Beyond the Black Rainbow is a sci-fi, mystery horror that delves deeper into the new-age psychological phenomena of transcendence, use of psychedelic drugs and whatnot. Add in the cinematography thrown in by director Panos Cosmatos, and you’ve got a pretty trippy experience for a movie, and one with a dark, sinister theme and storyline that can end up spooking you. It’s a good movie nonetheless, considering many people who watch it start looking for similar movies like Beyond the Black Rainbow.
There are many movies that share the genre with Beyond the Black Rainbow, but not many manage to replicate the exact, sinister feel of the movie, and far less manage to duplicate the ambience that makes the movie such a hit among movie buffs. However, there are certain movies like Beyond the Black Rainbow that are fairly similar and will be content enough for your wish of watching more movies like Beyond the Black Rainbow.
Movies like Beyond the Black Rainbow
Here are a few movies like Beyond the Black Rainbow that will entertain you with their stories and screenplays.
1) Dead Air
First on the list we have Dead Air, directed by Corbin Bernsen, which follows Logan Burnhardt, a radio talk show host who has amassed quite an audience with his on-air antics and his personality. However, his personality and everything he stands for is tested when terrorists release a toxic viral gas over all the major sport events in the US simultaneously, causing people to go into rage and uncontrollable violence. Now he has to ward off the terrorists who are coming for him and his team, all the while continuing people towards rescue. A good sci-fi/ horror movie that is good value for entertainment.
2) The Signal
The Signal is more horror than science-fiction, but it is a movie and a story with elements of sci-fi nonetheless. The movie is basically divided into three parts, which is basically the unfolding of a horror event from the perspective of three different people. The movie follows a mysterious electronic transmission that every television, phone and radio receives, which has an odd effect on the psychology of people, as it turns them into raging killers. Now, all three must save themselves and the people, as the world is in dire straits due to the killer transmission. While it isn’t exactly the best-rated movie in the world, it is still pretty good and is a movie with themes similar to Beyond the Black Rainbow.
3) Altered
Altered follows a group of men who are abducted by aliens, and are subsequently probed (just as they do, in every novel and every movie), killing one of them. The rest of the four are returned to their homes, with each of them getting traumatised due to this event in their lives. However, three of the friends plan to exact revenge on the aliens who abducted them, with a singular alien having been separated from the group. The group manages to convince another estranged friend of theirs, and together they go for exacting revenge on the aliens. The premise might be unoriginal and kind of tardy, but it is a movie with a similar genre as Beyond the Black Rainbow.
4) Mulberry St
A proper horror/ sci-fi movie, Mulberry St is certainly not for someone who can’t handle their horror movies and are way too scared of human apparitions, and bonus points for those scared to death of rats =. By now, you should have an idea about the kind of horror movie Mulberry St is: human-rat hybrids that eat humans perfectly. The storyline goes something like this: a viral infection breaks out in the Manhattan part of New York, which turns people into blood-thirsty rat-like creatures. Now, six tenants, who had been previously evicted, must survive in a city full of rat-like creatures trying to kill them. While the premise of the story isn’t all that original, the stuff of nightmares that is the creatures ravaging Manhattan is pretty original, which is why it is on the list of movies like Beyond the Black Rainbow.
5) Ashes
Ashes is a medical mystery and science-fiction movie, which follows a doctor and his repeated attempts to cure AIDS. While he does not manage to actually solve the medical crisis that is AIDS, he manages to create an entirely new species of bacteria that aggressively consumes the human body, deteriorating it, and causing the mind to lose control. What ensues is complete chaos, and the doctor must then kill his own bacteria to save the earth from completely destroying itself.
6) The Thaw
Don’t watch this movie if you don’t like the creepy crawlies. Even the poster can creep you out, and give you PTSD from that scene from The Mummy. The Thaw follows a research expedition to the Arctic, which shows a melted polar ice cap, which has released deadly historic parasites that invade the body, killing the person and spreading equally rapidly. A horror, sci-fi not for the faint of the heart.
