Beyond the Black Rainbow
2011 Directed by Panos Cosmatos
Synopsis
Beyond Science. Beyond Sanity. Beyond Control.
Deep within the mysterious Arboria Institute, a disturbed and beautiful girl is held captive by a doctor in search of inner peace. Her mind controlled by a sinister technology. Silently, she waits for her next session with deranged therapist Dr. Barry Nyle. If she hopes to escape, she must journey through the darkest reaches of The Institute, but Nyle wonʼt easily part with his most gifted and dangerous creation.
Cast
Genres
Popular reviews
More-
"No matter where you go - There you are." B. Banzai
Beyond the Black Rainbow starts out with 1 9 8 3, the year of my birth, my first breath. We then read the words: "A state of mind, a way of being, A practical application of an abstract ideal, Born of a dream to create a reality, A different way to think, A new wave to live, A perfect way to believe."
The film starts out with heavy use of red and ends with a heavy saturation of violet, from elementary science you learn the name Roy G. Biv, to remember the colors of the rainbow.
Panos Cosmatos has created a hypnotic masterpiece. I was literally transfixed to the…
-
Beyond the Black Rainbow is a film swimming in its own vomit of filmic references. It’s an aesthetically stylish pastiche of ‘70s and ‘80s science fiction cinema without the big ideas to back up its bold and arresting images. No doubt it is a film that will find a small and vocal band of followers who find its trippy atmosphere an unforgettable sensory experience or discover greater depth to its underwritten plot and ambiguous images. For those, like me, annoyed by its cribbed style and arty abstraction it is a far more frustrating experience.
Set in an alternate 1983 a mute, telepathic prisoner (Elena) is kept in an isolated research facility and forced to endure ponderous meetings with an evil…
-
I totally get the hate for this film, but fuck you and you're wrong.
BEYOND THE BLACK RAINBOW is like nothing I have seen before. It wears its influences on its sleeve but instead of just being a winking a homage or mishmash of prior sci-fi, Panos Cosmatos takes these influences and creates something new and completely original. The use of color in this film is simply criminal. It is just too fucking good. No film should be this visually arresting. In fact, every aesthetic facet of this film is outstanding, from the colors to the set design to the music. BEYOND THE BLACK RAINBOW is a bizarre, hypnotic, haunting experience like no other.
And yet the film is not…
-
If Argento, Lynch, and Kubrick had a baby it would be called "Beyond the Black Rainbow". Imagine the last 15 minutes of 2001 stretched out to a 2 hour film and you pretty much get the vibe of this. It's also got a very John Carpenterish score that rocks. I don't know what kind of Kool-Aid Panos Cosmatos is drinking but if he's gonna make films like this let's hope he keeps it up.
-
I *think* the title is a drug reference but I can't be sure. I'm a good boy.
Yet another quality bit of genre-filmmaking from Canada. A sci-fi thriller low on plot but high on visuals and audio delights. The story, such as it is, has a woman made captive in a futuristic 80's research facility by a mad doctor. She has developed psychic abilities and he keenly observes her progress.
First time director Panos Cosmatos really nails the look, sound and feel of this. Like a bad trip (I imagine) but a fascinating one. A film for the senses.
-
Light. Red light. Yellow light. Sculpting with light. The 80s. The synthesizer. The power of the synthesizer. The power of the slow droney wail of the synthesizer. Light. Mirrors. Light. Subterranean thrill of prowling camera. Retro charm of computer interface. Mindscape. Kubrick. Lynch. Apichatpong. Unrequited love. Shiny yellow cube thing. Pulsing diamond-shaped white thing. Michael Rogers, best wacko scientist since Dieter Laser. Light. White light. Light. The sublime. The sublime. The sublime.
Recent reviews
More-
Omg. If you're interested in watching a surrealist film I'd venture over to Jodorowsky's El Topo, at least it followed a story and had ideas behind it. The film has a "cool" look and definitely sends out the creepy vibes but is completely void of anything past that. Probably one of the most irritating films I've ever watched.
-
Visually stunning throwback to late 70's/early 80's sci fi that actually feels genuine and not like a bunch of people playing dress up in retro clothes then banging on a scratch filter in final cut, like a lot of retro style films (I'm looking at you "Oh lets make a teh grindhouses filum" bandwagon jumpers)
It's not going to be a film for everyone, it's very sparse in the dialogue department and you're left to fill in the gaps a lot of the time, but if you're anything like me and enjoy when a film takes you on a journey with it's atmosphere alone then you'll like it. It's as beautiful to look at as is nightmarish, the 1966 segment…
-
I totally get the hate for this film, but fuck you and you're wrong.
BEYOND THE BLACK RAINBOW is like nothing I have seen before. It wears its influences on its sleeve but instead of just being a winking a homage or mishmash of prior sci-fi, Panos Cosmatos takes these influences and creates something new and completely original. The use of color in this film is simply criminal. It is just too fucking good. No film should be this visually arresting. In fact, every aesthetic facet of this film is outstanding, from the colors to the set design to the music. BEYOND THE BLACK RAINBOW is a bizarre, hypnotic, haunting experience like no other.
And yet the film is not…
-
Well that was fucking bonkers.
I don't know if I really got this movie, or if this was even a movie to get, but that was one hell of a ride. The mind blowing wasn't confined to just the movie either. Years of watching bizarre cult films from various decades have given me a fairly reliable barometer of years films were made (specifically in regards to bizarre cult films) and man was I off on this one. I thought this was for sure some sort of post-Altered States affair, some lost psychotronic treasure from the 1980's. Nope. Filmed in 2010, release in 2011. The textures, the fonts, the colors, the sets, if put to the Pepsi challenge, would be indistinguishable from from a genuine 80's sci-fi horror cult film. Kudos to the crew on this one, it must've been painstaking and labor intensive, but it was worth it.
-
Beyond the Black Rainbow is a slavishly devoted recreation of the psychedelic LSD laced 60’s era tied up together with a good measure of Kubrick and Lynch. A loose to almost non existent narrative stylised under a darkly lit heavy atmosphere make this a hard film to settle with, so definitely not one for the kids before bed.
Interestingly part of director Panos Cosmatos’ inspiration came from the front covers of horror videos he was unable to see as a kid, instead storing the images in his mind to imagine his own version. He sets his story in some sort of futuristic 1983 allowing a full creative license to indulge in all the retro trimmings of the time. Yet try…
-
An exercise in atmosphere that wears out its welcome about half way through.
-
This is a movie that is only meant for a small subset of movie watchers - those who can use movies themselves as drugs. Combining Kubrick, Cronenberg, Barker and Burroughs, this isn't even really a movie by traditional standards, but an experiment in using cinema to alter consciousness.
It's set in 1983, but the soul of the film is locked in an acid-induced fever dream from 1965. The sort-of-plot is about a girl held against her will in a bizarre hospital, while her doctor does strange things with drugs and a glowing pyramid in an attempt to find ultimate reality. Or something.
The film uses amazing visuals and mesmerising soundscapes to make the viewer feel... weird. It simultaneously shows the attraction and the dangers of using hard drugs. It is sinister, magnificent, scary, and indescribable.
-
awesome
-
cool