Wes Craven was one of the most prolific directors to ever grace the canon of horror cinema. His early film The Last House on the Left helped to define the slasher genre, while his seminal work A Nightmare on Elm Street reinvented it. Later hits like Scream and its sequels would take the genre in bold new directions, and many of his other films have remained relevant, such as The Hills Have Eyes, which continues to influence filmmakers today. A true master of horror, Craven’s work is well-known and celebrated by horror fans everywhere. That said, there are a few lesser known movies in his filmography that have slipped through the cracks. One such movie is his 1988 anthropological nightmare The Serpent and the Rainbow.
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Despite releasing to generally favorable reviews and performing moderately well at the box office, The Serpent and the Rainbow did not become an instant cult favorite. Perhaps it was lost in the deluge of ‘80s horror flicks, then overshadowed by Craven’s own critical hits Scream and New Nightmare. While it has now made it onto lists of the director’s best films, The Serpent and the Rainbow remains an underseen gem of ‘80s horror that is ripe for rediscovery. Here’s why this 1988 voodoo zombie jam needs more love.
A Terrifying True Story
Universal Pictures
The Serpent and the Rainbow is about Doctor Dennis Alan, who travels to Haiti in search of a mysterious drug rumored to be capable of bringing the dead back to life. Though the film takes many creative liberties, it is based on a true story (at least, a somewhat true story). Wade Davis’ 1985 book, The Serpent and the Rainbow: A Harvard Scientist’s Astonishing Journey into the Secret Societies of Haitian Voodoo, Zombies, and Magic, serves as the main inspiration for the film’s plot. This book presents Davis’ own firsthand account of his adventure in Haiti, during which he investigated the case of Clairvius Narcisse, a man who Davis claimed had been a zombie for two years.
The book describes the laborious process and the plethora of ingredients involved in crafting “Haitian Zombie Powder,” a poison which is said to kill and subsequently re-animate the victim. Although Davis’ claims were met with widespread criticism from the scientific community, his story was captivating enough to inspire screenwriters Richard Maxwell and Alex Rodman to adapt it to film. The film changes the names of the people in the book and expands upon the zombification process, tying it in with a timely story about revolution and political control in Haiti. The result is an Indiana Jones-esque adventure infused with nightmarish visuals and a palpable atmosphere of impending doom that is a true highlight of Craven’s oeuvre.
A Hallucinatory Descent into Horror
The film is loaded with scene after scene of inventive and genuinely frightening horror, including the scene where Alan is buried alive, which is one of the scariest in Craven’s prolific career. The looming political strife and secret police-filled alleyways create an air of inescapable paranoia that serves as the cherry on top of all the black magic terror. In addition to adding to the overall sense of unease, the real-life political turmoil provides a historical context that grounds the horror in reality, making it all the more convincing and unnerving.
The Best Voodoo Zombie Movie
Not only is The Serpent and the Rainbow one of the best zombie movies ever made, it just might be the best movie ever made about Haitian voodoo zombies. There have been plenty of others, including the Bela Lugosi-starring classic White Zombie and the Val Lewton-penned I Walked with a Zombie, but neither can compete with the attentively detailed and beautifully realized terror of Craven’s film. Part of what makes the film great is the way that it treats voodoo more seriously than other films of its ilk. Esteemed critic Roger Ebert agrees, stating that the film presents voodoo “as a religion, a way of life, and an occult circle that does possess secrets unexplored by modern medicine.” As a character in the film states, “Haiti is 85% Catholic, but 110% voodoo,” and this is plainly evidenced by the way that every Haitian character, even the level-headed doctors, confirm voodoo’s pervasive nature in society.
The film holds voodoo customs in the highest of reverence, as something powerful and worthy of respect, rather than a simple (read: racist) outsider’s perspective on the “exotic” practices of Haitian society. Adding to the authenticity of the film, the scenes depicting possessed dancers were captured, according to Puzzle Box Horror, by “actually filming voodoo practitioners who were in a trance state.” The attention to detail remains unmatched by any other voodoo zombie movie to date.
The Horror Master Perfects His Style
Ask any horror fan and they will tell you: Wes Craven is one of the greatest horror movie directors of all time. Despite this, not all of his work is as highly regarded as A Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream. The mid-80s found Craven in a bit of a critical downturn, with 1985’s The Hills Have Eyes Part II being a complete disaster, and 1986’s Deadly Friend not doing much to make up for it. Fortunately, The Serpent and the Rainbow came about in 1988 to restore his reign as the master of horror. The film is a true return to form following the previous years’ misfires, and even features his signature motif of trapping his characters in a space somewhere between dream and reality. The script is tight, the style is inventive, and the special effects are phenomenal. The Serpent and the Rainbow is an underseen tour de force for Craven that deserves more recognition.
