Beyond the Black Rainbow is the feature film debut of writer and director, Panos Cosmatos. Despite originally premiering in Canada at the 2010 Whistler Film Festival, it wasn’t until 2011 that the feature was taken on by Magnet Releasing for theatrical release in America.
The feature is a psychedelic, sci-fi horror set in a dystopian 1983 at the Arboria Institute; a sinister and mysterious experimental lab. It follows the deviating journey of Elena (Eva Allan), a young and troubled woman being held in Arboria, who attempts to escape her bizarre prison. Boasting a distinctly Kubrickian aesthetic and hypnotic original soundtrack by Jeremy Schmidt, Beyond the Black Rainbow is an explosive mind trip, a unique blend of visual art and mental distortion.
The comparisons that have been Drawn between Cosmatos and Kubrick have given Beyond the Black Rainbow fantastic odds for a substantial cult following. Despite this, the inspiration that led Cosmatos to make the feature have little to do with Kubrick. “In my late teens and early twenties I discovered all the experimental foreign directors like Godard, Tarkovsky and Bunuel, as well as people like Kern, Zedd and Anger,” he told MONOLITH. Other influences range from Saturday morning cartoons, to long-forgotten childhood memories and seventies horrors like Evil Dead II, which Cosmatos seems to nurture a particular soft spot for.
The resultant feature is like no modern cinema currently being released. Exploring the depths of the human mind through a meandering narrative amidst a Reagen-era, paranoia-fuelled setting, Beyond the Black Rainbow grows more highly anticipated by the day. The U.K. awaits a release date.
Read a full interview with Panos Cosmatos in Issue #1. Reserve your copy here.
