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The Serpent And The Rainbow
 
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The Serpent And The Rainbow (1988)
Starring: Bill Pullman, Cathy Tyson Director: Wes Craven Rating R

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Editorial Reviews
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Eight years before he scored a phenomenal hit with Scream, horror master Wes Craven made a worthy effort to "legitimize" horror with this chilling supernatural thriller, based on the best-selling book by Wade Davis. More ambitious than most horror films, this one allowed Craven to generate compelling plausibility with the fact-based story of a Harvard researcher (Bill Pullman) who travels to Haiti to procure a secret voodoo powder that places people into a state of simulated death. His investigation into the hidden world of black magic grows increasingly dangerous until he's caught in a living nightmare--a potentially deadly predicament that inspired the film's advertising tag line: "Don't bury me... I'm not dead!" Craven pays particular attention to authentic details of Haitian society and the role voodoo plays in Haitian culture, and the film gains additional atmosphere from location shooting in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Craven would, of course, continue to thrive by making more "conventional" horror films including Scream, but this remains a fascinating departure for one of the genre's most celebrated directors. - -Jeff Shannon

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Customer Reviews
42 Reviews
5 star: 23%  (10)
4 star: 50%  (21)
3 star: 9%  (4)
2 star: 4%  (2)
1 star: 11%  (5)
 
 
 
 
 
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18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
The Best Treatment So Far, August 10, 2000
By Bruce Kendall "BEK" (Southern Pines, NC) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)      
This review is from: The Serpent and the Rainbow (DVD)
I am a fan of Voodoo cults (being a denizen of New Orleans for five years) and Wes Craven in general (Though his Nightmare on Elm Street series did degenerate over the years). This film is extremely fast-paced and entertaining overall. The images come fast and furious, particularly during the ceremonial scenes. It gets a bit boggged down and confused in the latter stages, but not enough to entirely distract from the denouement. The acting is generally excellent (there were very few characters I didn't find believable) and the script is on a par with the book from which it is derived. I found myself involved with the central character (the anthropologist), which is as much as one can ask from a film of this variety. I enjoyed the local color and the feeling of location authenticity. Some of the Ken Russell derived special-effects tended to get in the way, but didn't hinder the overall treatment. At some stages I did believe I was reexperiencing "Altered States," however.


 
9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
read the book, February 9, 2000
By Kevin L. Nenstiel "omnivore" (Kearney, Nebraska) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Serpent & Rainbow (VHS Tape)
The movie's all right in and of itself -- but I wish they had stuck closer to the book, a great treatise on Hatitian culture. Wes Craven's depiction of the story is dark, fearsome, and destructive, while Wade Davis (whose name is changed in the movie) described a bright, vibrant, wholesome culture. Craven can't even keep straight who has the power of vodoun: in the book, the government fears and despises the making of zombis because they can't understand it, while in the movie its the government who controls the power and uses it as a form of political terror. Poetic lisence is fine, but please make sure your lies are straight.


 
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
Don't Bury It. . .It's Not Dead!, October 28, 2003
By Michael R Gates (Nampa, ID United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Before venerable horror maven Wes Craven directed the highly acclaimed SCREAM trilogy, many serious and critical fans of horror cinema considered THE SERPENT AND THE RAINBOW to be his masterpiece. Not only is the direction tight and top-notch, but the acting is superb--Bill Pullman and Cathy Tyson are quite convincing as the endagered principals, with excellent character actors like Paul Winfield, Zakes Mokae, and Paul Guilfoyle fleshing out a wonderful supporting cast--and the story is sufficiently tense and creepy. It is one of the few horror films to deal with voodoo practices in a serious and non-condescending manner, often compared by film critics and historians to Jacques Tourneur's classic voodoo flick I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE (1943).

