The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988)

Director:

Wes Craven

Writers:

Wade Davis (book)
Richard Maxwell (writer)

Release Date:

5 February 1988 (USA)

Genre:

Horror

Tagline:

Don't bury me...I'm not dead!

Plot:

An anthropologist goes to Haiti after hearing rumors about a drug used by black magic practitioners to turn people in zombies.

Plot Keywords:

Haiti | Zombie | Magic | Anthropologist | Woman On Top

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Bill Pullman	...	Dennis Alan
Cathy Tyson	...	Marielle Duchamp
Zakes Mokae	...	Dargent Peytraud
Paul Winfield	...	Lucien Celine
Brent Jennings	...	Louis Mozart
Conrad Roberts	...	Christophe
Badja Djola	...	Gaston
Theresa Merritt	...	Simone
Michael Gough	...	Schoonbacher
Paul Guilfoyle	...	Andrew Cassedy
Dey Young	...	Mrs. Cassedy
Aleta Mitchell	...	Celestine
William Newman	...	French Missionary Doctor
Jaime Pina Gautier	...	Julio
Evencio Mosquera Slaco	...	Old Shaman

Also Known As:

The Wes Craven's Serpent and the Rainbow (Australia)

Runtime:

98 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | French | Spanish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Singapore:M18 | Argentina:18 | Australia:M | France:-12 | Norway:18 | UK:18 (cut) | USA:R | West Germany:18 | Finland:K-18 | Finland:K-16 (cut)

Filming Locations:

Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Company:

Serpent and the Rainbow

Trivia:

Author Wade Davis agreed to sell the book rights on the condition that Peter Weir direct and Mel Gibson star. Neither man had any involvement in the project.

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: Just before the spider starts crawling on Bill Pullman's face, you can see the crew member in the left background who placed it there.

Quotes:

Dennis Alan: Christophe, I need you to remember what happened before you died.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "The Directors: The Films of Wes Craven (#1.4)" (1999)

Soundtrack:

Madame Marcell

An entertaining, detailed thriller

One of Wes Craven's best, "Serpent and the Rainbow" is as much a psychological thriller as a horror movie. Some horror fans may find it too slow (it takes its sweet time to come to a climax) but it's worth it... the journey is entertaining and interesting. This is a polished, professionally filmed movie with higher production values than the average for its genre.

I've never seen a film before that went quite so in-depth into the subject of voodoo. Filmed on location in Haiti, this movie goes into a lot of detail about various voodoo practices and introduces the voodoo versions of the good and evil magician, the houngon and the bocor. If you have any interest at all in this subject matter (or the supernatural in general), I recommend the movie on that basis alone.

Acting is uniformly solid throughout, if nothing really outstanding. We do not come to care very deeply about these characters, so their trials, tribulations and deaths do not bother us much... but Craven's attention to detail really shows, and there isn't a moment of this movie that lacks entertainment value. 7/10.