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The Serpent and the Rainbow (1987)

tomatometer

50

Average Rating: 5.4/10
Critic Reviews: 6
Fresh: 3 | Rotten: 3

No consensus yet.

audience

59

liked it
Average Rating: 3.2/5
User Ratings: 14,382

My Rating

Movie Info

Horror maven Wes Craven attempted a slight change of pace from his usual slasher movie milieu with this chiller loosely based on a true story. Bill Pullman stars as Dennis Alan, a Harvard researcher sent to Haiti by a pharmaceutical company to investigate the zombie legend and any possible connection it might have to a rumored drug that could be used as a new breed of powerful anaesthetic. Once on the Caribbean isle, Alan is aided by a good voodoo priest or "houngan" (Paul Winfield) and his

Unrated, 1 hr. 38 min.

Horror

Oct 10, 2000

MCA/Universal Pictures

Cast

All Critics (27) | Top Critics (6) | Fresh (16) | Rotten (11) | DVD (6)

Offers a few good scares but gets bogged down in special effects.

September 25, 2007 Full Review Source: Variety | Comment
Variety
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Genuinely frightening.

September 25, 2007 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | Comment
Chicago Reader
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The Serpent and the Rainbow has a screenplay that often breaks its spell.

August 30, 2004 Full Review Source: New York Times | Comment
New York Times
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The Serpent and the Rainbow is uncanny in the way it takes the most lurid images and makes them plausible.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | Comment
Chicago Sun-Times
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Take a powerful, revealing nonfiction book, sift through it for its most cliche'd elements and turn it into a terror film and you've got The Serpent and the Rainbow.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Washington Post | Comment
Washington Post
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[Craven[ seems wiser and more story-conscious -- but thankfully still full of the same surprises.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Washington Post | Comment
Washington Post
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Flavorful Grand Guignol

April 1, 2010 Full Review Source: CinePassion | Comment
CinePassion

Despite the strongly emphasized exoticness its Haitian scenery, The Serpent and the Rainbow may be Wes Craven's most pedestrian film.

October 26, 2007 Full Review Source: Projection Booth | Comment
Projection Booth

Craven combines the terrifying dream sequences of A Nightmare on Elm Street with the subtle and evocative atmospherics of Val Lewton.

September 25, 2007 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | Comment
TV Guide's Movie Guide

Unfortunately, the political parallel between the ideological repression of Baby Doc's regime and the stultifying effects of the zombifying fluid is only sketchily developed, leaving us with a series of striking but isolated set pieces.

February 9, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out | Comment

A lame documentary-flavored horror story.

January 25, 2006 Full Review Source: Lessons of Darkness | Comment
Lessons of Darkness

A trippy, guilty pleasure.

August 30, 2004 Comment

Director Wes Craven learned that the scariest things often have nothing to do with special effects wizardry.

August 27, 2004 Full Review | Comment
Spirituality and Practice

A scary, hallucinogenic and underrated horror movie, and one of Wes Craven's best.

November 4, 2003 Comment
KFOR Channel 4 News

Mildly effective "fact" based horror from Wes Craven.

October 19, 2003 Comment
Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)

Genuinely chilling, one of Wes Craven's best.

January 12, 2003 Comment
Flipside Movie Emporium

Possibly Craven's best -- an original voodoo thriller that's also primo Pullman

January 9, 2003 Comment
New Times

Craven tries something different, with mixed results

January 5, 2003 Comment
Kalamazoo Gazette
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for The Serpent and the Rainbow

After directing some of the most legendary Horror films in the business, Wes Craven continues his streak of creepy horror films with The Serpent and the Rainbow, a film that is often overlooked. Using voodoo as his subject, Craven conjures a creepy horror film that has some intense moments and good scares. The Serpent

August 15, 2011
TheDudeLebowski65
Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski

Super Reviewer

An American anthropologist travels to Haiti to discover the zombification drug used in voodoo cult practices. It's inspired by true events apparantly which is always appealing to me and it was an interesting take on the zombie genre and quite enjoyable overall. It does have some cool scenes but it's not a gore fest.

June 26, 2011
WrenchLT
Lee ?

Super Reviewer

    1. Dennis Alan: What do you want from me?
    2. Dargent Peytraud: I want to hear you scream!
    – Submitted by Noah G (5 months ago)

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