ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we seek to observe how H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Colour out of Space” (1927) inspired two Brazilian short films, considering the notions of adaptation and appropriation. The first piece is the uncredited Estrela Radiante (Shining Star, 2013). By relating the mysterious Lovecraftian color to radiation, what is implied in Die, Monster, Die! (1965) and other cinematic treatments of the story, and by authors such as Joshi (2013) and Reis-Filho (2020), the film evokes the Cesium-137 accident in Goiânia, a city in the Brazilian Central-West region, which occurred in 1987. The second is the eponymous A Cor que Caiu do Espaço (The Colour out of Space, 2016), an original take by trash film veteran Petter Baiestorf. The seven-minute production is the unique Brazilian film intended to be a direct adaptation of Lovecraft, and the only one to credit him as a screenwriter. With many references to pop culture, it is likewise relevant to notice how these films dialogue with both Lovecraft’s oeuvre and the horror and science fiction films made in other countries (especially in the United States) in the final decades of the twentieth century and at the early twenty-first century. However, among world cinema tropes and Lovecraftian themes, a Brazilian ethos definitely stands out. Be it in the cinematic forms of these appropriations, but also in the ways sociocultural issues emerge, exposing patriarchal dominance, machismo, racism, religious fundamentalism, and deep and unjust social inequality. We base our article on Philippe Met’s studies on Lovecraftian cinema and on Linda Hutcheon’s (2006) theories on adaptation. Also, we will draw on the notion of “anthropophagy”—inherent in Brazilian adaptations.
