The Serpent and the Rainbow
is eerie
black-magic and psychological horror
The Serpent and the Rainbow is
an outstanding
horror movie that actually gets many of the details about Voodoo
correct. This immeasureably adds to the effectiveness.
Release:
1988 Directed by: Wes Craven Written by: Wade Davis (book), Richard Maxwell and
Adam Rodman
Starring:
Bill Pullman as Dennis Alan Cathy Tyson as Marielle Duchamp Zakes Mokae as Dargent Peytraud Paul Winfield as Lucien Celine Brent Jennings as Louis Mozart Conrad Roberts as Christophe
Through people in my life I have come to know a little bit
about Voodoo. Most horror movies that deal in some way with this
religion have absolutely no idea what it is really about.
“Creative license” is injected, it seems, to make
the whole horror movie scenario more dark, scary and
foreboding.
In reality Voodoo is not based on evil premises as is often portrayed,
but instead has it’s foundation in Catholicism. The Spirits
that are such cornerstones of Voodoo are, in effect, angels with God
and Jesus reigning supreme over all. And, there is
a dark side.
It
is the dark side where the elements of control over others and evil
show themselves, and this dark world of evil Voodoo is indeed scary.
The trouble is, when making a movie with Voodoo elements it takes time
and effort to explain the reality of the practice…and it is
much easier to just rely on the frightening stereotypes
instead.
This is not the case in The Serpent and the Rainbow.
The story starts with anthropologist Dr. Dennis Allen (Bill Pullman),
an “Indiana Jones” so to speak traveling the world
looking for the herbal concoctions used by primitive tribes to cure
various ailments. Many of these “home brews” use
rare plants and other ingredients in combinations not
conceived of by
modern science, and offer creative cures and treatments that are highly
sought after by United States drug companies.
In The Serpent and the Rainbow, a quest for the
drug that creates “zombification” leads Dr. Allen
to Haiti during a time of particularly difficult political upheaval for
that country. The Haitians believe that the dead can be brought
back to
life by a powerful Voodoo practitioner, and when this is
accomplished
the soul of the arisen becomes a slave to the one that brings the body
back to life. The U.S. drug company executives believe that this feat
is not accomplished through magic, but through a drug that can cause a
person to appear dead until it wears off some time later. Sounds like a
perfect anesthetic!
Unfortunately
for Dr. Allen the military leader in Haiti’s
capital Port-au-Prince, Dargent Peytraud (Zakes Mokae) is also a
Caplatas (Voodoo priest that practices black magic), and he does not
want his secret “zombie drug” to be exposed. Using
guns, torture and magic the military leader of Haiti launches
an
assault for the soul of Dr. Allen.
The Serpent and the Rainbow is not a history lesson
about Haiti and Voodoo, but a very scary and creepy horror movie that
happens to get some of the details about Voodoo right. That is part of
what makes The Serpent and the Rainbow so scary.
There is just enough truth and historical accuracy to make the magical
attacks convincing.
The effects are fantastic. Because Dr. Allen is often attacked in his
dreams the visuals and situations can cross the line of reality and
still be plausible. Dr. Allen being pulled into the earth
while being
grabbed at by the rotted corpses of all that had been buried there
before is a notable example.
I have never been to Haiti, but I have been to “Little
Haiti” in Miami Florida. Many of the residents of this
beach-side district continue living in a manner similar to their ways
in their home country. Many of the street scenes in The
Serpent and the Rainbow were carbon copies of scenes I have
witnessed in Little Haiti, including Voodoo
priestesses (called Mambos)
sitting in folding chairs outside their botanical shops fanning
themselves and the children dashing through active markets. Those
details alone were enough to add a hint of realism to The
Serpent and the Rainbow, and the eeriness progressively
escalates from there.
Watch
The Serpent and the Rainbow because it is
scary, eerie and fast-paced, with a great hero and an even greater
villain. And if you happen to know for a fact that the outdoor scenes
were actually patterned after Miami and do not
resemble Haiti at all,
please don’t tell me. Questions
or comments about The Serpent and the Rainbow? Contact us!
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This is not the case in The Serpent and the Rainbow.
The story starts with anthropologist Dr. Dennis Allen (Bill Pullman),
an “Indiana Jones” so to speak traveling the world
looking for the herbal concoctions used by primitive tribes to cure
various ailments. Many of these “home brews” use
rare plants and other ingredients in combinations not
conceived of by
modern science, and offer creative cures and treatments that are highly
sought after by United States drug companies.
The effects are fantastic. Because Dr. Allen is often attacked in his
dreams the visuals and situations can cross the line of reality and
still be plausible. Dr. Allen being pulled into the earth
while being
grabbed at by the rotted corpses of all that had been buried there
before is a notable example.
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