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Black Rainbow

1989 · Movie · R · 102 min

6.3(47)unSUB Rating

HorrorThriller

Mike Hodges ('Flash Gordon', 'Get Carter') wrote and directed this supernatural chiller as a meditation on the human race's ability to destroy the world, a gothic tale of suspense and the occult, guaranteed to send shivers down your spine. Martha Travis (Rosanna Arquette, 'Pulp Fiction', 'Crash') is a travelling clairvoyant on the road with her sceptic father (Jason Robards, 'Once Upon a Time in the West', 'Magnolia'). During a séance Martha communicates a message from a dead man to his wife in the audience. Shocked the wife insists her husband is still alive. Later that evening the husband is killed by a ruthless assassin. As Martha foresees more and more tragic events journalist Gary Wallace (Tom Hulce, 'Amadeus', 'Animal House') follows the pair in pursuit of a hot story... with catastrophically eerie results. Sent direct-to-video by its struggling distributor on initial release, 'Black Rainbow' unfairly never got the exposure it deserved, newly restored from the original negative audiences can now discover the darkness at the end of the rainbow, as never before.

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Streaming on BFI Player Classics.

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Details
Years
1989
Release date
1989-12-05
Language
English
Rated
R
Runtime
102 min
TMDB rating (input)
5.8/10 (47 votes)
Budget
$7,000,000

Themes

  • father daughter relationship

Awards & recognition

  • Sitges Film Festival Best Actress award · 1989
  • Sitges Film Festival Best Screenplay award · 1989

Cast & crew

  • Rosanna Arquette

    Rosanna Arquette

    as Martha Travis

  • Jason Robards

    Jason Robards

    as Walter Travis

  • Tom Hulce

    Tom Hulce

    as Gary Wallace

  • Mark Joy

    Mark Joy

    as Lloyd Harley

  • RR

    Ron Rosenthal

    as Lieutenant Irving Weinberg

  • John Bennes

    John Bennes

    as Ted Silas

  • LP

    Linda Pierce

    as Mary Kuron

  • Olek Krupa

    Olek Krupa

    as Tom Kuron

  • MT

    Marty Terry

    as Mrs. Adams

  • EG

    Ed Grady

    as Editor, Geoff McBain

Directed by Mike Hodges