The Serpent and the Rainbow

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Horrorphile - October 2008

The Serpent and the Rainbow

October 20th 2008 00:20

Wes Craven has made so many crap movies that it’s a wonder his career hasn’t sunk under the weight of the bullshit. The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988) is an exception and is Craven’s best movie since A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984). The frightening power of voodoo is still strong with The Serpent and the Rainbow and it makes for harrowing nightmare material.

Dennis Alan (Bill Pullman) is an anthropologist who travels to Haiti on a dangerous mission to uncover and bring back the ritual secrets of zombification, a witchcraft practice that renders a human “dead” so they can be buried (alive) and their souls harnessed for black magic energy by an evildoer; in this case corrupt police official Dargent Peytraud (Zakes Mokae).

The Serpent and the Rainbow Bill Pullman

Bill Pullman as Dennis Alan

The screenplay by Richard Maxwell and A. R. Simoun (aka Adam Rodman) is based on the published real-life accounts of Wade Davis, a scientist and botanical explorer. Apparently the active ingredient in the zombie powder, Tetrodotoxin, has been studied in both Europe and America, but the mysteries behind its special powers remain clouded in superstition and conjecture. Makes for a great horror movie though!

Zakes Mokae as Dargent Peytraud

The location shooting gives the movie a strong atmosphere and production values are solid. Pullman delivers one of his better performances, but the standout is Mokae as the grotesque witch doctor. Special mention must go to Conrad Roberts as zombie Christophe who looks like a strange and eerie marionette, and Brent Jennings as local powder man Louis Mozart.

The Serpent and the Rainbow Cathy Tyson and Bill Pullman

Dennis and his Haitian lover Marielle (Cathy Tyson)

When I first saw this movie there were many striking images that lingered with me long after the movie finished, especially the voodoo nightmare sequences. These moments are still powerful seeing the movie again twenty years later. The black magic practices and ancient blood rites are creepy stuff indeed. Although not as scary or as chilling as Angel Heart, The Serpent and the Rainbow certainly has its share of night terrors and icky ghastliness (thinks snakes, spiders and scorpions, being buried alive and drowning in blood).

The Serpent and the Rainbow bride corpse

Wes Craven loves the netherworld of dreams and hallucinations and it’s the darker realm of the subconscious and the malevolent shadows of the supernatural that seep and creep through The Serpent and the Rainbow. The character of Dennis Alan is in almost every scene, and the audience follows him as he navigates through the foreboding back alleys and moonlit graveyards of a tenebrous, revolutionary Haiti full of political unrest and underhanded opportunism.

Dennis discovers nothing is what it seems

Watching The Serpent and the Rainbow it’s amazing to think its from the same director who made the hugely over-rated Last House on the Left, the execrable Deadly Friend, Swamp Thing, and Shocker, or that dreadful indulgence Wes Craven’s New Nightmare. The Serpent and the Rainbow has lots of mood and suspense, great visuals, fascinating subject matter, and it plays terrifically with dreams and nightmares and the psychological fabric that binds them.

Dennis is tortured by Dargent

Amidst the potions and poisons lies the subtext: the question of Western greed vs. natural medicine, and it is this premise that provides Craven his springboard to delve into Haiti’s arcane religious iconography and dabble with potent horror motifs. The serpent represents Hell and the Rainbow represents Heaven … and there’s the dangerous limbo in between. It seems this limbo is not a good place to linger, but for Wes Craven it’s 90-odd minutes good enough.

Waking up in a coffin filling with blood is not my idea of a pleasant dream

Here's the original teaser trailer:

The Serpent and the Rainbow DVD is courtesy of Umbrella Entertainment, many thanks!

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Posted By: Bryn - Category: movie reviews

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Comments

15 Comments. [ Add A Comment ]

Comment by Damo

October 20th 2008 00:51

This is one of those movies I have always wanted to see but missed out.

I read the true story of the scientist some years ago and it was a ripper of a yarn. Witch doctors trying to rip him off as he negotiated. Great stuff.

