The Serpent And The Rainbow (1988) ***1/2
I've long considered Wes Craven's The Serpent And The Rainbow (1988) underrated within his filmography. Based on Wade Davis's non-fiction book of the same name, TS&TR explores Harvard anthropologist Dennis Alan's (Bill Pullman) journey to Haiti in the midst of a revolution to investigate a supposed zombie drug used in Vodou on behalf of a pharmaceutical company.
Cathy Tyson, who enchanted audiences two years earlier in Neil Jordan's Mona Lisa, portrays Dr. Marielle Duchamp, who aids Alan in his quest. Zakes Mokae plays an exceptional villain as Dargent Peytraud, a brutal commander of the Tonton Macoute, who takes a disliking to Alan's snooping.
There is a lot to appreciate here—from the performances (Paul Winfield and Brent Jennings also turn in memorable supporting roles) to Brad Fiedel's score to strong cinematography to incredibly creepy, nightmarish and anxiety-inducing imagery. There are also excellent special effects on display but the bulk of them unfortunately arrive during the finale, where the film goes a bit off the rails.
It's in that climax where TS&TR falters—where it's mostly grounded in reality up to that point, employing a slow burn to build its tension, in the last twenty minutes or so it turns into a funhouse ride and eventually a showdown between Alan and Peytraud, relying on familiar tropes of the horror genre. I don't have an issue with that type of approach per se (and I don't necessarily dislike the ending or think it derails the film completely), but here it feels studio mandated, rather than a natural extension of what came before. In particular, Peytraud adopting a Freddy Krueger-like quality feels a bit forced.
Still, TS&TR is a unique film that has never given this viewer the sense of exploitation often present in Craven's other work. The fact that it was made during real-life political strife and civil unrest (at one point the local Haitian government informed the cast and crew that they could not guarantee their safety; as a result, production was relocated to the Dominican Republic for the remainder of the shoot) also adds to the prescient nature of the film.
You can find my Wes Craven Feature Films Ranked list here.
Cathy Tyson, who enchanted audiences two years earlier in Neil Jordan's Mona Lisa, portrays Dr. Marielle Duchamp, who aids Alan in his quest. Zakes Mokae plays an exceptional villain as Dargent Peytraud, a brutal commander of the Tonton Macoute, who takes a disliking to Alan's snooping.
There is a lot to appreciate here—from the performances (Paul Winfield and Brent Jennings also turn in memorable supporting roles) to Brad Fiedel's score to strong cinematography to incredibly creepy, nightmarish and anxiety-inducing imagery. There are also excellent special effects on display but the bulk of them unfortunately arrive during the finale, where the film goes a bit off the rails.
It's in that climax where TS&TR falters—where it's mostly grounded in reality up to that point, employing a slow burn to build its tension, in the last twenty minutes or so it turns into a funhouse ride and eventually a showdown between Alan and Peytraud, relying on familiar tropes of the horror genre. I don't have an issue with that type of approach per se (and I don't necessarily dislike the ending or think it derails the film completely), but here it feels studio mandated, rather than a natural extension of what came before. In particular, Peytraud adopting a Freddy Krueger-like quality feels a bit forced.
Still, TS&TR is a unique film that has never given this viewer the sense of exploitation often present in Craven's other work. The fact that it was made during real-life political strife and civil unrest (at one point the local Haitian government informed the cast and crew that they could not guarantee their safety; as a result, production was relocated to the Dominican Republic for the remainder of the shoot) also adds to the prescient nature of the film.
You can find my Wes Craven Feature Films Ranked list here.
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