Winter is coming and for horror fans in Toronto, this means a chance to see some of the best in contemporary Canadian horror. From November 30th to December 2nd the first Blood in the Snow Canadian Film Festival is on at The Projection Booth East (1035 Gerrard St East)! The Canadian indie horror scene is entering a renaissance period and this festival hopes to document it and give wider audiences a chance to see the groundbreaking work being produced in this country.

We want to help audiences decide what to see (if they can’t see everything!), so in the days to come check this space for previews of the films in the festival.

BEYOND THE BLACK RAINBOW is a surreal sci-fi thriller from Vancouver director Panos Cosmatos. It’s a film that is more about delivering sensation and imagery than narrative, although there is plenty of that to reward the astute viewer. BTBR tells the story of Elena (Eva Allan), a young resident/captive of a retro-futuristic hippie commune committed to better living through mind-altering chemistry. Supervised by the seriously creepy Dr. Barry Niles (Michael Rogers) and living in a semi-lucid state, she eventually attempts to escape and discover the world beyond the walls of the sterile, menacing Arboria Institute.

This movie is a serious trip. Set in this strange alternate 1983 and featuring an incredible, pulsing, throbbing soundtrack that perfectly suits the psychedelic environment, BEYOND THE BLACK RAINBOW is a true cinematic experience. You can appreciate it completely on that level, or you can dive a bit deeper and get into the tale of how the hippie dream descended into a nightmare. In that famous summer of love in 1969, they thought they would change the world around them. As the prospects for a global change in consciousness diminished into the grim era of Nixon, the hippies turned inward and retreated into the mind. Timothy Leary’s mantra “Turn on, tune in and drop out” became literal as the failed revolutionaries sought new meaning. Unable to change the world around them to their liking, they decided to build their own worlds in isolated communes and also in their own minds, heavily assisted by the latest psychedelic drugs.

BEYOND THE BLACK RAINBOW takes this turn to solipsism to an extreme, but inevitable, conclusion: isolation, disconnection, decadence and finally, a descent into madness.

Panos Cosmatos has given us a cerebral and intense experience which engages all senses. See this unique piece of cinema for yourself as part of the Blood in the Snow festival Friday November 30th at 9:30 p.m.. Love it or hate it, you will not soon forget the masterful psychedelic landscape presented on the big screen.

BEYOND THE BLACK RAINBOW plays with surreal short, ROACHFAR, a story of an old mans’ descent into insanity due to a strange and crippling disease. This looks like a pretty twisted piece of business and a good companion to BTBR. 

For more details, including tickets and showtimes head to The Projection Booth. You can check out Fango's theatrical review of BEYOND THE BLACK RAINBOW here.

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