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May 21, 2012 By Austin Trunick Web Exclusive

With"You are about to embark on a great journey,” a voice coaxes at the beginning of one of cinema’s trippiest flashback scenes this side of Enter the Void. “Let the age of enlightenment begin.” Faces soon melt into puddles of liquid, necks are bitten and spill black blood across sterile white rooms, and phantom figures fade into bright light, only their hair and genitals visible to the viewer.

Operating in a nightmarish dream logic that asks the audience to connect the dots between one striking, surreal image after another, Beyond the Black Rainbow provides a lot more journey than it does enlightenment. Director Panos Cosmatos delivers a debut feature that’s light on narrative but overflowing in style, taking the trancelike pull of 2001: A Space Odyssey‘s abstract “stargate” sequence and drawing it out across almost two lysergic, ambiguity-filled hours.

Shot on grainy 35mm in a hyper-bold color palette, we’re presented with a retro-futuristic science fiction world that’s set in a surprisingly convincing 1983. There’s a clear obsession at play with the scuzzy genre films of that era, from the lo-fi special effects to the Tangerine Dream-like score by Black Mountain’s Jeremy Schmidt. Beyond the Black Rainbow feels like something that could have once been scooped from the bottom shelf of your neighborhood VHS rental storefront; it’s part Cronenberg, part Bava, and part De Palma. It’s a film that manages to feel both new and long-forgotten at the same time.

Silent, teenage beauty Elena is a patient of Dr. Barry Nyle, head of the prison-like Arboria Institute, a research foundation that promises to lead you to a happier existence through their use of “benign pharmacology, sensory therapy, and energy sculpting.” From what can be gathered, Elena has spent her entire, unhappy life in this cell, undergoing experiments that will turn her into some sort of next step in human evolution. The film’s loose narrative deals with the sudden manifestation of Elena’s psychic powers, and her attempt to escape from the facility.

Giving away too much more would be not just be spoiling the trip, but would likely spread inaccurate interpretations of the material; multiple viewings inspired different readings by this viewer alone. It’s best you give the film a go with as little advance knowledge of the content as possible. So much of Black Rainbow is about holding back information, whether it’s from a character like Elena, who just wants to know who were parents were, or the audience, who at many points will be grappling just to ascertain what’s going on. Ignore the urge to seek out a steady, structural through-line and you’ll be engaged in a viewing experience that’s thoroughly hypnotic, if a tad frustrating. Oblique as it sometimes feels, any film that encourages you to come back and search for clues you might have missed has done more than a few things right. (www.arboria.org)

Author rating: 7/10