Simply A Masterpiece

Sadly Over-hyped

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

In our modern horror cinema, the "zombie" genre has been overtaken by flesh-eating ghouls and infection films that come from the Romero/ Fulci family tree. However, before Romero's Living Dead films, the word "zombie" often had a very different connotation, going back to the voodoo rituals that would create mindless slaves. From classic horror movies like WHITE ZOMBIE and I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE to Hammer's PLAGUE OF THE ZOMBIES, this was the archetype that Hollywood explored when it talked about zombies and it is this territory that Craven hearkens back to in this late 80s classic.There is a lot to love about this movie, starting with that general concept. Though lovers of classic cinema may be familiar with the films I mentioned, most "modern horror" fans hadn't really seen a voodoo zombie movie before. To me, as a 13 year old kid when this was released, this was something completely new, exploring a culture that was wild and exotic and more than a little creepy.That creepiness pervades this movie. There is so much atmosphere created. Craven does a great job of introducing his main character to psychotropic drugs right in the beginning. This allows him to play with some surreal dream imagery thereafter and create all sort of bizarre images for us, all wrapped under the guise of our heroes mind being opened up to the spiritual. Beyond the dream images, Craven injects all manner of wonderful imagery into this movie, using the Haitian landscape, human fear of being buried alive, catholic and voodoo iconography and some of the creepiest cemeteries you'll see. All of it creates this world where just about anything is possible and most of it will be nightmarish.The writing is actually pretty good, for a horror movie. They work in the requisite budding romance, without it ever feeling tacked on and unnecessary. They manage to add in several subplots, as well, that add to the movie instead of detract, created a very layered film that not only explores voodoo, but the temperature of the Haitian political climate at the time.Some of the effects now look a little dated, but I'm not going to hold that against a movie. They are products of their time, naturally. If they are one of those lucky films that manages to hold up, even better, but many look dated 30 years later.The biggest negative to me and the thing I notice the most on recent viewings is that Bill Pullman is just...bad. He's presented to us as an almost Indiana Jones type of explorer and I'm not buying it for a minute. His vocal tone seems more high-pitched than I remember him being in his other roles. The worst parts of his performance come when he's relied on to perform the more physical aspects such as the torture scene, or his big moment when he's been drugged and looking for help. He just looks really amateurish to me in these moments and I find that he's the biggest thing keeping this from being a little higher rated in my opinion.

Very interesting movie! What makes this movie scary is that things like this really do happen in certain parts of the world... it seems South America mainly.Most people are familiar with the get bit by a zombie you will turn into a zombie scenario which is not that realistic. Romero's Night of the Living Dead or other zombie films are good examples of it. But Serpent and the Rainbow is not that type of a zombie film.Serpent and the Rainbow is a very underrated and extremely creepy film about REAL ZOMBISM. Yes I say REAL ZOMBISM! To understand the movie Serpent and the Rainbow on a deeper scale research REAL ZOMBISM: Scopolamine aka Devil's Breath is one such drug from the Borrachero tree it is also known as Angel Trumpet: Brugmansia. This plant is known turn people into a zombie-like state... people will even give up their free will.If one is interested in real zombism and other magic from South America I recommend a book by Jaya Bear: Amazon Magic: The Life Story of Ayahuasquero & Shaman Don Agustin Rivas Vasquez -- very good book that goes well with the the theme of the movie "Serpent and the Rainbow".Yes I loved Serpent and the Rainbow! It maybe Wes Craven's best movie to date! 9.5/10

"The Serpent and the Rainbow" is a film that works best if you don't think through the plot but instead just take the movie as it comes. This is because if you think about it, the plot doesn't make a lot of sense---especially the amazingly silly finale. On the positive side, the film has a wonderful sense of creepiness--all brought to you by the guy responsible for the "Nightmare on Elm Street" series, Wes Craven.The film is set in Haiti during the latter part of the Baby Doc Duvalier era. For some completely insane reason, a doctor (Bill Pullman) has been sent to the country by a pharmaceutical company to learn the secret of zombification so that they could possibly use the zombie formula for positive/curative purposes. This really makes no sense at all. What also doesn't make sense is how horrible and dangerous it is there--with all sorts of voodoo, zombies and terror. The ending is amazingly stupid--where some of this terror is really scary and creepy and some of it is hampered by the 1988-style prosthetics which look very fake by today's standards. Still, the creepy factor is an A+ for the film overall. It's not the sort of film I'd usually watch, but for a change of pace, it was pretty good.

Wes Craven really is kind of a hit or miss director. He made The Serpent and the Rainbow in 1988 at an interesting time of his career after having some success with Nightmare on Elm Street but after the disaster of Deadly Friend. The Serpent and the Rainbow has a few interesting ideas but Craven never really develops them very well. This is really a big miss film from Craven.Dennis Alan (Bill Pullman ) a researcher out of Harvard goes to Haiti to tackle the mystery of a zombie legend and also a type of drug that might be connected. There is also a voodoo theme as the drug is used in Haitian voodoo rituals.You really to have to question what Craven was doing with this film. He starts with what seems like an interesting plot and the really lets it sink. The plot really goes everywhere and is very hard to follow. There is also a love story that is very shallow as well as dream scenes that never seem to end. By act 3, you expect that it can't get much worse but you would be wrong. It also has an ending that has you saying "What am I even watching?" Frankly, this is a movie where in the end, you don't even know what you just watched.Interestingly, this was Bill Pullman's second film ever and before he had his big roles. Actually, he plays his role very well and the character is smart, has a heart and is easy to root for. Pullman makes this movie somewhat bearable along with some rather different zombies.I think this is a case where Craven basically had a couple of random ideas and put them together and called it a film. I hated this movie with a passion even more so considering what it could have been.