Black Rainbow (1989)

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

Don't listen to the negative reviews

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

I know that I have seen this years ago on VHS and I watched it again as I am writing this and my only conclusion is that it is a typical flick for the end of the eighties.We all know that the end of the eighties didn't brought us much in the horror genre except a few and this one is a so-called horror that isn't frightening at all. For todays standards it is even a bit lame. There are no effects to spot or any blood at all and that for a horror. Naturally if you don't add blood (like the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)) you must add suspense or eerie situations but we don't have it here. The horror lays in the fact that a medium do contact dead people who are in fact still alive. Nobody believes her but once the living are dying like she said things go wrong. There are a lot of famous names here to see but for me it didn't deliver enough suspense like it did back then. For the Kleenex lovers, Rosanne Arquette do show a few things...Gore 0/5 Nudity 0,5/5 Effects 0/5 Story 3/5 Comedy 0/5

This had the potential to be a good movie -- the basic premise, about a phoney medium who starts to experience real premonitions, was interesting, the actors were excellent, and the gloomy atmosphere of an economically-depressed rural South came through loud and clear -- but it just didn't go anywhere.The movie came off like more of a soapbox for the writer's leftist, secular humanist views than anything. For example, there's a scene in which the psychic starts telling an auditorium of blue-collar workers that if only they were to stop believing in God and the afterlife, they could start to build a better world here on earth. The problem with such propositions is that they don't square with reality. The further we've moved from religion, the baser we've become. Unlike the churchgoing villain of this film, real-life Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling was a fan of Richard Dawkins, not of the Bible. Becoming more honest with ourselves and each other by dispensing with our ideals (or, as the writer would probably see it, our hypocrisy) doesn't mean that the world will become a better place. Better a Henry Ford than a Gordon Gekko.Black Rainbow didn't spend enough time developing its characters to justify the frequently grandiose, overwrought, overly-intellectual dialogue. The story, which with a little more work would've resulted in a first-class supernatural thriller, was given a backseat to the incessant moralizing.Too bad Lee Ving wasn't cast as the hit man. That role would've fit him like a black glove! 6 out of 10 stars.

A traveling medium who "performs" in front of large audiences, Martha Travis relays messages from deceased loved ones to their relatives in attendance. Having pushed her into this way of life, her alcoholic father is more than happy to be making (and blowing) the money her shows bring about. One night, however, Martha receives a message from a man who's wife claims he isn't dead. He soon is though, killed just the way Martha had envisioned. Word spreads, and soon skeptical reporter Gary Wallace is on her trail, as is the hit-man responsible for the killing.Black Rainbow is a grimy, slow-burning little southern Gothic. Directed by Mike Hodges, the film is equal parts horror yarn, crime thriller and chastising of fake mediums. Before she begins foretelling deaths, we never are clearly sure if Martha's gift is all an act. Whether it is or not, the image she uses to describe her connection to the afterlife, that of a rainbow, is about to become very blackened indeed. Low key and mysterious, the film is laced with atmosphere that, while often dreary, in reality is quite hypnotic.In a film like this, the characters have to be well-drawn. These are believable, broken people. As Martha, Rosanna Arquette is intensely ethereal. I don't think she's ever looked more stunning, and likewise, I don't think she's ever given a better performance than the one delivered here. She vividly conveys the essence of the character, a woman who turns to sporadic bouts of nymphomania for her only form of gratification. Emotionally worn and hardened by the existence that's been forced on her, Martha lives an empty life giving hope to others while keeping none for herself. Jason Robards plays her father, a louse of a man using his daughter as a cash cow while deriding her every step of the way. Tom Hulce is the cocky reporter, and I recognized the mechanic from The Night Flier as Ted Silas.At one point in the film, Martha is branded a witch due to one of her predictions. The same woman was more than happy to take part in her showings when they were reassuring, but the moment she foresees something bad, the woman does a 180 and puts her down. Ah, good ol' human nature! This leads to Arquette tearing into her final audience with a speech about the affirmation of their own lives through the afterlife. Terrific stuff.Hodges peppers his film with many themes, a key one clearly being the human need for assurance. Under his direction, everything comes together beautifully. One scene is a real stunner, as we bear witness to the force of an unseen explosion. I didn't realize what I was seeing at first, but once it became clear, I had to go back and watch the scene again. A lovely example of creativity through subtlety. Really, despite the run down locations, despite the macabre nature of the proceedings, the entire film has an underlying beauty radiating throughout it. It's a delicate balance, but one that's fully achieved.Wrapping up with an ambiguous ending, the film concludes on a fitting note. This was a great discovery. Never talked about, but utterly satisfying, anyone looking for a real sleeper need look no further. Wonderful film.

A man named Gary Wallace (Tom Hulce) looked for a medium named Martha Travis (Rosanna Arquette) who disappeared after her father's death. Gary found her living in the woods and he had been tracking this girl down for 10 years.This was confusing in the beginning because, you see her father alive! Weird. This movie began where it ended. Anyways, here's the rest of the review:Martha worked at a church as a medium and she lived with her father named Walter Travis (Jason Robards) at a hotel. And that day, she saw a vision of a woman's husband, her name was Mary Kuron (Linda Pierce). And her husband's name was Tom (Olek Krupa) and Martha believed that he was dead! And when Mary returned home, he was okay until she went out of the lounge. Tom got shot while he was watching t.v. BIZARRE! After the incident, Martha and Walter went to go speak to a guy named Jack Callow (Jon Thompson) to discuss the incident. Fortunately, Jack's wife Eva (Helen Boldwin) refused to say who Mary was with. That guy was the person who shot Mary's Husband! He certainly was looking for TROUBLE!Again, at the church. Martha said to a woman named Jacky Adams (Marty Terry) that her deceased friend had seen her husband, Bill. And then, she said to a woman that her brother named Louis is with his twin brother Jimmy, when in fact one of them was dead! And soon, Jacky believed that her husband Bill was dead.And not so soon, Martha was told to go because, everyone thought she was a witch. And when Wallis popped in to the church to see Martha, she had left. And he finally found her and he warned her about Tom Kuron's murderer was going to kill her that evening. And that night, the murderer came after her while she was communicating to another person's deceased love one. Martha shrieked, she told everyone in the church to run , gun shots went off, and everyone ran out like crazy people.And when Martha came home, her father took off with her the moment she came in! And the killer shot out of Martha's room and he tried to shot Martha down the passage. But strangely, the bullets went through her and they killed her father! And followed by an investigator named Irving Weinberg (Ron Rosenthal) when he was coming out of the elevator. And when the killer came downstairs, he got shot and he went through a wood and glass door.And before Gary left the church, Martha told him that her father didn't know that all this was not a dream. And she disappeared. And Wallace went back into the wood's , to Martha's house to find her. NOW! This was the strangest moment that I was talking about: A car that was seen stuck in a leaf pile was seen again and Martha's house was totally shambled. And as you all knew....it was in the woods. Weird END!