Jacob's 31 Days of Halloween - Day 17: Beyond the Black Rainbow

 Jacob's 31 Days of Halloween - Day 17: Beyond the Black Rainbow

After seeing Mandy I became deeply curious with its creator, Panos Cosmatos, and was very surprised to discover he’s only ever done one other film. Beyond the Black Rainbow came out 8 years ago, but somehow it feels like it’s both from 40 years in the past and 40 years in the future.

Much like Mandy, this is a very unique, singular vision. I love the world Cosmatos created with the mix of 80s science fiction, old educational films, very specific editing and color grading techniques, and the dreamlike pacing and logic of a David Lynch movie.

While I absolutely love the style and the world, there’s very little to grab onto in terms of character and story. The only character that gets any sort of development is the villainous scientist, while the protagonist is a total blank slate. There basically is no plot other than “a bad scientist experiments on a lady”, which is fine except there’s so many tangents that there’s no way to get invested in that main story. Clearly Cosmatos wasn’t trying to write a timeless story though, he had the vision for a cool world and he nailed it.

If you’re into surreal, deliberately paced movies then you should absolutely see this. If you only like story and characters, maybe watch Mandy instead.