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The Serpent and the Rainbow

5.9

3,465

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Original title

The Serpent and the Rainbow

Year

1988

Running time

98 min.

Country

United States

Director

Wes Craven

Screenwriter

Richard Maxwell

Cast

Music

Brad Fiedel

Cinematography

John Lindley

Producer

Universal Pictures

Genre

Horror. Fantasy | Voodoo. Zombies

Synopsis

Dennis is a Harvard anthropologist and is called up by his old professor with a job for a pharmaceutical company. He is to go to Haiti and investigate the rumors and folklore of zombies. A man who died 7 years earlier, was found wandering in the village. He is to go there, and find out how he has come back to life. Dennis goes to Haiti, and meets Marielle, a doctor who treats the mentally ill, and since zombies have no control over themselves, she gets a lot of them. Dennis and Marielle go on investigating, and they find out, people are turned into zombies through a powder through the skin. Dennis is a scientist, and doesn't really believe this. Little does he know, there are things about this voodoo powder that science will never know. All of this is going on as a strict dictatorship is running Haiti. The leader does not want Dennis investigating this. It is rumored he is a powerful black magician. What will Dennis learn after his decent into a mystical, dark world in Haiti?

Rankings Position

#39 Best Zombies Movies & Series

Awards: 1988: Saturn Awards (Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films): nominated to Best Make-Up.

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Critics' reviews

"This movie seems to know something about voodoo, and treats it seriously as a religion (...) 'The Serpent and the Rainbow' is uncanny in the way it takes the most lurid images and makes them plausible (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)"

Roger Ebert: Chicago Sun-Times
"The result is an ambitious, entertaining--though not flawless--feat of the imagination, a highly visual and skillful blending of supernatural and political terror, high adventure and anthropology."

Kevin Thomas: Los Angeles Times
"Genuinely frightening...it's nice for a change to see some of the virtues of old-fashioned horror films (...) rather than the usual splatter shocks and special effects"

Jonathan Rosenbaum: Chicago Reader
"the film's strength lies in its increasingly surreal dream/hallucination sequences (...) Entertaining and ambitious (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"

Mark Dinning: Empire
"A better-than-average supernatural talethat offers a few good scares but gets bogged down in special effects."

Variety Staff: Variety

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The Serpent and the Rainbow

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