My first review under the new post-2011 system that lacks a rating of Must See. Up front I will say, I enjoyed Beyond and it made my heart race a bit. Somara was bored. By most accounts this would make the movie a push but let me elaborate, then you can decide to check it out.
The story takes place in 1983 at the Arboria Institute, a futuristic lab-asylum-commune-something where the founders have been promoting their way to permanent happiness; it’s in their presentation. One patient is a young woman named Elena. She’s introverted, never speaks, never interacts, so on. Elena’s handler is Dr. Nyle who resembles a malevolent Carl Sagan. As you watch their interactions, it’s hard to tell if Nyle is Elena’s healer or tormentor. Any further explanation would lead into spoiler territory.
Going in I wasn’t sure which genre Beyond was supposed to be yet I was sucked in by its electronic soundtrack (unavailable in any form I could find). I’ve concluded it’s primarily a Horror movie, just not a traditional one with accepted tropes like The Thing, Cabin in the Woods or Hammer Studios. Beyond is more style over substance. Thus it has more in common with Eraserhead or Holy Mountain; slow, confusing and heavy on technique. I’ve often been critical of such fare. I dislike movies striving to be “post-modern” (aka weird for the sake of being weird), artsy fartsy and/or disjointed messes. However, I hate shallow, blow-it-up, lazy fart-joke-ridden Michael Bay-Adam Sandler crap even more. These “popcorn” movies (Hollywoodspeak for “terrible”) are guilty in spades for being thin on substance. Beyond gets my endorsement because of the touchstones and details writer-director Panos Cosmatos nailed.
- Cosmatos based Beyond upon his memories of films from late-night cable and videotapes he saw when he was a child. I’m guessing he was thinking about the obscure stuff secondary markets made into cult successes: Scanners, Videodrone and Phantasm readily come to mind.
- I loved the scenes showing offices/break room of the Arboria Institute. What people thought was futuristic in the Sixties now appeared very dated by the Eighties. Plus you can sense the neglect.
Beyond the Black Rainbow isn’t for everybody. I completely agree with a comment on Rotten Tomatoes saying it was similar to watching a lava lamp. What I see is Cosmatos’ potential as a director. If he were given someone else’s script, I’m fairly confident he could meld his style/technique to the story and create an interesting film. Here Cosmatos has more in common with David O Russell and Russell’s breakout Spanking the Monkey.