BEYOND THE BLACK RAINBOW (2010)— Do It in the Dark

Cinema of Cruelty (Movies for Masochists)

This week The Cultists Present Panos Cosmatos’s 'Beyond the Black Rainbow' (2010). Coming almost 10 years before Cosmatos’s surprise Indie hit “Mandy” (2018), “Beyond” is a transcendental, atmospheric color wheel of a tale. One that tells the story of a young girl subjected to the obsession of one man’s dreams to transform humanity into something “better”. Light on plot but heavy on craft and homage, Beyond The Black Rainbow is a visual odyssey stuffed with intertextual references and optical tricks. So join us as we deep dive into a film that remains, above all else, a meticulously composed love letter to mid-century science fiction.

Topics Include: Mysticism in The "New Age”; The CIA's MK Ultra projects; the curious plight of Cold War era research in mind expansion and control; LSD in the 1960s; Outrun filmmaking; and those “Noriega” leathers...

Episode Safeword: “sobriety”