Beyond the Black Rainbow | |
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Theatrical release poster
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Directed by | Panos Cosmatos |
Produced by |
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Written by | Panos Cosmatos |
Starring |
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Music by | Sinoia Caves |
Cinematography | Norm Li |
Edited by | Nicholas T. Shepard |
Production
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Chromewood Productions
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Distributed by | Mongrel Media |
Release date
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Running time
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110 minutes |
Country | Canada |
Language | English |
Budget | $1.1 million |
Box office | $56,491 (US) |
Beyond the Black Rainbow is a 2010 Canadian science fiction-horror film written and directed by Panos Cosmatos, his feature film debut. The film stars Michael Rogers as "Dr. Barry Nyle". It was produced and filmed in Vancouver, and premiered at the 2010 Whistler Film Festival. It also showed at several film festivals throughout 2011, including Tribeca in New York City and Fantasia in Montreal. Magnet Releasing, the genre division of Magnolia Pictures, picked up the film for US theatrical release.
In the 1960s, Dr. Arboria founded the Arboria Institute, a New Age research facility dedicated to finding a reconciliation between science and spirituality, allowing humans to move into a new age of perpetual happiness. In the 1980s, Arboria's work has been taken over by his protégé, Dr. Barry Nyle. Outwardly a charming, handsome scientist, Nyle is in fact a psychopath who has been keeping Elena, a young girl, captive in an elaborate prison that doubles as a hospital beneath the Institute. Elena demonstrates psychic capabilities, which Nyle can suppress, using a glowing, prismatic device.
In an effort to understand Elena's abilities, Nyle subjects her to daily therapy sessions, which take the form of interrogations, during which Elena only communicates by way of telepathic demands to see her father. By night, Elena is kept in a brightly lit, completely white room, with only a television for companionship. Nyle spends his own nights at home with his wife, a docile, servile woman who gives Nyle endless praise and exists in a state of constant stupor. Nyle takes massive quantities of prescription medication and disguises his complete lack of hair and the color of his irises by way of an elaborate wig and contact lenses.
Attempting to elicit an emotional response from Elena, Nyle presents her with a photograph of her deceased mother. Nyle then informs Elena's nurse, Margo, that Elena has somehow smuggled contraband into her room. When Margo attempts to forcibly take the photograph from Elena, Elena kills her by psychically causing her head to implode. Nyle, monitoring Elena's actions, is intrigued by this blatant display of psychic ability. He allows Elena to leave her cell, then activates the prism, causing her to convulse and pass out. While unconscious, Elena is approached by a massive entity in a red space suit (identified as a "Sentionaut"), who injects her with a syringe before walking off.