Beyond the Black Rainbow (Review)

I wanted to wrap up my Sidewalk review with a film that took a week to wrap my mind around. Beyond the Black Rainbow, director Panos Cosmatos' 2010 film debut, was by far the most surreal film I've seen over the weekend.

It was on my watch list like many other films, but I must say that I was not expecting to see what I saw. The story is set in the Aboria Institute. Named after its founder Dr. Mercurio Aboria (Scott Hylands), it's a mysterious medical facility specializing in making a "new, better, happier you" through "sensory therapy". Inside the institute is Elena (Eva Allen), a young girl who is routinely tested by Dr. Barry Nyle (Michael Rogers). Elena doesn't say much, in fact she doesn't say anything at all. But it is apparent that she possesses something very special. Dr. Nyle, a very sadistic individual who takes pleasure in testing Elena, seems to have a motive in his insistence on keeping her guarded in her padded room. Dr. Nyle controls her with an odd, glowing pyramid device that keeps her docile. It's as though her mind and her senses are numb to the effects of this apparatus.

Dr Aboria and the "glowing pyramid"

Elena is this subdued girl that seems to be exhausted by all the test and experiments that she endures. You don't know much about her, but in one flashback scene she's just a baby when she is introduced to Dr. Aboria. Clearly she's endured for a long time. Nyle is also present in a flashback, albeit a bit younger. The scenes that shows him becoming who he is tells you there is something off about him. In all his creepiness, he possesses this calm madness about him that you don't see until the film progresses.

Beyond the Black Rainbow is a trippy exploration of the mind. It's spiritual, its cosmic. Set in the early 80's, the look and the sound will remind you of sci fi films during the period. The music is atmospheric and intensifies the action that takes place. Visually haunting, it manages to be both Kubrickian and Lynchian at the same time. The steady, methodical pacing and it's study of dehumanization is hallmark Stanley Kubrick while the film's disturbing imagery and it's refusal to provide a reason for it is classic David Lynch.

Dr. Barry Nyle. A sick individual

I viewed the film and didn't know what the hell I was watching. I enjoyed trying to decipher what was going on thinking I knew and then being given another clue that was totally unrelated. It was an allegorical, symbolic piece that borders on psychedelic and psychotic. It's death and rebirth. There are scenes that had me glued to the screen and everything around me disappeared.

While it seems I'm glowing too much, I'm trying to emphasize just how intense this film was. I'm hoping to find it on DVD just to watch over and over and grasp the concept fully. Beyond the Black Rainbow is Cosmatos' first film and surely it will be his infamous.