Written by Richard Maxwell And A.R. Simoun
Directed by Wes Craven
Peytraud: "You've got a pretty face. The girls must like it. Do you like it, your pretty white face? I asked you a question."
Dennis: "...Yeah... I like it..."
Peytraud: "I like it too. I'll leave the face..."
A while back I decided to watch more movies directed by Wes Craven and I've been watching a few of them. Last night, this one was a first viewing for me. I gotta say, it's a bit of a doozy.
Largely set in Haiti, the movie started with the death of a man named Christophe (Conrad Roberts). Then he's buried and then he wakes up in his own coffin. It certainly got the movie off to one hell of a start. It's not even the strangest thing to happen here.
Focusing on another male character - an American doctor named Dennis Alan (Bill Pullman), who finds himself in the same village as Christophe and soon enough, he's making friends and enemies respectively. On the friends front, there was Dr Marielle Duchamp (Cathy Tyson). She was one of the few characters who didn't either threaten, drug or attempt to kill him.
Yes, Dennis drank a potion and with that potion came some pretty unsettling hallucinations, including being dragged into the ground and attacked by snakes. On the other hand, the reality wasn't much better with certain characters going out of their way to make his life a living Hell.
There was being tortured by Captain Dargent Peytraud (Zakes Mokae) and having been sold rat poison by Mozart (Brent Jennings). Add a potential framed for murder scenario and even Dennis was desperate to get out of Haiti pretty fast after all of that.
The rest of the film has Dennis return to Haiti, wind up being buried alive, having his soul taken and then using white magic to ultimately defeat Peytraud. By doing that, Dennis did mange to free a village of an evil grasp.
- There's a a nice supporting role from Michael Gough as Dr. Earl "Schoonie" Schoonbacher.
- Based on the book of the same name by Wade Davis, which was critiqued for scientific inaccuracies.
- Standout music: Le Roi Coupe Cloue's Madame Marcel.
- Chronology: Started in 1978 before moving into 1985. Mostly set in Haiti with some scenes in Boston.
I think The Serpent And The Rainbow might be an odd one for me. I didn't love it but I was intrigued by it as well. I think it's mostly an okay but strange take on zombies and voodoo.
Rating: 6 out of 10
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