Much ado has been made concerning the uneveness of this effort from Craven, particularly how the film supposedly jumps back and forth between horror and straight drama. However, these inaccurate interpretations likely stem from a misunderstanding of Craven's use of his source material, anthropologist E. wade Davis' non-fictional book THE SERPENT AND THE RAINBOW. It is true that Craven and his scriptwriters were INSPIRED by the book--which is a TRUE account of Davis' infiltration of Haiti's voodoo culture in search of a plant-based sedative reputedly used to create "zombies"--but the plot of the film is NOT, as many believe, a visual retelling of the book. This is clearly evidenced by the fact that the main character, ethnobotanist Dennis Alan (excellently played by Bill Pullman), is not named after the author of the aforementioned book. Add to this the film's numerous supernatural and magical plot elements and it should be easy to comprehend that this is indeed a FICTIONAL horror film.

That said, it could be cogently argued that with THE SERPENT AND THE RAINBOW, Craven was attempting to recreate the realistic and austere timbre of his earlier horror films like THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT and THE HILLS HAVE EYES. As Craven himself has stated in many interviews, he and his crew did indeed face many real dangers when filming THE SERPENT AND THE RAINBOW in Haiti and the Dominican Republic--there was political unrest in Haiti at the time, and voodoo practioners were often vehemently private or secretive--and this risky on-location shooting most certainly helped to create an eerie atomosphere and added an amazing sense of reality and credibility to the film's preternatural voodoo sequences. Of course, such realism makes it easier for the viewer to suspend disbelief, and this, combined with the non-fictional "source" material, could explain why some viewers find it hard determine if the movie is a docu-drama or a horror flick. But for the true horror aficionado, and especially for long-time fans of Wes Craven, it is this gritty slice-of-life approach that has propelled the director to the top of the genre.

THE SERPENT AND THE RAINBOW is a great horror film, both believable and downright scary in its semi-authentic depiction of voodoo practices and rituals in the West Indies. Though it is often wrongly neglected or disparaged by casual audiences, a viewing will earn the film a revered spot in the collection of any serious fan of cinematic horror. And it's a must-own for Wes Craven fans.


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Most Recent Customer Reviews

Don't bother
Very bad. I stopped watching it about half way through. The story is not very believable. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood for it. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Brian Kennedy

[2.5]--How can I not forget this movie, it so desperately needs a makeover..
..and being that this movie is close to twenty years old makes it possible. The book passed through several hands as a film property and eventually ended up in those of Wes... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Jenny J.J.I.

Good, but could have been great.
Bill Pullman (you may know him from Independence Day) stars a Harvard Anthropologist who is sent to Haiti to investigate some of the holistic drugs and plants that the natives... Read more
Published 6 months ago by D. R. Cromwell

Uneven, but compelling
This film is a VERY loose adaptation of the non-fiction book of the same name. While the book was a work of serious scholarship, the film is, well, a Hollywood movie. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Jenny Sequois

Suspense / Intense
Although an old movie,unlike many,was before its time. It still carries a punch enhanced by spices of island mysticism. Read more
Published 8 months ago by P. Forrest

The DVD Cover Sums It All Up
From what was a landmark study by ethnobiologist Wade Davis into the folk preparations in the creation of zombies and the belief system associated with Haitian voodoo came a... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Mr. Richard D. Coreno

Don't Let Them Bury Me ....
Originally released in 1988, this movie is one of my all time favorite horror flicks. Not because of gore or the usually included gratuitous bimbo nude shots in the other movies,... Read more
Published 9 months ago by thezombiereview.com

PURE CRAP
This is one of the worst horror movie I ever saw. I just hate it.

People dont waste your money renting or buying this crap. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Ms. Susan Parr

A pure treasure to see and a warning to the wise....
Wes Craven has proved his ability to direct recollection is as finate as his ability to master horror. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Eva K. Kilpatrick

Great Voodoo/Zombie film
In "The Serpent and the Rainbow" Wes Craven once again shows us that he knows how to make horror really scary; all the horror and gore is fine, but you must remember to make the... Read more
Published 24 months ago by Vagabond77

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