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.

---

Plot Keywords:

voodoo | haiti | haitian voodoo | surrealism | hallucination | 

---

Taglines:

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

---

Genres:

Fantasy | Horror

---

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:

Boston, Massachusetts, USA

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

Bill Pullman acted alongside a jaguar, a viper and a tarantula during the course of film. However all the animals were raised in captivity and were relatively tame.

---

Goofs

The movie mistakes the Cane Toad (an amphibian, bufo marinus) with the Sea Toad ("crapeau de mer") which is indeed a puffer fish.

---

Quotes

[Doctor Alan is strapped in a chair, about to be tortured]
Dennis Alan: I'm a U.S. citizen! Think about that!
Dargent Peytraud: I don't see the Ambassador here, do you?

---

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.

---

Alternate Versions

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

---

Connections

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

---

Soundtracks

Ma Bouya
Performed by Tabou Combo
Courtesy of Mini Records

User Reviews

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.