The Serpent and the Rainbow
Encyclopedia
The Serpent and the Rainbow is a 1988
American
voodoo–horror film
, directed by Wes Craven
and starring Bill Pullman
. The film is very loosely based on the non-fiction book
of the same name by ethnobotanist
Wade Davis
, wherein Davis recounted his experiences in Haiti
investigating the story of Clairvius Narcisse
, who was allegedly poisoned and buried alive. When released from the grave, Narcisse was given an herbal brew whose effects produced what was called a zombie
.
, receives a potion connecting him to his protective totem
(a jaguar
) through a series of visions, and is later guided by a jaguar from the Rainforest itself. Returned to Boston
, he is sent to Haiti
by a large pharmaceutical corporation looking to investigate a drug used in Haitian Vodou, in the hope of using it as anesthesia
.
Alan's exploration in Haiti to find the "zombie drug", assisted by the doctor Marielle, draws the attention of the authorities, so that the commander of the Tonton Macoute
, Captain Dargent Peytraud, warns Alan to leave Haiti. Alan refuses to leave, and continues to investigate. Eventually, he encounters a local witch doctor
, Mozart, who can produce the drug; but Mozart sells him a substitute instead.
Alan is arrested a second time by the Tonton Macoute and torture
d; but again refuses to leave. Later he meets again with Mozart to obtain the true poison. A few hours before gaining this, Alan experiences a nightmare
planted in his mind by Peytraud, and wakes beside a dead woman. The Tonton Macoutes then frame Alan for murder
.
Alan is brought to Peytraud, who places him on an airplane at gunpoint; whereupon Mozart gives him the zombie drug in exchange for international fame. Alan thence returns to Boston to study the components and effects of the drug.
At a celebration dinner, the wife of Alan's employer is possessed
by Peytraud, who warns him of his own imminent death. Thereafter Alan returns to Haiti, where (at Peytraud's behest) he is buried alive. Having emerged from the grave he returns to the Tonton Macoute headquarters looking for Marielle. Arriving as she is about to be decapitated, Alan and his jaguar spirit defeat Peytraud, prompting Marielle to say "The nightmare is over".
of Haiti, the poison that caused the appearance of death was reported to be tetrodotoxin
. After he was unburied, he was given a brew derived from Datura stramonium
, which he claimed had mind control
properties.
The film depicts the powdered drug blown into the victim's face. This is most consistent with involuntary dosing of scopolamine
, an alkaloid
found in datura
and known to facilitate behavior control, but not the appearance of death.
The character of Captain Dargent Peytraud is loosely based on Luckner Cambronne
, who was second-in-command to François Duvalier
and the commander of the Tonton Macoutes during the reign of Charles Duvalier.
in February 1988. It grossed $19,595,031 at the box office.
The film was released on DVD
by Image Entertainment
in 1998. This version is out of print
. It was subsequently re-released by Universal Studios
in 2003.
1988 in film
-Top grossing films :- Awards :Academy Awards:* Act of Piracy* Action Jackson, starring Carl Weathers, Craig T. Nelson, Vanity, Sharon Stone* The Adventures of Baron Munchausen* Akira* Alice...
American
Cinema of the United States
The cinema of the United States, also known as Hollywood, has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. Its history is sometimes separated into four main periods: the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period...
voodoo–horror film
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
, directed by Wes Craven
Wes Craven
Wesley Earl "Wes" Craven is an American actor, film director, writer, producer, perhaps best known as the director of many horror films, particularly slasher films, including the famed A Nightmare on Elm Street and Wes Craven's New Nightmare, featuring the iconic Freddy Krueger character, the...
and starring Bill Pullman
Bill Pullman
William James "Bill" Pullman is an American film, television, and stage actor. Pullman made his film debut in the supporting role of Earl Mott in the 1986 film Ruthless People. He has since gone on to star in other films, including Spaceballs, Independence Day, Lost Highway, Casper and Scary Movie 4...
