The Serpent and the Rainbow *** (1988, Bill Pullman, Cathy Tyson, Zakes Mokae, Paul Winfield) – Classic Movie Review 2872

Director Wes Craven tackles the darkly disturbing dreams of the undead in this creepy 1988 voodoo hokum carefully tailored for horror buffs.

Bill Pullman stars as Dennis Alan, an anthropologist who goes to Haiti to investigate rumours about a mysterious drug used by black magic practitioners to induce a zombie state in people. And he joins forces with rational psychiatrist Marielle Duchamp (Cathy Tyson) to battle evil police chief Dargent Peytraud (Zakes Mokae) and blow torch-wielding villain Lucien Celine (Paul Winfield).

The film’s structure often creaks under the weight of its minimal plotline, with its serious sub-text of implied criticisms of Jean-Claude ‘Baby Doc’ Duvalier’s regime as the ruler of Haiti from 1971 to 1986. And the film also has trouble supporting the sometimes-striking dream sequences and good moments of dark humour.

However, Craven ensures that there are plenty of shocks and there is gore galore. And the story, situations, characters and backgrounds are continually intriguing, even if it doesn’t all quite hang together as a consistently tense, scary movie.

Brad Fiedel’s pounding soundtrack is used to frightening effect. The screenplay by Richard Maxwell and A R Simoun is partly based on a non-fiction book by Wade Davis.

Pullman has to share the screen with a jaguar, a viper and a tarantula, but all apparently not wild and relatively tame.

The film inspired the song Voodoo by alternative rock band Godsmack, who wrote it while watching the film together.

Because of the continued political strife and civil turmoil in Haiti during filming, the government informed the film crew they could not guarantee their safety so they relocated to nearby Dominican Republic to complete the shoot.

RIP Wes Craven, horror movie genius, who died on 30 August 2015, aged 76.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2872

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