I'll look to see if this i in the video shop still.

Comment by Movie Mall

October 20th 2008 00:54

Movie Catcher
The Invisible Sky

Really enjoyed this when it came out.
Cool title too.
MM

Comment by Bryn

October 20th 2008 01:26

Horrorphile

Damo, yeah I'd like to read the Wade Davis book now.

Movie Mall, yeah tis a great title ...

Comment by Damo

October 20th 2008 02:30

I think Time magazine did an interview.
It should be on line somewhere.

Comment by Bryn

October 20th 2008 05:35

Horrorphile

Thanks Damo, I'll check it out sometime soon.

Comment by Lilla

October 20th 2008 23:19

From The Home Front
Enviro Warrior
Dream Herald
Esoteric Bookshop

oops, sorry Bryn; was drawn by the title, thinking it would be something deeply esoteric and philosophical (offering hypoteises) as it explores mankinds deep religious fascination with the serpent as a symbol to have survived antuiquity from the Sanskrit Kundalini (and Caduceus of health) to the evil villain of our Bible.. and beyond, to the Aboriginal Rainbow Serpent of their creation myths.

A little dissapointed to find this instead (from my perspective), but hope it shapes up into something worthy of watching in yours.

Lilla ..

Comment by D. Armenta

October 20th 2008 23:35

The Florida Keys and Everglades
The Black Sheep Chronicles
What constitutes bad manners?
The male mystique
Debate Fan
L.A.M.P.

Hi Bryn, old friend..

I saw this movie years ago when I was researching the cult of Voodoo in Haiti and Jamaica. I totally concur with your comparisons of Craven's other work.

Knowing what I know, I'd say the movie takes a bit of artistic license but on the whole is pretty sound. The "air" of the movie is excellently caught--dark and foreboding.

P.S.-if you want to get a seriously creepy feeling, look at the pics of the zombie in Zora Neale Hurston's excellent book on Voodoo, "Tell My Horse"..gives me chills just thinking about those pics!

Comment by Bryn

October 21st 2008 05:18

Horrorphile

Armenta, cheers indeed! I'll check those out asap ...

Comment by Bryn

October 21st 2008 05:20

Horrorphile

Lilla, sorry to disappoint

... But as you know my recommendations are always interesting.

Comment by Raquelle

October 21st 2008 06:08

oh dear! just the pictures alone makes me NOT wanna see this - scary indeed!! I think Bill Pullman is very much underrated...he is a great actor!

Comment by Bryn

October 22nd 2008 02:17

Horrorphile

Raquelle,
it's taken me quite a few years to warm to his acting style. My three favourite performances are this, Lost Highway and The Last Seduction.

Comment by Cass

October 26th 2008 07:50

Bryan, the description you gave alone was chilly. Would sure like to see this. I wonder though, since most titles are not too mainstream, where you get them? At the video store?

Comment by Bryn

October 26th 2008 21:45

Horrorphile

Cass, I purchase a lot of my DVDs from overseas online sites, so some are Region 1, some are Region 2 and others are Region 4. The Serpent and the Rainbow you can purchase directly from Australian distributors Umbrella Entertainment, see link at bottom of review.

Comment by Cass

October 27th 2008 12:26

Hi Bryn (apologies for the earlier typo),

Thanks for the heads up. As for the DVDs from different regions, doesn't our laptop only allow a certain number of time that you can change the Region? I've bought DVDs from abroad that are in a different region. Do you face this problem?

Comment by Bryn

October 28th 2008 00:12

Horrorphile

Cass,
yeah, there is that problem with certain players and laptops only allowing a Region to be specified a few times before locking one down. It's very frustrating. I have a multi-zone player (Pioneer model), so I don't have to deal with that bullshit. I don't play movies on my laptop either.

[ Previous - John Carpenter's Village of the Damned ]

[ Next - LIVE ACTION ROLE-PLAYING ZOMBIE FEST! GET INVOLVED! ]

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