☆ ☆ ☆
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.
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