Vancouver’s Bloedel Conservatory never looked like so haunting. So dark. Also, so devoid of fun birds.
Shot in 2010, the cult sci-fi horror flick Beyond The Black Rainbow is set in a trippy, sci-fi asylum/institute circa 1983, where an evil doctor is experimenting on a girl with mysterious powers named Elena (played by Eva Bourne).
The film is short on plot and big on synth and mood, as a horror-scape unfolds at a surreal, haunting pace.
The film creates such a unique headspace, playing out like a weird nightmare being beamed into your directly brain from some early-’80s alternate reality.
Elena ultimately makes an escape from her weird sci-fi prison. As she makes her way through the psychedelic horror-maze of her captors, there’s a twist. She finds herself walking through a very recognizable Vancouver tourist staple: the Bloedel Conservatory.
Director Panos Cosmatos admits he lucked into using the iconic building that concluded his nightmare vision.
“No way we could have afforded to build that. We were just lucky enough to find that in Vancouver. It was incredibly cheap to film there too. Only cost a couple hundreds bucks to film there for the night!”