The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988)

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

Director:

Wes Craven

Writers:

Wade Davis (inspired by the book), Richard Maxwell (screenplay)

Stars:

Bill Pullman, Cathy Tyson, Zakes Mokae

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
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 (as Jaime Piña Gautier)
Evencio Mosquera Slaco	...	Old Shaman

Storyline

In 1985, after a successful research in Amazonas, Dr. Dennis Alan from Harvard is invited by the president of a Boston pharmaceutics industry, Andrew Cassedy, to travel to Haiti to investigate the case of a man named Christophe that died in 1978 and has apparently returned to life. Andrew wants samples of the voodoo drug that was used in Christophe to be tested with the intention of producing a powerful anesthetic. Dr. Alan travels to meet Dr. Marielle Duchamp that is treating Christophe and arrives in Haiti in a period of revolution. Soon Alan is threatened by the chief of the feared Tonton Macuse Dargent Peytraud, who is a torturer and powerful witch. Alan learns that death is not the end in the beginning of his journey to hell.

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Plot Keywords:

voodoo | haiti | haitian voodoo | surrealism | hallucination | 

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Taglines:

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

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Genres:

Fantasy | Horror

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English French Spanish

Release Date:

5 February 1988 (USA)

Also Known As:

La serpiente y el arco iris

Filming Locations:

Toussaint Louverture International Airport, Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Box Office

Budget:

$7,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$5,848,000, 7 February 1988, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$19,595,031

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

98 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

A note is imposed on the final scene that states that scientists are studying the "zombie powder" and that what makes it work "remains a mystery." There is also a disclaimer at the end of the closing credits which states that Davis came back with "rare powders" that are being subjected to "intensive study in the United States and in Switzerland," and that, "apart from these facts," all other persons and incidents in this film are fictitious. The exception is Jean-Claude Duvalier, the Haitian dictator who was in fact ousted by a popular revolution in 1986 and who appears in the film in archival news footage.

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Goofs

At about the 1:05 mark a computer screen shows the word "specimen" misspelled as "speciman".

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Quotes

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

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Crazy Credits

[Opening card] In the legends of voodoo the Serpent is a symbol of Earth. The Rainbow is a symbol of Heaven. Between the two, all creatures must live and die. But because he has a soul Man can be trapped in a terrible place Where death is only the beginning.

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Alternate Versions

UK video and DVD versions are cut by 5 seconds by the BBFC to remove shots of cock-fighting (illegal animal cruelty).

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Connections

Referenced in The Wizard of Gore (2007)

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Soundtracks

Sonata No. 14, D Major, Presto
Written by Domenico Scarlatti
Performed by Gita Karasik

User Reviews

Interesting, But Could Be Even Better

The best thing about "The Serpent and the Rainbow" is probably the topic it covers: Not known to the general public (including me, until I watched the film and researched the subject a little more afterwards), the so-called zombies, which legend has it that they are people who were condemned by sorcerers to become living deads, are in fact nothing more than the victims of a special powder thrown to them, whose active ingredient is a substance which is now well-known by scientists worldwide. This substance has the effect of rendering the person in a dead-like state (no ostensible breathing, moving, etc.), while his brain is still lively (which means that the horrified person is even able to understand what surrounds him, without being able to do anything about it); in such cases, an inexperienced doctor claims the person deceased, and he is then put into a grave. When the effect of this substance starts to diminish after 12-24 hours, the sorcerer is usually there to undig the completely shocked and shattered person, convincing him that he is now his zombie-slave.

The movie is based on a true story by a scientist (Pullman) who went to Haiti, a country were such practices were rife, in order to get his hands on this substance and provide it to his employer, a pharmaceutical company, in order to analyze it and use it as an anaesthetic. In his quest he was assisted by a female local psychiatrist (Tyson), who treated several "zombified" people. However, he soon realized that things were much more complicated than that, as the police chief (Mokae), who used this zombie-trick as one of his suppression tools, was quite unhappy with this intrusion.

Although based on a very interesting story, the movie goes a bit far and becomes a typical horror film, full of black magic, terrifying visions, etc. In my opinion, it would be much better if the plot sticked to the basics, as from some point onwards everything (and especially the ending) becomes too unconvincing.

The cast does a fair job, despite the fact that it includes actors not widely known. The make-up and scenery produce and impressive atmosphere, traveling the viewer to the mystifying secrets of Haiti.

Grade: 7/10.