Beyond the Black Rainbow

The debut feature from Mandy writer-director Panos Cosmatos crafts an immersive world overflowing with ominous atmosphere, but its threadbare narrative kept me at arm’s length.

Set in 1983, the story concerns the mysterious Arboria institute, a research facility promising “a happier you” through a blend of science and spirituality.

The institute is run Dr. Nyle, a man who seems coldly detached from his own life. His sole pleasure comes from tormenting a young woman named Elena, who he keeps prisoner deep within the institute. Elena displays psychic powers, which Nyle suppresses with a glowing pyramid-shaped device.

As Nyle’s obsession with Elena tips into madness, Elena must navigate the institute’s horrors to find her way to freedom.

Viewers coming from Mandy should feel right at home. After an opening infomercial for Arboria where its founder extols the institute’s wonders with a twinkle of clinical mania that would feel at home in David Cronenberg’s earliest works, Cosmatos settles into his familiar visual style. The prominent use of red gels, the droning synth score, the whispered and sometimes distorted dialogue, vaguely esoteric artifacts, leather-clad assassins… they’re all here. The finale even includes a scene where a car’s driver looks over at a hallucinated passenger.

The theme of control should also prove familiar. Nyle exerts control over Elena, as the institute exerts control over him, and he over himself. While Mandy saw Cosmatos explore what happens when the controlled becomes the controller, Beyond the Black Rainbow proves more interested in what happens when the control is removed.

But for all the visual and thematic similarities, Beyond the Black Rainbow lacks Mandy’s narrative propulsion and emotional stakes. Though the story is ostensibly about Elena escaping Arboria, Cosmatos isn’t interested in her. She has no personality, few lines, and most of her scenes feature her crying as Cosmatos shoots her in a low-angle closeup reminiscent of Carrie. She’s a MacGuffin.

Instead, Cosmatos centers the story on Nyle’s descent into madness. Michael Rogers shines in the part, delivering a performance reminiscent of Christian Bale’s Patrick Bateman in American Psycho, albeit more subdued. He’s a monster masquerading as a man who drops his disguise as the movie unwinds.

But its not enough, as Cosmatos seems determined to avoid any semblance of action. This choice renders the film surprisingly inert. While it contains a story, we’re not invested in its outcome, and, devoid of momentum, the film borders on tedious.

That said, part of me appreciates how Cosmatos sticks to his guns. The final showdown between Elena and Nyle proves more confrontational than challenging to an audience expecting a set piece. Cosmatos even has Elena smirk at the abrupt conclusion.

So what to make of Beyond the Black Rainbow? As a stylistic exercise it shines, packing a plethora of memorable visuals, including a literal face melting and an ultra-high contrast flashback sequence that’s more white-and-black than black-and-white. But as a narrative feature, it pales next to Mandy, which retains everything great about this film and adds a propulsive narrative and audience surrogate. Thus it proves hard to recommend, though die-hard Mandy fans may appreciate the thematic similarities and tracing Cosmatos’s evolution.