Beyond the Black Rainbow

Beyond science. Beyond sanity. Beyond control.

Yesterday I was led to a trailer for a movie I'd heard absolutely nothing about with the intriguing title Beyond the Black Rainbow. Now, I don't normally come over all excitable about trailers but this one instantly made an impact. The retro typefaces, block colour schemes, minimalist interiors, industrial exteriors and an analogue synth score composed by Jeremy Schmidt of Canadian rock band Black Mountain. This is sci-fi with an edge, a feel for design, a fittingly 'other-worldly' milieu and a sinister, lingering, unsettling aura.

I shared it on Twitter and Facebook and the feedback was uniformly positive, with suggestions as to the movies/shows it evokes. Phase IV, THX 1138, early Cronenberg, Altered States, Lost - hallowed company to be compared with. It's no mere parody of or homage to any of those though, the trailer for Beyond the Black Rainbow (what is the black rainbow? The edge of sanity? Death?) firmly establishes its own clearly defined hermetic universe. Described as 'a Reagan-era fever dream' inspired by 'memories of midnight movies and Saturday morning cartoons'. First time director Panos Cosmatos' movie has also been likened to a cross between 2001 and The Prisoner, and follows in the wake of the similarly off-kilter Canadian sci-fi/horror movie Pontypool. Watch the trailer and be prepared to be wowed and sucked into Black Rainbow's creepy, stylised world.