Beyond the Black Rainbow starts out with a lot of promise: a creepy early-80s style video shows some priest-like doctor who tells us about his team of scientists and how they've found some groundbreaking new therapy that will give us all the happiness we want. It's got a very clear "Heaven's Gate" vibe to it, which was a real-life cult from around that time that culminated in them committing suicide.
From the MK ULTRA overtones conjured by the title, and the highly intelligent dialogue of the doctor, I had an idea that the movie was about to be headed into some sickeningly entertaining territory. Something with the feel of Lynch's "Twin Peaks."
Unfortunately, the movie is really more of an homage to early 80s Cronenberg than it is a story on its own. I love weird movies that don't make sense to most people, but I guess this one went over my head because it's like a jumble of images that really don't tell much of a story; it all adds up to this creepy but kind of boring non-sequitur.
Like... Well... So there's this chick in a mental hospital, Elena, and she's really messed up. The doctor, "Barry," is fairly sadistic towards her. When a nurse sadistically mocks Elena for clinging to a picture of her mother, the nurse gets telepathically killed by Elena a la Scanners. So... Elena, I guess, is a mind-control experiment where I guess they traumatize her in an effort to develop her psychic powers.
Great. Then who is Barry? What exactly is that pyramid thing that apparently is a source of ultimate terror to the girl? I dunno.
Then, via flashback, we see that Barry murdered someone when under the influence of some psychedelic drug. Uhhh... Okay... So that's the whole mystery then? A doctor gone nuts after taking some bad acid, like in "Blue Sunshine?" Okay. Great. And now Barry's still psycho, and is taking it out on Elena, I guess.
No grand scheme. Doctor Arboria is a feeble old man whom Barry apparently euthanizes at his request(???). Which, again, doesn't move the plot along or provide intrigue, it's just kind of "WTF." Some genuinely scary imagery here and there, but when you erase all the scribbly lines I think what I'm left with is just a very cliché story dolled up in some 80s retro psychedelia. It's literally like a 60s art-house film crossed with early 80s Cronenberg, but just... The story doesn't make sense.
From the MK ULTRA overtones conjured by the title, and the highly intelligent dialogue of the doctor, I had an idea that the movie was about to be headed into some sickeningly entertaining territory. Something with the feel of Lynch's "Twin Peaks."
Unfortunately, the movie is really more of an homage to early 80s Cronenberg than it is a story on its own. I love weird movies that don't make sense to most people, but I guess this one went over my head because it's like a jumble of images that really don't tell much of a story; it all adds up to this creepy but kind of boring non-sequitur.
Like... Well... So there's this chick in a mental hospital, Elena, and she's really messed up. The doctor, "Barry," is fairly sadistic towards her. When a nurse sadistically mocks Elena for clinging to a picture of her mother, the nurse gets telepathically killed by Elena a la Scanners. So... Elena, I guess, is a mind-control experiment where I guess they traumatize her in an effort to develop her psychic powers.
Great. Then who is Barry? What exactly is that pyramid thing that apparently is a source of ultimate terror to the girl? I dunno.
Then, via flashback, we see that Barry murdered someone when under the influence of some psychedelic drug. Uhhh... Okay... So that's the whole mystery then? A doctor gone nuts after taking some bad acid, like in "Blue Sunshine?" Okay. Great. And now Barry's still psycho, and is taking it out on Elena, I guess.
No grand scheme. Doctor Arboria is a feeble old man whom Barry apparently euthanizes at his request(???). Which, again, doesn't move the plot along or provide intrigue, it's just kind of "WTF." Some genuinely scary imagery here and there, but when you erase all the scribbly lines I think what I'm left with is just a very cliché story dolled up in some 80s retro psychedelia. It's literally like a 60s art-house film crossed with early 80s Cronenberg, but just... The story doesn't make sense.