. The film is very loosely based on the non-fiction book
The Serpent and the Rainbow (book)
The Serpent and the Rainbow is a book by ethnobotanist and researcher Wade Davis. He investigated Haitian Vodou and the process of making zombies. He studied ethnobotanical poisons, discovering their use in a reported case of a contemporary zombie, Clairvius Narcisse.The book inspired a dramatic...
of the same name by ethnobotanist
Ethnobotany
Ethnobotany is the scientific study of the relationships that exist between people and plants....
Wade Davis
Wade Davis
Edmund Wade Davis is a Canadian anthropologist, ethnobotanist, author and photographer whose work has focused on worldwide indigenous cultures, especially in North and South America and particularly involving the traditional uses and beliefs associated with psychoactive plants...
, wherein Davis recounted his experiences in Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
investigating the story of Clairvius Narcisse
Clairvius Narcisse
Clairvius Narcisse was a Haitian man said to have been turned into a living zombie by a combination of drugs. His case was the subject of a book, The Serpent and the Rainbow.-History:...
, who was allegedly poisoned and buried alive. When released from the grave, Narcisse was given an herbal brew whose effects produced what was called a zombie
Zombie
Zombie is a term used to denote an animated corpse brought back to life by mystical means such as witchcraft. The term is often figuratively applied to describe a hypnotized person bereft of consciousness and self-awareness, yet ambulant and able to respond to surrounding stimuli...
.
Plot
Ethnobotanist/anthropologist Dennis Alan, in visiting the AmazonAmazon Rainforest
The Amazon Rainforest , also known in English as Amazonia or the Amazon Jungle, is a moist broadleaf forest that covers most of the Amazon Basin of South America...
, receives a potion connecting him to his protective totem
Totem
A totem is a stipulated ancestor of a group of people, such as a family, clan, group, lineage, or tribe.Totems support larger groups than the individual person. In kinship and descent, if the apical ancestor of a clan is nonhuman, it is called a totem...
(a jaguar
Jaguar
The jaguar is a big cat, a feline in the Panthera genus, and is the only Panthera species found in the Americas. The jaguar is the third-largest feline after the tiger and the lion, and the largest in the Western Hemisphere. The jaguar's present range extends from Southern United States and Mexico...
) through a series of visions, and is later guided by a jaguar from the Rainforest itself. Returned to Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, he is sent to Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
by a large pharmaceutical corporation looking to investigate a drug used in Haitian Vodou, in the hope of using it as anesthesia
Anesthesia
Anesthesia, or anaesthesia , traditionally meant the condition of having sensation blocked or temporarily taken away...
.
Alan's exploration in Haiti to find the "zombie drug", assisted by the doctor Marielle, draws the attention of the authorities, so that the commander of the Tonton Macoute
Tonton Macoute
Tonton Macoutes was a Haitian paramilitary force created in 1959 by President François 'Papa Doc' Duvalier. In 1970, the militia was officially renamed the Milice de Volontaires de la Sécurité Nationale .Haitians called this force the “Tonton Macoutes,” after the Haitian Creole mythological...
, Captain Dargent Peytraud, warns Alan to leave Haiti. Alan refuses to leave, and continues to investigate. Eventually, he encounters a local witch doctor
Witch doctor
A witch doctor originally referred to a type of healer who treated ailments believed to be caused by witchcraft. It is currently used to refer to healers in some third world regions, who use traditional healing rather than contemporary medicine...
, Mozart, who can produce the drug; but Mozart sells him a substitute instead.
Alan is arrested a second time by the Tonton Macoute and torture
Torture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
d; but again refuses to leave. Later he meets again with Mozart to obtain the true poison. A few hours before gaining this, Alan experiences a nightmare
Nightmare
A nightmare is an unpleasant dream that can cause a strong negative emotional response from the mind, typically fear or horror, but also despair, anxiety and great sadness. The dream may contain situations of danger, discomfort, psychological or physical terror...
planted in his mind by Peytraud, and wakes beside a dead woman. The Tonton Macoutes then frame Alan for murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
.
Alan is brought to Peytraud, who places him on an airplane at gunpoint; whereupon Mozart gives him the zombie drug in exchange for international fame. Alan thence returns to Boston to study the components and effects of the drug.
