To me, this movie is perfection.

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Sent to a Haitian village, a botanist for a US pharmaceutical company is asked to explore the uses of a psychotic drug used there and as he continues looking into the stories is soon immersed into the world of voodoo and ancient spells that goes way over his head and has to fight for his very soul.This is quite the chilling and enjoyable effort. Among the films' positives is that this is one of the very few horror films ever made that treats its subject matter as accurately as possible. It's true that all the depictions and discussions about voodoo and its power are real. Those are real practitioners of voodoo performing on film, and how it happens in the film are real representations of how voodoo works. That adds to the realism to the film, because real-life horror is far scarier than anything else a human mind can come up with. Whatever the people in the film are doing to the characters to turn them into zombies are very powerful and the spells and potions used to control and create them are just as powerful. This includes the practice of making a zombie which is fully explored, and the process is an incredibly creepy one. We get to know it in intricate detail as the realness of it makes it that much more compelling. That means this gets so much better when he has been overwhelmed with the voodoo world and everything comes crashing down, as once he knows the process of creating the drug the movie kicks into hyper-drive as he is just relentlessly tortured by what he knows. That it happens in a quick manner of time is staggering, which is mainly based around the continuous dream sequences he keeps having while being tortured that are truly trippy and delirious. The first one, where he's inside this candlelit room and witnesses a wedding being performed where the bride wanders over to him with the veil down is one of the biggest scares, while another big one is where he's dissolved into a wall of blood among the other numerous quick shots of charred hands or vicious being charging at him. It was also nice since the torture inflicted on him was more mental than physical which also manages to include the heart-stopping climax which is justifiably famous. Alongside the wild real-life tendencies that add a further touch of realism here, this one generates a lot to like and barely any real flaws. The biggest flaw to be found is the fact that it's so long before anything really happens here that it can feel somewhat challenging in terms of pacing. The film is basically more of an adventure film for the first half as he's immersed into the world and around the mystery in the village which isn't all that horrific beyond the nature of the events happening which isn't all that exciting to see play out. This one still manages to maintain a solid pace, but it remains all the more removed from the genre for a large stretch of time. Likewise, some might also be put off because of the supernatural and religious themes portrayed in the film. Since they are very accurate, it may upset the very religious persons out there where this is something that some may be put off against because it may clash with their faith. Witnessing some of the blasphemous actions throughout here could be upsetting, but overall it's not all that bad here.Rated R: Intricate details and discussions about occult themes, Violence, Language, Nudity and a mild sex scene.

This vividly designed but muddled Wes Craven extravaganza about voodoo clocks in at just 98 minutes but feels much longer. Structurally it recalls 'Nightmare on Elm Street', with local Tonton Macoute commander Zakes Mokae as its Freddy Kruger equivalent as its hero's grasp on reality grows ever more tenuous and the film increasingly resembles either an extended dream sequence or a drug-induced hallucination. Using an actual revolution that had just taken place in a Caribbean country as the backdrop for such a fanciful subject seemed to me rather tasteless.

THE SERPENT AND THE RAINBOW boasted one of the greatest trailers I've ever seen; the movie, unfortunately, didn't live up to its promise. Bill Pullman in the lead was a big part of what went wrong: his delivery throughout is as dull and monotonous and as lifeless as... a zombie... There ARE a couple of good scenes: the scene where the missing man, Christophe, turns up (...) in a graveyard and the scene where Pullman is buried alive. The Big Finale drags on for far too long and it doesn't help that Craven employs the same type of stunts he used in SWAMP THING (which were not unlike the stunts we saw every single week on THE INCREDIBLE HULK teleshow). For all that, I still think this is the late Wes Craven's best effort.

In 1985, Dr. Dennis Alan (Bill Pullman) from Harvard is in deepest Amazon studying the locals. He is given hallucinogens. His helicopter pilot is killed and he's forced to travel the 200 miles on his own. Back in Boston, he's recruited by a pharmaceutical to study a possible case of zombification in Haiti. Christophe Durand was declared dead in 1978 and buried. However he has returned under the care of psychiatrist Dr. Duchamp (Cathy Tyson). She introduces him to Lucien Celine (Paul Winfield) and local hustler Louis Mozart. There is also Dargent Peytraud, the leader of the feared Tonton Macuse who are the thugs of dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier.I really like the exotic realism and the idea of voodoo zombies. Actually the more traditional horror gimmicks from Wes Craven in the last act is not that exciting. I like the woman eating glass at diner but the last section tries too much. The strength of the movie is any remote connection to reality. It's creepy and Zakes Mokae is such a great villain.