This is an amazingly precise adaption of Lovecraft's novel. The Black & white, together with the slow pace and sober atmosphere of the whole movie, works well in creating an atmosphere that really comes close to reading H.P. Lovecraft. There is one major mistake though that I think spoils the whole film: Language! The main part of the story is set to a remote village in or near the Black Forest, which absolutely makes sense. But in such a place, given the 1930's, people would speak dialect, except perhaps the scientists. In the film they don't! As a result, the spoken language sounds dry and synthetic, like a bad synchronization. (Compared to this, the obviously German actor playing an American is minor, and when the young man tries to speak "bad German with American accent", it's simply hilarious. - If they couldn't find or afford appropriate actors, why didn't they make it a silent movie? Maybe only native German speakers will notice that, but as far as I am concerned, this flaw prevented me until now from watching "Die Farbe" a second time. Which is a pity, because everything else is really well made and congenial to H.P. Lovecraft's style - something that can't be said about many HPL adaptations.
Review of The Color Out of Space
