The Serpent and the Rainbow: Difference between revisions

[[File:serpenta.jpg|frame]]

 

 

 

Anthropologist Dennis Alan (Bill Pullman) travels to Haiti to investigate rumors of a drug used by [[Black Magic]] practitioners: one allegedly capable of transforming the living into zombie slaves. He meets with Marielle Duchamp, a Haitian medical doctor who has been working closely with cases of zombification. One of her most recent cases is a man named Christophe, a fresh zombie with a better memory than usual. In their investigation, they meet with Louis Mozart, who, despite being something of a [[Con Man]], is willing to provide them with the mysterious zombie drug.

Meanwhile, [[Complete Monster|Haitian dictator Dargent Peytraud]] notices Dr. Alan's investigations, and seeks to intimidate him into leaving the country. Alan stands up to the man, only to have his dreams haunted by visions of Peytraud, and the living dead.

 

* [[Badass Boast]]: After purchasing a vial of zombie powder from Mozart, Dennis Alan loudly calls him an idiot, says "You want to know what I think of your powders?", pours the entire vial into a drink, then chugs the mixture. Before leaving, he hisses: "It's piss." {{spoiler|He actually used slight of hand to switch the real vial out for one of his own; ultimately, it was a move meant to psyche out Celine enough to give him the real powder}}.

* [[Buried Alive]]: This is part of the zombie-creation process.

* [[Creepy Cemetery]]: Several scenes.

* [[Evil Sorcerer]]: Peytraud.

* [[Ironic Echo]]: "I want to hear you ''scream!''"

* [[Just Think of the Potential]]: Dr. Alan is working for a pharmaceutical company that believes the zombie powder can be used as a safe anesthetic; something that might prevent patients from dying on the operating table as the result of anesthetic shock.

* [[Mind Over Matter]]: As part of the climax, {{spoiler|Dennis Alan gains telekinesis}}.

* [[Nightmare Sequence]]: Dennis Alan suffers through this more and more frequently as the movie continues, eventually having to cope with waking [[Hallucinations]].

* [[Scary Black Man]]: Peytraud.

* [[Secret Police]]: the Tonton Macoute.

** In fact, the author, Harvard ethnobotanist Wade Davis, was extremely unhappy with the film, because it ended up [[They Just Didn't Care|presenting voodoo in the sensationalist]] [[Black Magic]] sideshow light that he notably avoided in the book. There are several passages in the book in which he condemns the way [[Hilarious in Hindsight|Hollywood has demonized ''vodoun'' religion in film]].

* [[Your Soul Is Mine]]: Haitian dictator Dargent Peytraud keeps a collection of them.

[[Category:Horror Films]]

[[Category:Films of the 1980s]]

[[Category:Film]]