The Serpent and the Rainbow
Directed by:
Wes CravenCinematography:
John LindleyComposer:
Brad FiedelCast:
Bill Pullman, Cathy Tyson, Zakes Mokae, Paul Winfield, Brent Jennings, Conrad Roberts, Badja Djola, Theresa Merritt, Michael Gough, Paul Guilfoyle, Dey Young (more)VOD (1)
Plots(1)
In 1985, after a successful research in Amazonas, Dr. Dennis Alan from Harvard is invited by the president of a Boston pharmaceutics industry, Andrew Cassedy, to travel to Haiti to investigate the case of a man named Christophe that died in 1978 and has apparently returned to life. Andrew wants samples of the voodoo drug that was used in Christophe to be tested with the intention of producing a powerful anesthetic. Dr. Alan travels to meet Dr. Marielle Duchamp that is treating Christophe and arrives in Haiti in a period of revolution. Soon Alan is threatened by the chief of the feared Tonton Macuse Dargent Peytraud, who is a torturer and powerful witch. Alan learns that death is not the end in the beginning of his journey to hell. (Shock Entertainment)
(more)Reviews (2)
I like Bill Pullman and his presence and performance are pretty much the only things that impressed me about this film. Maybe it's not so much the director's fault, but rather the premise itself, from which nothing good can be extracted, yet Craven definitely could have pushed the envelope a lot more in terms of atmosphere or scares and not just try to scare the viewer with visions taking place in a dream (force of habit I guess). The story moves towards its conclusion without much emotion and at the end I was left with a feeling of emptiness rather than satisfaction, which is why I have to round down from 2.5*.
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Good. Decent atmosphere, a brilliant Bill Pullman and a pretty innovative story elevated this film to a slightly above-par level. The only problem I have with The Serpent and the Rainbow is purely personal. Voodoo is a topic I really don’t care for and whenever it shows up it kills a film. This one wasn’t boring, though, it’s entertaining enough in a B-movie way, but I certainly don’t need to watch it again.
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