A young woman travels from city to city, as a spirit medium who tells grieving people exactly what they want to hear. ("X is very happy and he asks you not to worry.") She is tightly controlled by her father, who has helped her hone her act and her image to perfection. Things go awry when the medium starts to receive messages from individuals who are not yet dead...
"Black rainbow" is an outstanding horror movie with interestingly layered characters and superb lead performances. (Rosanna Arquette, in particular, is spell-binding.) The movie deals with themes like the ability to see hidden things, which might constitute a curse rather than a blessing. Another theme is the deliberate exploitation of mankind's deepest fears and hopes. In "Black rainbow" the exploitation happens within the spiritist circuit, but it also happens within the confines of traditional Christianity, what with scheming scoundrels draping themselves in the vestments of religion. Indeed, one of the villains preaches from the very pulpit.
Upon closer examination some of the exploiters turn out to be exploited themselves. Here it is hard not to feel a deep pity for the young medium, whose life has been blighted by a strangler fig of a father. Desperately lonely, she seeks refuge in casual sexual encounters with strangers while Daddy drags her across the country as if she were a ventriloquist's dummy or a performing seal. The man is worried that she might have genuine paranormal or mystical powers, but what really terrifies him is the idea that she might stop making money. And then who's going to subsidize his gambling and his drinking ?
As you will have guessed by now, "Black rainbow" is not the happiest movie ever filmed. There's an abiding undercurrent of unease and dread. Even the sex feels joyless and oppressive ; we're talking about consensual relations between adults but some of the images might come straight out of a hard-hitting documentary on vice or rape. But don't let the sombre nature of the work keep you from watching this jewel of "Southern Gothic". It will amply repay your time and attention.
If you like this one, be sure to watch "The dead zone" with Christopher Walken, based on the novel by Stephen King.
"Black rainbow" is an outstanding horror movie with interestingly layered characters and superb lead performances. (Rosanna Arquette, in particular, is spell-binding.) The movie deals with themes like the ability to see hidden things, which might constitute a curse rather than a blessing. Another theme is the deliberate exploitation of mankind's deepest fears and hopes. In "Black rainbow" the exploitation happens within the spiritist circuit, but it also happens within the confines of traditional Christianity, what with scheming scoundrels draping themselves in the vestments of religion. Indeed, one of the villains preaches from the very pulpit.
Upon closer examination some of the exploiters turn out to be exploited themselves. Here it is hard not to feel a deep pity for the young medium, whose life has been blighted by a strangler fig of a father. Desperately lonely, she seeks refuge in casual sexual encounters with strangers while Daddy drags her across the country as if she were a ventriloquist's dummy or a performing seal. The man is worried that she might have genuine paranormal or mystical powers, but what really terrifies him is the idea that she might stop making money. And then who's going to subsidize his gambling and his drinking ?
As you will have guessed by now, "Black rainbow" is not the happiest movie ever filmed. There's an abiding undercurrent of unease and dread. Even the sex feels joyless and oppressive ; we're talking about consensual relations between adults but some of the images might come straight out of a hard-hitting documentary on vice or rape. But don't let the sombre nature of the work keep you from watching this jewel of "Southern Gothic". It will amply repay your time and attention.
If you like this one, be sure to watch "The dead zone" with Christopher Walken, based on the novel by Stephen King.