At a celebration dinner, the wife of Alan's employer is possessed
Demonic possession
Demonic possession is held by many belief systems to be the control of an individual by a malevolent supernatural being. Descriptions of demonic possessions often include erased memories or personalities, convulsions, “fits” and fainting as if one were dying...
by Peytraud, who warns him of his own imminent death. Thereafter Alan returns to Haiti, where (at Peytraud's behest) he is buried alive. Having emerged from the grave he returns to the Tonton Macoute headquarters looking for Marielle. Arriving as she is about to be decapitated, Alan and his jaguar spirit defeat Peytraud, prompting Marielle to say "The nightmare is over".
Background
In the case of Clairvius NarcisseClairvius Narcisse
Clairvius Narcisse was a Haitian man said to have been turned into a living zombie by a combination of drugs. His case was the subject of a book, The Serpent and the Rainbow.-History:...
of Haiti, the poison that caused the appearance of death was reported to be tetrodotoxin
Tetrodotoxin
Tetrodotoxin, also known as "tetrodox" and frequently abbreviated as TTX, sometimes colloquially referred to as "zombie powder" by those who practice Vodou, is a potent neurotoxin with no known antidote. There have been successful tests of a possible antidote in mice, but further tests must be...
. After he was unburied, he was given a brew derived from Datura stramonium
Datura stramonium
Datura stramonium, known by the common names Jimson weed, devil's trumpet, devil's weed, thorn apple, tolguacha, Jamestown weed, stinkweed, locoweed, datura, pricklyburr, devil's cucumber, Hell's Bells, moonflower and, in South Africa, malpitte and mad seeds, is a common weed in the...
, which he claimed had mind control
Mind control
Mind control refers to a process in which a group or individual "systematically uses unethically manipulative methods to persuade others to conform to the wishes of the manipulator, often to the detriment of the person being manipulated"...
properties.
The film depicts the powdered drug blown into the victim's face. This is most consistent with involuntary dosing of scopolamine
Scopolamine
Scopolamine, also known as levo-duboisine, and hyoscine, is a tropane alkaloid drug with muscarinic antagonist effects. It is among the secondary metabolites of plants from Solanaceae family of plants, such as henbane, jimson weed and Angel's Trumpets , and corkwood...
, an alkaloid
Alkaloid
Alkaloids are a group of naturally occurring chemical compounds that contain mostly basic nitrogen atoms. This group also includes some related compounds with neutral and even weakly acidic properties. Also some synthetic compounds of similar structure are attributed to alkaloids...
found in datura
Datura
Datura is a genus of nine species of vespertine flowering plants belonging to the family Solanaceae. Its precise and natural distribution is uncertain, owing to its extensive cultivation and naturalization throughout the temperate and tropical regions of the globe...
and known to facilitate behavior control, but not the appearance of death.
The character of Captain Dargent Peytraud is loosely based on Luckner Cambronne
Luckner Cambronne
Luckner Cambronne was a high-ranking political figure in François Duvalier's regime in Haiti who some believe to have played a significant role in the early spread of AIDS....
, who was second-in-command to François Duvalier
François Duvalier
François Duvalier was the President of Haiti from 1957 until his death in 1971. Duvalier first won acclaim in fighting diseases, earning him the nickname "Papa Doc" . He opposed a military coup d'état in 1950, and was elected President in 1957 on a populist and black nationalist platform...
and the commander of the Tonton Macoutes during the reign of Charles Duvalier.
Release
The film was released theatrically in the United States by Universal PicturesUniversal Pictures
-1920:* White Youth* The Flaming Disc* Am I Dreaming?* The Dragon's Net* The Adorable Savage* Putting It Over* The Line Runners-1921:* The Fire Eater* A Battle of Wits* Dream Girl* The Millionaire...
in February 1988. It grossed $19,595,031 at the box office.
The film was released on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
by Image Entertainment
Image Entertainment
Image Entertainment, Inc. is an independent licensee, producer and distributor of home entertainment programming and film & television productions in North America, with approximately 3,000 exclusive DVD titles and approximately 250 exclusive CD titles in domestic release, and approximately 450...
in 1998. This version is out of print
Out of print
Out of print refers to an item, typically a book , but can include any print or visual media or sound recording, that is in the state of no longer being published....
. It was subsequently re-released by Universal Studios
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
in 2003.