So this is a Nicolas Cage movie. I mean, he didn’t direct it or anything, so it’s not like Nic Cage’s singular vision. But he is the star, which means you pretty much have to go into it expecting a certain amount of over-the-top scenery chewing. And if you do, you will not be disappointed.

Because this is also a Lovecraft movie. The plot is honestly pretty minimal — a medium-weird family is living out in the hinterlands, and a meteorite lands nearby, and now shit’s gonna get super-extra-weird. It’s mostly psychological horror — see above, re Nic Cage scenery-chewing — but there’s definitely some physical horror going on, too.

What makes this movie work is that it leans into the weirdness. The failure mode of Lovecraft’s stories (beyond, obviously, the racism where that pops up) is that he tries to turn his horror into science fiction at the end, and give a tidy little explanation of what had seemed like inexplicable weirdness. And a lot of Lovecraft-inflected horror does that, too — The Twisted Ones was great when it was inexplicable horror, but lost a step when it turned into dark fantasy, for instance.

But this movie just stays in inexplicable horror mode. Yes, we understand that the meteorite (or, I guess, the sentient color that was on it) is wreaking havoc, but nobody ever explains what or how or why or anything. The movie just gets weird and stays there. Which means that, like most adaptations of Lovecraft, it’s a lot better than the original.

Is it great? Enh, I don’t think it rises to that level. But if you’re looking for cosmic horror, it’s at least pretty good. Lightly recommended.