older sister, who seems possessed by a diabolical entity. Independent director Ivan Zuccon has always had a soft spot for Lovecraft, as he demonstrated in his first two works, explicitly paying homage to the American writer, and in "La casa sfuggita", where he re-adapted three of his minor stories. Now, Zuccon tackles a true adaptation of one of the works of the "Recluse of Providence", "The Colour Out of Space", one of Lovecraft's most famous and successful stories, written in 1927 and belonging to the so-called Cthulhu Cycle, a story that perfectly blends horror and science fiction suggestions and has already provided material to work with in horror cinema, inspiring films such as "The Death from the Crystal Eye" and "The Cursed Farm". Zuccon reworks the original material with some freedom, modifying the geographical and temporal location and completely eliminating the science fiction component (the color no longer comes from space but from the bowels of the earth!) in favor of a very personal re-reading in exorcistic key. The result obtained by Zuccon is very commendable, to the point that "Colour from the Dark" can be considered one of the best films by the director from Ferrara, now capable of elaborating recurring themes from film to film with a well-recognizable style. What appears most interesting in this film is precisely the "novelty" element that characterizes it in comparison with the source material; therefore, we can identify a choice that is surely very appropriate and also unusual, the desire to set the story during the war period, showing a family in constant wait for the situation to change (and especially for the protagonist's younger brother to return from the front) but at the same time estranged from the dynamics that characterize true survival dictated by the state of war. We meet restless characters but photographed while performing their daily activities, surely not influenced by the catastrophe that is spreading in the rest of the world; and yet Alice's nightmares and the first signs of family instability seem to want to anticipate the horror that will come. Zuccon is very skilled at playing with anticipation, continuously infusing small clues and fundamental details that continuously lead to narrative and tense growth. Yet, despite the essentiality of the narrative steps, during and at the end of the viewing, one has the impression that the 90 minutes of duration contain a lot of superfluous, a certain redundancy concentrated on the central part of the film that manages to make the story less fluid. The other element of interest is constituted by the exorcistic variant introduced in the story that tends to transform the post-contagion Lucia into a possessed worthy of Friedkin's film. Thus, there is the opportunity to introduce a priest (cowardly and weak to the appetites of the flesh) and an exorcism, which represent one of the most terrifying and successful moments of the entire film. Zuccon, moreover, does not fail to introduce a strong blasphemous component that recalls the previous "NyMpha", perhaps this time a bit more gratuitous but nevertheless of strong impact. Excellent the splatter effects, less invasive compared to some previous works of the director, and above all the make-up effects of Mauro Fabriczky and Fiona Walsh, realistic and impressive, especially for the aesthetic representation of the possessed Lucia. A different discourse concerns the frequent computer graphics effects, surely acceptable although still too far from the perfection that many of those used for rich productions can aspire to; the thing that a bit disconcerts is the too frequent recourse to these effects even where they could have been done without, thus smoothing out the dramaticity of some scenes. Good the acting department that can count on some professionals little known to the public but of international fame. Among all, Debbie Rochon (Lucia, in the film) stands out for intensity and credibility, a Canadian actress with an incredible filmography that boasts over 150 films in less than twenty years (an average of 10-15 films per year!), almost all Z-grade horror and fanta-erotic (she also appears in "Toxic Avenger IV" and other recent Troma films). Very convincing also Marysa Kay in the role of the mute Alice, who uses the eyes of her rag doll to observe the horror and the unknown, while a bit less praiseworthy although not despicable the interpretation of Michael Segal (Pietro), now a fixed presence in Zuccon's films. "Colour from the Dark" represents the confirmation that Ivan Zuccon has talent, already amply demonstrated with the previous very successful "NyMpha", and one wonders why his films do not manage to find distribution in his/our country (with the exception of "Bad Brains" which then represents one of the least interesting things in his career). To be sought and seen.