History Film / BeyondTheBlackRainbow

* BlackEyesOfEvil: [[spoiler:Dr. Nyle, after he goes AxCrazy.]]

* LonersAreFreaks: Barry is not shown to have much interaction with other humans, including his wife, Rosemary, beyond the bare minimum.

* StartOfDarkness: While Barry doesn't go completely off his rocker until the end of the film, a flashback shows when he actually first went insane and [[spoiler: killed Elena's mother]].

* LonersAreFreaks: Barry is not shown to have much interaction with other humans beyond the bare minimum.

* BaldOfEvil: [[spoiler:Dr. Nyle, though he is vain enough about it to hide his baldness with a wig for most of the story. Once he snaps and goes AxCray, he removes the wig.]]

* BaldOfEvil / BlackEyesOfEvil: [[spoiler: Dr. Nyle, once he removes his wig and contacts and goes completely AxCrazy.]]

Set in 1983, the film follows a girl named Elena, a telepath studied and locked inside a NewAge research compound, and the unstable therapist that supervises her. Things start getting astoundingly weird''er'' very quickly. The film is shot in the deliberately slow, sterile, and excessively polished style of 70s cold sci-fi movies, such as ''Film/THX1138'' and ''Film/{{Solaris|1972}}'', as well as 1980s cinema that continues in a similar vein such as ''Film/{{Scanners}}''. It also features a mostly BrownNote / DroneOfDread score.

''Beyond the Black Rainbow'' is a 2010 ScienceFiction PsychologicalThriller film, with a side of SurrealHorror. It is the debut film by Canadian writer and director Panos Cosmatos (''Film/Mandy2018''). Set in 1983, the film follows a girl named Elena, a telepath studied and locked inside a NewAge research compound, and the unstable therapist that supervises her. Things start getting astoundingly weird''er'' very quickly. The film is shot in the deliberately slow, sterile, and excessively polished style of 70s cold sci-fi movies, such as ''Film/THX1138'' and ''Film/{{Solaris|1972}}'', as well as 1980s cinema that continues in a similar vein such as ''Film/{{Scanners}}''. It also features a mostly BrownNote / DroneOfDread score.

* BigBad: Dr. Barry Nyle

* CameBackStrong: [[spoiler: Elena's "baptism" in the same stuff has given her OffTheScale PsychicPowers that Nyle covets and keeps suppressed via Arboria's technology.]]

* OminousPipeOrgan: The soundtrack uses an organ-type synthesizer sound for some of the villain scenes.

* UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans: Perfecting humanity was the Arboria Institute's initial goal. [[spoiler:Too bad it led to Barry's pronounced psychotic break, Elena's captivity, and quite a few seemingly otherworldly horrors.]]

* AsceticAesthetic: The Arboria Institute. Mirrors, sterile walls, and TV screens everywhere give the building this aesthetic.

* AsceticAesthetic: The Arboria Institute.
* AirVentPassageway: Elena uses one to travel between rooms.

* ArcSymbol: Eyes figure prominently throughout the movie. [[spoiler:Underneath his contacts, Barry has black eyes. Barry kills Rosemary by crushing her eyes. Barry claims to have seen the "eye of God" during his 1966 psychedelic experience. In the 1966 flashback scene, Barry has drawn a third eye on his forehead in preparation for his psychedelic experience in the black liquid. The scene later gives viewers an overhead view of the pool of black liquid, which looks like a dilated pupil when viewed from above.]]

* BattleaxeNurse: Margo.

** It's also implied as the Sentionaut's possible back story.

* CreepyChild: [[spoiler:What the Sentionaut looks like under its helmet.]]
* CriticalStaffingShortage: Played for suspense.The Arboria compound may or may not have been larger at one point, but its limited staff clues the audience in that something isn't quite as it should be.

* DrugsAreBad: "Benign pharmacology" proves to be anything but benign. The anti-drug {{A|nAesop}}esop fits nicely with the movie's Reagan-era aesthetic. Especially when you see what Mercurio Arboria's morphine addiction has done to him.

* EscapeFromTheCrazyPlace / EscapedFromTheLab

* {{Homage}}: In terms of style as well as subject matter, to science fiction films of the early 1980s.
* {{Irony}}: Arboria wanted his movement to produce happiness and enlightenment. Unfortunately, his efforts ended in misery, oppression, and carnage.

* MagicIsEvil: While The Arboria Institute is a setting with a very science fiction feel, most of its controls (such as the pyramid and the sentionaut) are seemingly powered through psychic abilities that resemble magic more than science.

* MushroomSamba: The flashback sequence (if not the whole movie.)

* RapeAsBackstory: Implied (though it's never really clear) when the BattleaxeNurse finds a notebook featuring illustrations of male and female sexual organs.

* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: Guess where this movie falls? Hint: the entire movie can be taken as a lengthy NightmareFuel-driven TakeThat at the optimistic aesthetics of 20th century futurism, the inspirational rhetoric of the NewAge movement, and bright or outright utopian visions for the future in general - showing the disastrous decay that can come out of efforts to shape a better world or better humanity.

* UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans: Perfecting humanity was the Arboria Institute's initial goal. Too bad it led to Barry's pronounced psychotic break and quite a few seemingly otherworldly horrors.

* RippedFromTheHeadlines: In addition to a number of real life NewAge-inspired cults with utopian aspirations that went south, The Arboria Institute also seems inspired by the early 1990s Arizona Biodome Incident, which ended fatally for the inhabitants of a remote sealed-off compound. The Arboria Institute's mission statement is also cribbed nearly word-for-word from the infamous Esalen Institute.

* {{Irony}}: Arboria wanted his movementn to produce happiness and enlightenment. Unfortunately, his efforts ended in misery, oppression, and carnage.

* RippedFromTheHeadlines: In addition to a number of real life NewAge-inspired cults with utopian aspirations that went south, The Arboria Institute also seems inspired by the early 1990s Arizona Biodome Incident, which ended fatally for the inhabitants of a remote sealed-off compound.

** The way he [[spoiler:kills his wife]] is also reminiscent of Tyrell's death in ''Film/BladeRunner''.

%%* SpiritualSuccessor: To ''Film/AlteredStates,'' among others.

''Beyond the Black Rainbow'' is a 2010 ScienceFiction PsychologicalThriller film, often crossing into SurrealHorror. It is the debut film by Canadian writer and director Panos Cosmatos (''Film/Mandy2018''). Set in 1983, the film follows a girl named Elena, a telepath studied and locked inside a NewAge research compound, and the unstable therapist that supervises her. Things start getting astoundingly weird''er'' very quickly. The film is shot in the deliberately slow, sterile, and excessively polished style of 70s cold sci-fi movies, such as ''Film/THX1138'' and ''Film/{{Solaris|1972}}'', as well as 1980s cinema that continues in a similar vein such as ''Film/{{Scanners}}''. It also features a mostly BrownNote / DroneOfDread score.

''Beyond the Black Rainbow'' is a 2010 ScienceFiction PsychologicalThriller film, often crossing into SurrealHorror. It is the debut film by Canadian writer and director Panos Cosmatos (''Film/{{Mandy}}''). Set in 1983, the film follows a girl named Elena, a telepath studied and locked inside a NewAge research compound, and the unstable therapist that supervises her. Things start getting astoundingly weird''er'' very quickly. The film is shot in the deliberately slow, sterile, and excessively polished style of 70s cold sci-fi movies, such as ''Film/THX1138'' and ''Film/{{Solaris|1972}}'', as well as 1980s cinema that continues in a similar vein such as ''Film/{{Scanners}}''. It also features a mostly BrownNote / DroneOfDread score.

''Beyond the Black Rainbow'' is a 2010 ScienceFiction PsychologicalThriller film, often crossing into SurrealHorror. It is the debut film by Canadian writer and director Panos Cosmatos. Set in 1983, the film follows a girl named Elena, a telepath studied and locked inside a NewAge research compound, and the unstable therapist that supervises her. Things start getting astoundingly weird''er'' very quickly. The film is shot in the deliberately slow, sterile, and excessively polished style of 70s cold sci-fi movies, such as ''Film/THX1138'' and ''Film/{{Solaris|1972}}'', as well as 1980s cinema that continues in a similar vein such as ''Film/{{Scanners}}''. It also features a mostly BrownNote / DroneOfDread score.

* AsceticAesthetic:The Arboria Institute.

-->[[AC:A Practical Application / Of An Abstract Ideal]]
->''Here at the Institute, we are in the forefront worldwide in neuropsychology and new therapeutic technologies. Dr. Barry Nyle, our head of research, myself, and our dedicated team of herbalists, naturopaths, and healers have found a way to make that dream a reality.''
-->[[AC:Born Of A Dream / To Create A Reality]]
->''Through our unique blend of benign pharmacology, sensory therapy, and energy sculpting, we can guide you gently along the path to a new, better, happier you -- all in the comfortable surroundings of our state-of-the-art facility and our award-winning gardens.''
-->[[AC:A Different Way To Think / A New Way To Live / A Perfect Way To Believe]]
->''We invite you to join us, and find out for your... '''self'''.''
-->[[AC:ARBORIA: Serenity Through Technology]]

* DroneOfDread: Most of the score is like this, but a particularly sinister note plays on the synthesizer during several scenes, most notably when the nurse discovers a notebook that hints at implied RapeAsDrama.

* RapeAsDrama: Implied as part of the backstory (though it's never really clear) when the BattleaxeNurse finds a notebook featuring illustrations of male and female sexual organs. Cue BrownNote.
* {{Retraux}}