Tag Archives: Nicholas Cage

Halloween Horror Fest Out of Space

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More Halloween friendly movies for your enjoyment – here’s Part 2 of our 2025 reviews!

Color Out Of Space (2019)

Based on the H.P. Lovecraft short story The Color Out of Space, this film attempts to create an authentic retelling in modern times. While it’s not totally derived from the source material, it makes a decent job of reimagining it for a new audience.

Nicholas Cage plays Nathan Gardner, who has relocated with his family from the city to his father’s farm in a remote New England area.  One night, a mysterious meteorite falls from the sky, bathing everything in a strange, indescribable colour. 

Very soon afterwards, things start to get weird for the Gardner family.  Unusual plants and insects begin to appear, electronic devices go haywire, and the family begin to lose the plot.  And with daughter Lavinia playing around with the dreaded book, the Necronomicon, things can only get worse…

I can’t decide if Color Out of Space is just “good” or really excellent.  As events spiral out of control, the film goes from unsettling to downright grotesque.  Cage’s performance is vintage Cage, crashing into an unhinged state.

But the sound design, music score and glorious photography make this film an unnerving experience.  Add in some nods to Lovecraft’s existential cosmic horror and you get a very disturbing, nihilistic film.  You’ll either love this film or be completely unmoved by it.  I loved it.

8.5/10

Scooby Doo (2002)

After the warped intensity of Lovecraft, it’s time for a change of pace!  And what could be better than some Scooby Doo?  The old Hanna  Barbera cartoon was a childhood gateway to all things spooky for me and many, many others – so Scoob and the gang are totally appropriate Halloween viewing.

This live action film sees the animation come vividly to life.  Though the human characters are actors, Scooby Doo is CGI so everything feels like the cartoon transposed into the real world.

Tensions are high within Mystery Inc, leading to the gang going their separate ways.  Shaggy (perfectly played by Matthew Lillard) is still paired with Scoob, and they find themselves invited to a tropical resort to solve a mystery.  Their erstwhile comrades have also been asked to attend, so slowly Fred (Freddie Prinze Jr.), Daphne (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and Velma (Linda Cardellini) find themselves working together again.

The casting is spot on for this film, though some of the character’s foibles have been exaggerated from the original cartoon depictions.  The Scooby Doo film is silly, but its great fun for kids of all ages – if the older “kids” can just go with the flow and enjoy it.

7/10

The Halloween Horror Fest Commands

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It’s time for some more mini horror movie reviews, as the spooky month of October demands. Settle down, kids!

Scream 2 (1997)

We’ve covered the first Scream film a while back (2016, hot tub fans!) and eventually I’ve got round to watching the sequel. Unlike Scream, which I had seen before my Halloween Horror Fest review, I’d never bothered to watch Scream 2 till now.

Slasher movies ain’t really my bag, as I know I’ve mentioned before. Nor are “modern” films (OK, this is 25 years old, whatevs) or films about teenage Americans. Never the less, I’d enjoyed Scream and the second instalment has been on my watch list for a while.

Here the survivor from the first movie, Sidney (Neve Campbell) is now attending college when a spate of copy cat killings, inspired by the deeds of Ghostface in the previous film, start to occur. There follows a series of nasty murders and numerous twists and turns as the killer stalks and slays various characters. All the time, the audience is trying to guess the identity of the new Ghostface.

There’s nothing supernatural here, but there are plenty of jumps and surprises. Like the first film, this sequel attempts to play with the audiences expectations with numerous well observed references to other movies. Also like the first film, I found Scream 2 far more entertaining than I expected.

7.5/10

Renfield (2023)

Bang up to date now, with this 2023 movie starring Nicholas Hoult as the titular character, the familiar of Dracula. Yes, THE Dracula, played here with demonic glee by the one and only Nicholas Cage.

Here the trusted and sort-of immortal Renfield, the Count’s trusted servant, becomes dissatisfied with his lot – what with all the seeking victims and removing the gory evidence his life entails. Renfield joins a counselling group for people in abusive relationships, initially to stalk the abusers for Dracula’s prey. Eventually, the familiar decides to remove himself from his toxic existence, but not without resistance from his former master.

I was looking forward to seeing this movie, but sadly missed it in the cinema. The short time it ran in cinemas should have given me a clue as to whether it was any good…

What could have been a fresh look at the horror of the Dracula legend instead morphs into an action comedy, with guns and explosions and over the top fight scenes. It’s still an entertaining movie, but not what I hoped for at all. I hate dumb action movies and Renfield steers far too close to those waters.

Having said that, Cage is brilliant as the Lord of the Undead and I’d love to see more of him in this role.

Watchable but throwaway, which is a shame. Next.

6/10