Synopsis
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.
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Cast
- Michael J RogersBarry Nyle
- Eva BourneElena
- Scott HylandsMercurio Arboria
- Marilyn NorryRosemary Nyle
- Rondel ReynoldsonMargo
- Ryley ZingerSentionaut
- Gerry SouthSkinny Hesher
- Chris GauthierFat Hesher
- Geoffrey ConderMutant
- Ronald ReaganSelf (archive footage)
- 88
Slant Magazine
Something like a trippy grindhouse homage whose familiar images are refracted through a prism of blacklight posters, Jodorowsky films, and even Rob Zombie's grungy psychotropic sensibility. - 83
The A.V. Club
Beyond The Black Rainbow is more surface than substance, but those surfaces are gleamingly polished enough to make for a hypnotic experiment that goes beyond genre pastiche or art-school wankery to seem formally daring. - 80
Time Out
Though the finale feels a bit anticlimactic, the lysergic atmosphere, synth-heavy score and logic-resistant story line more than earn Beyond the Black Rainbow's concluding quote, borrowed from another classic midnight movie: "No matter where you go…there you are." See the late show. - 80
Village Voice
At heart, the film is no more (or less) than a brilliantly executed lark, but it's not often that we're reminded with such potency that movies are most delightful as sensory experiences. - 50
The New York Times
Unless you're among those who still drop acid as a midnight-movie apéritif, your enjoyment of this retro oddity remains far from guaranteed. - 50
Austin Chronicle
As filmmaking debuts go, Panos Cosmatos' Beyond the Black Rainbow is as striking as it is nuts. - 40
Boxoffice Magazine
Beyond the Black Rainbow is the kind of movie whose cool-looking trailer entices you to midnight screenings, but the film will bore you so profoundly you'll fall asleep halfway and wake up disoriented during the closing credits. - 38
Boston Globe
Beyond the Black Rainbow has a doomy, dreamy, druggy, draggy feel that's impressively sustained - until it becomes oppressive, then pointless, then laughable.