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A Harvard anthropologist is sent to Haiti to retrieve a strange powder that is said to have the power to bring human beings back from the dead. In his quest to find the miracle drug, the cynical scientist enters the rarely seen netherworld of walking zombies, blood rites and ancient curses. Based on the true life experiences of Wade Davis and filmed on location in Haiti, it's a frightening excursion into black magic and the supernatural.
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Craven does some really good work with the paranoid freakout hallucination horror setpieces and I believe he was trying to say something by making his protagonist a white academic in over his head but I feel like he just kinda lost the thread on the old-school racist voodoo zombie lore shit after awhile. Very enjoyably weird (features a scene where Bill Pullman gets a nail shoved through his scrotum) but much prefer Fulci's attempt to revive this exact same genre.
"The Serpent and the Rainbow" is one of Wes Craven's best films, and, for much of its running time, it is one of the horror director's most restrained films. Telling a story based on actual events, Craven eschews gore and token exploitative touches for authentic fear and effective imagery. With most of his narrative grounded in realism, it is only until a finale that runs away from this realism that Craven's film loses a step and becomes something less impressive than what it had been building toward.Still, Craven's film, following an anthropologist hunting a drug used to turn the living into real zombies, is a great, somewhat reserved slice of 1980s horror. It is a zombie film that embraces a pre-Romero version of the living dead where men and women become near-mindless slaves of masters who own their souls. Here, the anthropologist, played by Bill Pullman, is sent to investigate the potion that leads to zombieism and bring it back from Haiti to the US for medical research. The investigation leads to social and political in trigue, and Pullman's character becomes witness to a world rich in Voodoo beliefs and unexpected dangers.The story is compelling, and Pullman's performance ideally captures a man embroiled in a situation not of his own making. He is vulnerable and fearful, someone wishing to stay on the sides of a situation and someone forced into the thick of it.Craven's camera observes the events of his film with an eye for the energy, positive or negative, of the people and environments of Haiti. City or jungle, there is an authenticism displayed that fades when the film's drama unfolds but adds an colorful and vibrant backdrop nonetheless.Craven's most effective stroke is the use of imagery that builds and supports the film's serious and spooky tone. There are moments that are legitimately unnerving. These nightmarish visions punctuate the film with a memorable and chilling heartbeat. Piles of skulls, apparitions clad in wedding garb, and decaying human limbs strategically frighten, heightening the horror experience."The Serpent and the Rainbow," at times flowing like a dream with its strange logic and chronology, easily slips beneath its viewers' skins. It effortlessly haunts and startles, coaxing its audience into the claustrophobia of the grave. Although it leaves some plot beats undeveloped, and it ends in a token protagonist/anatagonist duel that clashes with the film's heretofore realistic sensibilities, "The Serpent and the Rainbow" rates as a quietly outstanding horror film. The film offers an experience that can engage, spook, and appeal to both horror and non-horror fans alike.
This is one of those films that blurs the line between reality and hallucination. I often feel cheated by this gimmick, because they can do things like A SKELETON BRIDE CRACKS HER OWN JAW OPEN AND A POISONOUS SNAKE DARTS OUT. Then the dream ends. So, much of the scary stuff like this never actually happens to the character.Until A RAILROAD SPIKE IS DRIVEN THROUGH HIS SCROTE.We’ve got an intimidating antagonist (Zakes Mokae), palpably corrupt location (Haiti) and unique storyline delivered by a master of horror (Wes Craven). There’s plenty to enjoy in The Serpent And The Rainbow, but it also has a strange effect on me. It doesn’t seem slow-paced but almost every time I have it on, I get drowsy and take a lil’ nap.Maybe the voodoo sleeping powder is working its magic on me!
A Harvard anthropologist travels to Haiti to investigate a mystical powder rumored to create zombies and encounters ancient voodoo curses.
It was directed by veteran horror filmmaker Wes Craven in 1988.
Streaming availability varies by region, but you can check current viewing options on Mood.
