Black Rainbow

That is definitely a well hidden gem that needs more recognition. No idea why it has such a low rating. It surely is better than many much bigger names in the genre.

I found this movie purely on accident while i was looking for Black Rain. But it cought my eye, even as i had low expectations for it. Boy, i was i wrong. It's a B-movie that can challenge many of the "top horror classics".

The movie has decent script. Not overly complex, but not flat and dumb. Leaning more towards typical thriller script. While it's kinda predictable, the movie manages to actually deliver very good suspense that escalates and intensifies towards the end. Which is something i actually see very rarely in the genre (and i've seen almost 1400 horror/thriller movies so far).

Cinematography was good at times even more than that. Acting was to my pure delight - spectacular for such movie. The main actress in particular delivers great sene near the end, with one of the best scream/screeches i've heard in the old horror movies. Easily stealing the scream title from much more popular actresses' performance. Her character is well written, has good arch, and it even has interesting twist that kinda caught me off guard. Nothing mindblowing, but nice touch.

Overall , highly recommended. It exceeded my low expectations , so it's between 6 and 7 in my books.

Black Rainbow is like most of Mike Hodges films: Get Carter, Croupier and Terminal Man, very intelligent. It is great performance by

Rosanna Arquette best ever. Also Jason Robards and Tom Hulce are also good.

I doesn't rely on special effects to tell a story. It is more or less dealing with whether or not (Martha Travis) Rosanna Arquette is telling the truth. What I found interesting is how Hodges creates a psychological atmosphere on what would happen if someone with that psychic power tells you somebody close to you is dead. That is more disturbing than any special effect.

It is a shame Black Rainbow didn't get a proper cinema release. According to Mike Hodges on the DVD commentary of Black Rainbow, both the distributors Palace Pictures (UK) & Miramax (USA) were both suffering financially. Palace Pictures only released the in minimum cinemas, because they were on the verge of getting bankrupt. Miramax decided to release it straight to television.

My opinion is this is great film and should get a chance, any interested in this film, its out on DVD on Anchor Bay on Region 2

I won't waste time repeating all the positive points other reviewers have made about this film.

Rosanna Arquette is absolutely stunning in the lead role. You can see why Martin Scorsese advised her to play the part, she's perfect.

The fact that Arrow have restored this little gem on Blu-Ray is a rare piece of good news in this terrible year of 2020.

Black Rainbow is a low-budget mystery with supernatural overtones, a rare genre that I'm particularly fond of. The sound and the picture quality on the print I saw was not great but was certainly watchable. I really enjoyed the premise: a fake psychic starts actually prophesizing people's deaths -- both the why and how -- which makes her a target for a hit man. Arquette is pretty good in the role -- kind of a mystical and ethereal nymphomaniac and Robards is great as always. The plot meanders a bit and sometimes gets a little slow, but I still enjoyed it. The ending didn't really make a lot of sense to me -- maybe I missed something earlier in the movie -- but I was surprised by this ending and liked it even if though it didn't seem to be supported by the rest of the movie.

Starts off well, but never seems to be able to make up its mind about its genre and direction. Is it a drama? A thriller? A supernatural mystery? It has its moments, but it's a bit too sporadic overall, much like Arquette's character's wildly fluctuating personality.

P.S. To Mr. Too Preachy Review down there: she never says that people should stop believing in God and the afterlife to focus on the real world, she simply says that they should stop spending so much of their physical lives worrying about the afterlife. Not the same thing at all. You seem to be the only one pushing a religious agenda here. Cut that out.