A Maldição dos Mortos-Vivos

Much to my surprise, this film was actually an excellent horror flick, one that I plan to watch again some day. I am glad a friend of mine recommended the movie to me, I am just hoping others will find the time to look into it.

Even more, if the story actually is based on a "true story", I will shudder at the thought of it...

Wes Craven's "The Serpent and the Rainbow" is one of the more original and ambitious horror movies to come out of the '80s. Not only does it seek to reconnect cinematic zombies with their voodoo roots, ala classics like "White Zombie", but it also uses the creation of zombies as a political allegory. The film is set in Haiti during the last days of the dictatorship of "Baby Doc" Duvalier.

Based - very loosely one surmises - on a true story, the plot follows Dr. Dennis Alan (Bill Pullman) as he investigates a powder that is said to turn people into zombies. He is aided in his quest by Dr. Marielle Duchamp (Cathy Tyson), who he quickly falls for, and Louie Mozart (Brent Jennings) an expert in voodoo. Dargent Peytraud (the chilling Zakes Mokae) is the snarling villain of the piece, a man with sinister powers both government-sanctioned and supernatural.

The film abounds with creatively gruesome imagery - a man is buried alive, screaming, in a coffin as it fills with blood, a fiendish hand reaches out from a bowl of soup - this is one of those rare films that genuinely makes your skin crawl. Horror fans should not miss it. It's a shame that the film runs just a little longer than it should and becomes disappointingly routine in its final moments.

There is a sense that this movie was aiming a bit higher than it ending up reaching. I can't quite hold that against it.

The story of a chemist who is investigating a rumoured drug that brings people back from the dead. This is a great movie which keeps you in suspense right through. Not a horror movie but more of a suspense type movie that enters the world of black magic and voodoo. Very underrated movie and well worth watching, great plot and the story works.

A researcher (Bill Pullman) goes to Haiti in order to find a "zombie drug" that can give someone the appearance of death, when in actuality their body is at its lowest functioning. They may not breathe, or bleed, but they are not truly dead. The researcher and the company he works for hope to use it as an anesthetic.

The film started as a book of the same name by anthropologist Wade Davis, who is probably the world's authority on voodoo and zombies. Discussions were made to have Peter Weir direct and/or Mel Gibson star, but obviously this never happened. The script found its way to Wes Craven, and Bill Pullman (at that point a young rising star) was given the lead.

Author Wade Davis was on set from the very beginning and wanted to make the best film he could regardless of who the director would be. He notoriously did not like the way it went, and Bill Pullman says that both he (Pullman) and Wes Craven were disappointed, too, because they wanted a more serious angle and the studio (Universal) was pushing for a horror story. In retrospect, Davis seems to have become more accepting of the film and does not hold it against Craven. In fact, he praises many of the scenes for their authenticity, especially in comparison to other attempts at making voodoo films.

The filming took place throughout 1987, and the political tensions were getting nasty in Haiti. Dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier becomes part of the plot, which makes this not just an anthropological horror film, but a political one, too. If people are able to look past the horror aspects, there is actually an important cultural document here.

While the film is quite interesting for a variety of reasons, it starts off slow, and does not really pick up until the second half. Bill Pullman's character is the only one you are going to get to know from this film, and the only character who gets a lot of development. The natives seem very flat, and most just come across as wanting to kill Pullman. In a way, this makes sense, because this story is essentially told from his point of view.

Bill Pullman reflected years later, "I don't think any other movie I've done is as adventurous as this one." He did most of his own stunts, met with real voodoo priests and took part in a variety of activities that may not be your typical Hollywood situation. One scene was filmed in an actual Dominican grave. He confirms that writer Richard Maxwell had to be admitted to an asylum after consulting with a voodoo priest.

Fans of Craven ought to check this one out. It does not have the in-your-face slasher horror of Craven's "Nightmare on Elm Street", "Scream" or "Last House on the Left". But it is not intended to be. This is a film built on atmosphere, and in many ways a horror more realistic than any he had ever done before.

As always, the must-have version was released by the fine folks at Scream Factory. Those interested in the movie will have to watch the 25-minute "making of", which has interviews with cinematographer John Lindley, the father-son special effects team of Lance and Dave Anderson, Wade Davis, and some re-used audio from Pullman.

The audio commentary is disappointing. On the one hand, it is the first time the film has had a commentary track, so credit must be given to Scream Factory for giving the disc the attention that past companies (specifically Image and Universal) failed to do. But the commentary with Bill Pullman only goes halfway through the film, with no one left to take his place. The real tragedy is in the passing of Wes Craven (the disc is dedicated to him), who could have offered more insight.

There will undoubtedly never be a better release of this essential Wes Craven film... unless someone manages to convince Bill Pullman to hand over all the vacation footage he shot with his wife on set!

One of Wes Craven's best, "Serpent and the Rainbow" is as much a psychological thriller as a horror movie. Some horror fans may find it too slow (it takes its sweet time to come to a climax) but it's worth it... the journey is entertaining and interesting. This is a polished, professionally filmed movie with higher production values than the average for its genre.

I've never seen a film before that went quite so in-depth into the subject of voodoo. Filmed on location in Haiti, this movie goes into a lot of detail about various voodoo practices and introduces the voodoo versions of the good and evil magician, the houngon and the bocor. If you have any interest at all in this subject matter (or the supernatural in general), I recommend the movie on that basis alone.

Acting is uniformly solid throughout, if nothing really outstanding. We do not come to care very deeply about these characters, so their trials, tribulations and deaths do not bother us much... but Craven's attention to detail really shows, and there isn't a moment of this movie that lacks entertainment value. 7/10.