Beyond the Black Rainbow (2010)

November 5, 2022 7:51 PM

Despite being under heavy sedation, a young woman tries to make her way out of the Arboria Institute, a secluded, quasifuturistic commune.

(Description from IMDB, which uhhhh does not remotely capture this movie.)

JustWatch listing. Rotten Tomatoes page. I think you either love this one or can’t stand it, not sure there’s a middle ground.

posted by skycrashesdown (10 comments total)

Haha, I’m the middle ground in that I watched half of it but didn’t finish before it was yanked from the streaming service I was watching it on. I did love it though, thanks for reminding me to seek it out and watch the whole thing!
posted by ejs at 8:36 PM on November 5, 2022

I saw this movie but I have no idea what to say about it. Accurately tagged "wtf."
posted by adamrice at 9:00 PM on November 5, 2022

I saw this about ten years ago now. There's a lot of great visuals, but I hated the pacing. I get the idea, but for me it just made the whole thing a slog.
posted by vibratory manner of working at 9:15 PM on November 5, 2022 [3 favorites]

I have to watch it again, but I remember enjoying the ride. I saw it around the same time I saw The Love Witch, and they both fit my vibe at the time, for whatever that's worth.
posted by rhizome at 1:41 AM on November 6, 2022

I generally liked it. I think I watched it after seeing Mandy, and while there are some weird similar vibes they are totally different. I don't mind movies that develop slowly, and in fact generally prefer it, but I could see how the pacing of this movie could be a turn off.
posted by Literaryhero at 3:46 AM on November 6, 2022

I'll have more to say later, but this is one of my favorite movies ever. This and Mandy constructed, or maybe just unlocked, an entirely new headspace for me. I'm stoked to see Cosmatos' episode of Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities.
posted by heteronym at 5:38 AM on November 6, 2022 [4 favorites]

I saw this about a year ago and liked it quite a bit. There was some serious "Dharma Initiative" vibes with the world building.

My favorite bit, hands down, was after watching this poor woman navigate this futuristic alien building, she stumbles across... a break room. They only have one shot of the room, but they hold it for so long as she slowly crosses through it. It forces you to consider how this complex went from the normalcy of that break room from back in the day, to it's current horrifying state.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 5:50 AM on November 6, 2022 [3 favorites]

I remember when I got to Eleven's origin story on Stranger Things, I said to myself, "Oh, okay. This is Beyond the Black Rainbow for normal people."
posted by kittens for breakfast at 9:05 AM on November 6, 2022 [5 favorites]

I saw this when it first came out, and a few times after. The entire thing is 1000% my vibes, but I have a hard time recommending it to people because the soporific pacing is understandably a significant hurdle for many. Still, the slowly unfurling dread and alternate-dimension 80s aesthetic, plus the phenomenal score by Sinoia Caves just absolutely fill a spot in my soul.

The ooooone quibble I would have is the hard cinematic tone-shift that takes place in the last 15-ish minutes of the movie, where the languid dreamlike elements of the institute and its inhabitants is replaced with a weirdly lo-fi naturalism. I get that it's a deliberate contrast of environments and psychic settings, but the gear-shift was so abrupt that it never quite gels in my perception of a narrative whole. It feels like the wrong kind of unsettling, if that makes any sense.
posted by FatherDagon at 10:16 AM on November 7, 2022 [4 favorites]

The ooooone quibble I would have is the hard cinematic tone-shift that takes place in the last 15-ish minutes of the movie....

I haven't rewatched this since it first came out because I was totally absorbed in the movie up to that point and then I hated this sequence so much for so crudely breaking the spell. It's an absolute masterclass in creating and sustaining a very specific mood and tone all the way up until that scene. I'm still going to watch everything Cosmatos does (and I did really enjoy Mandy and The Viewing), but I don't know if I'm ever going to get over this, heh.
posted by tomorrowromance at 1:38 PM on November 7, 2022