The Serpent and the Rainbow

Starring: Bill Pullman, Cathy Tyson, Zakes Mokae, Paul Winfield, Brent Jennings, Conrad Roberts
Directed by: Wes Craven
Rating: R
Genre: Horror
1988

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A Harvard researcher (Bill Pullman) travels to Haiti to investigate a Voodoo powder that zombifies people. However, Haiti officials and Voodoo priests soon discover his meddling, and decide to stop him from exposing their magic.

Review:

Tim: The Serpent and the Rainbow felt like Wes Craven's attempt to make a realistic horror film that also embraced the supernatural. It is hard to tell a believable zombie story in contemporary times (without going the whole end-of-the-world route), but that is what Craven set out to do. He nearly pulled it off, save for the film's silly conclusion, in which the movie starts to fall apart. Still, I appreciate the different feel and tone of this movie. Whereas most supernatural horror movies feel unrealistic, this one tried hard to root everything that happened in some form of realism. While this didn't always work, it did make this feel like a more legitimate horror movie than many others.

I love the setting of this movie in Haiti. As one of the poorest countries in the world, Haiti is the perfect setting for a story about dark, supernatural forces that we cannot fully comprehend. There aren't enough Voodoo or zombie movies, so I appreciated that this film involved both. This is all helped by the film's source material- the nonfiction book by Wade Davis (who, by the way, pretty much hated this film). Nonfiction books are an interesting source for a horror movie, but it mostly worked here.

The cast is not bad. Bill Pullman is fairly good as Dennis Alan, but he is not quite excellent. I believed him in the role, and he does have some everyman qualities. While he works for the most part, I wish he had given a little more lively performance. I also liked Cathy Tyson, who works very well as Marielle Duchamp. The rest of the cast are good in supporting roles.

The biggest problem I have with this movie is the ending. It feels like Craven just let the story get out of control, which really causes the movie to crumble. Whereas the movie felt believable for the first hour and a half, the last few minutes hurt its credibility. It just feels redundant and a bit of a cop out. The other major flaw is that while the movie is interesting and a bit creepy, nothing in the movie really draws you in or makes you care very much about the characters or their plight. I was interested, but I didn't really care.

The Serpent and the Rainbow scores some points for being a different kind of horror movie. While it has a number of strengths, it ultimately is weaker than it should have been. I love Wes Craven taking a chance with this film, although I didn't love the end result. I did, however, find myself mostly entertained by the story, and so, while not quite a good movie, this film at least got close.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- 6.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Scream trilogy, Thinner, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, 28 Days Later, Dawn of the Dead