terrible... so disappointed.

Overrated and overhyped

Charming and brutal

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

This is Craven's finest piece of work, explores the voodoo, black magic almost like a religion, set pieces are great and the music score is haunting! Craven takes a mature step into the world of magic/spirits, with its narrative story telling approach it grips the audience.The biggest star of the film is Haiti itself, with the action taking place in several beautiful and exotic locales. This gives it a real sense of authenticity, as many of the actors and extras are actual Haitian natives. I also very much enjoyed Dr. Alan's dreams and hallucinations, which were disturbing and led the film to an even more sinister edge. The story is not far-fetched and when the word "Zombie" is mentioned you can understand the meaning of the word. Not, like our wonderful George A. Romero of the walking dead back to life, but an interesting in-sight into Zombiefication and how it occurs and the onset of long term mental health issues. The powder that is mentioned, and seen, in S&T.Rb is today still secretly under wraps and even to this day medical professionals are still trying to work out the affects and how it is made.Overall rating: 8 out of 10.

Very interesting movie! What makes this movie scary is that things like this really do happen in certain parts of the world... it seems South America mainly.Most people are familiar with the get bit by a zombie you will turn into a zombie scenario which is not that realistic. Romero's Night of the Living Dead or other zombie films are good examples of it. But Serpent and the Rainbow is not that type of a zombie film.Serpent and the Rainbow is a very underrated and extremely creepy film about REAL ZOMBISM. Yes I say REAL ZOMBISM! To understand the movie Serpent and the Rainbow on a deeper scale research REAL ZOMBISM: Scopolamine aka Devil's Breath is one such drug from the Borrachero tree it is also known as Angel Trumpet: Brugmansia. This plant is known turn people into a zombie-like state... people will even give up their free will.If one is interested in real zombism and other magic from South America I recommend a book by Jaya Bear: Amazon Magic: The Life Story of Ayahuasquero & Shaman Don Agustin Rivas Vasquez -- very good book that goes well with the the theme of the movie "Serpent and the Rainbow".Yes I loved Serpent and the Rainbow! It maybe Wes Craven's best movie to date! 9.5/10

"The Serpent and the Rainbow" is a film that works best if you don't think through the plot but instead just take the movie as it comes. This is because if you think about it, the plot doesn't make a lot of sense---especially the amazingly silly finale. On the positive side, the film has a wonderful sense of creepiness--all brought to you by the guy responsible for the "Nightmare on Elm Street" series, Wes Craven.The film is set in Haiti during the latter part of the Baby Doc Duvalier era. For some completely insane reason, a doctor (Bill Pullman) has been sent to the country by a pharmaceutical company to learn the secret of zombification so that they could possibly use the zombie formula for positive/curative purposes. This really makes no sense at all. What also doesn't make sense is how horrible and dangerous it is there--with all sorts of voodoo, zombies and terror. The ending is amazingly stupid--where some of this terror is really scary and creepy and some of it is hampered by the 1988-style prosthetics which look very fake by today's standards. Still, the creepy factor is an A+ for the film overall. It's not the sort of film I'd usually watch, but for a change of pace, it was pretty good.

"The Serpent and the Rainbow" is true horror, a deeply sinister tale just dripping with flavour and atmosphere. It's based on the non-fiction book by Wade Davis, and tells the story of anthropologist Dennis Alan (Bill Pullman) who travels to Haiti for the purpose of investigating what could be causing supposedly dead people to still be alive. He finds himself in a whole lot of trouble, what with his stubborn insistence on solving the mystery and poking his nose into places where other people don't want it. His chief antagonist is local policeman Dargent Peytraud (an effectively scary Zakes Mokae), a man who's not exactly subtle about his malevolent intentions. Fortunately, Dennis has some allies, in the form of crusading doctor Marielle DuChamp (gorgeous Cathy Tyson) and business owner Lucien Celine (Paul Winfield). There are some absolutely great horror moments in this very competently made chiller, and some very vivid characters. Dennis, unfortunately, is an intelligent but not terribly likable protagonist, and Pullman can't do much to make us want to root for him; it's the other actors & characters that really make this sing. Tyson is appealing and Winfield solid as always; Brent Jennings as Mozart, Conrad Roberts as Christophe, Michael Gough as Schoonbacher, Badja Djola as Gaston, Theresa Merritt as Simone, and Paul Guilfoyle as Andrew Cassedy are all fine, especially the engaging Jennings and the haunted Roberts who is able to mine his part for much pathos. Adding to the feel of the piece is its political subtext as the movie takes place during the reign of the notorious "Baby Doc" Duvalier. Makeup and visual effects are nicely done, and the movie has some good zombie action and highly surreal moments. It sizes up as one of the more interesting and entertaining films of Craven's career, projecting a strong sense of doom & gloom; it could have used some more humour, and the finale gets a bit silly, but overall, it's definitely worth a look. Seven out of 10.