The Serpent and the Rainbow (1987)
Average Rating: 5.8/10
Reviews Counted: 27
Fresh: 16 | Rotten: 11
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 5/10
Critic Reviews: 7
Fresh: 3 | Rotten: 4
No consensus yet.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.2/5
User Ratings: 14,850
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
Jun 1, 1987 Wide
Oct 10, 2000
MCA/Universal Pictures
Watch It Now
Cast
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Bill Pullman
Dennis Alan -
Cathy Tyson
Marielle Duchamp -
Zakes Mokae
Dargent Peytraud -
Paul Winfield
Lucien Celine -
Brent Jennings
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart -
Michael Gough
Schoonbacher -
Conrad Roberts
Christophe -
Badja Djola
Gaston -
Theresa Merritt
Simone -
Paul Guilfoyle
Andrew Cassedy -
Dey Young
Mrs. Cassedy -
Aleta Mitchell
Celestine -
William Newman
French Missionary Docto... -
-
Francis Guinan
American Doctor -
Michael Jackson
Newscaster
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All Critics (27) | Top Critics (7) | Fresh (16) | Rotten (11) | DVD (6)
Offers a few good scares but gets bogged down in special effects.
Top CriticGenuinely frightening.
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.
The Serpent and the Rainbow has a screenplay that often breaks its spell.
The Serpent and the Rainbow is uncanny in the way it takes the most lurid images and makes them plausible.
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.
Flavorful Grand Guignol
Despite the strongly emphasized exoticness its Haitian scenery, The Serpent and the Rainbow may be Wes Craven's most pedestrian film.
Craven combines the terrifying dream sequences of A Nightmare on Elm Street with the subtle and evocative atmospherics of Val Lewton.
A lame documentary-flavored horror story.
A trippy, guilty pleasure.
Director Wes Craven learned that the scariest things often have nothing to do with special effects wizardry.
A scary, hallucinogenic and underrated horror movie, and one of Wes Craven's best.
Mildly effective "fact" based horror from Wes Craven.
Genuinely chilling, one of Wes Craven's best.
Possibly Craven's best -- an original voodoo thriller that's also primo Pullman
Craven tries something different, with mixed results
An invisibly smart film, a lot brighter underneath than its surface gloss would suggest.
Wes Craven chiller that thinks it's ten times the picture it actually is.
Surprisingly solid effort from Wes Craven.
Audience Reviews for The Serpent and the Rainbow
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
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- Dennis Alan: What do you want from me?
- Dargent Peytraud: I want to hear you scream!
Discussion Forum
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Movie: ID: 15839 Title: The Serpent and the Rainbow Release Date: 1987-06-01 00:00:00.0 MPAA: 4 Status: 1
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