The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988)

 ☆ ☆ ☆

The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988) – W. Craven

Bill Pullman is a Harvard anthropologist working for a drug company who goes to Haiti to find the origins of a powder that anesthesises people so well that they are presumed dead (and later return to life as “zombies”).  Cathy Tyson is the psychiatrist collaborator who leads him to a zombie and the man who crafts the powder.  Unfortunately, Zakes Mokae plays the head of the secret police (for Baby Doc Duvallier) and master of black magic who seeks to thwart their plans.  As directed by Wes Craven, the film unfolds via some creepy visions that Pullman has which foreshadow major plot turns. Although the film might not always feel like a horror film (given the political themes), Craven liberally throws in grotesque and spooky images.  By the end, in fact, the film gives way to a free-for-all between the evil forces and Pullman and becomes rather schlocky.  Let’s say it’s a solid B picture with some ambition to be greater.