Science Fiction Slashers and Hippy Psychotropics

Is it possible to start out as a freaky in your head acid trip, amp up into science fiction land, and then shift further into the slasher genre without becoming so completely convoluted that you lose your audience within five minutes?  Apparently it is, or at least, that's what I marveled at.  Director Panos Cosmatos' first feature film, Beyond The Black Rainbow seems to achieve this miracle.

The film starts with a kind of psychedelic infomercial about the Arboria Institute, a futuristic psychiatric care facility which fuses modern technology, psychology, and pharmacology with a sprinkle of New Age Hippy TLC.  Of course, this is not what really goes on in Arboria.  For that matter, I'm not really sure EXACTLY what happens in Arboria, but I can say that the relationship between patient Elena and Dr. Barry Nyle (the focus of the story) is anything but healing.

Nyle is crafting Elena into something.  What that something is, is not fully explained, but plenty is left up to the imagination.  All Elena craves is to see her father, the ailing Dr. Arboria, but Nyle keeps her from him, tormenting her in order to harness a unique power from her.

Visually, the film is incredible.  A plethora of beautifully contrasting color tones and blending cuts create a very unsettling feeling; natural, given the context of the story.  It is very clear that the Dr. is not all he appears to be and that the patient is more than she appears to be, and the visuals continually heighten this feeling.  Swirling cuts fade and cross-fade, blending with freeze frames and heady imagery to put us into the characters rather than merely observe them.

Somewhere along the way, the genre bends as Elena attempts to flee from her white room of constant torment and we journey with her from a mad fluorescent prison into the lush real world of plants and fresh air.

Everyone I've talked to who has seen this film has had something unique that struck them about it, whether they enjoyed the film or not.  Suffice to say, it's a multiple viewing type of film, and you will probably still NEVER quite understand exactly where it came from.  What I can tell you is this:  Panos Cosmatos was never allowed to watch horror movies as a young child.  Instead, he would look at the VHS cases and imagine what the films were about, which were dark and twisted.  When he finally DID start watching these films his mind was completely blown.

The film just completed a week long run at Cinefamily in Los Angeles.  If you can find it anywhere, do not hesitate to check it out.