Rating: 
Summary: Great Craven romp
Review: Making an attempt to legitimize a horror film, Wes Craven adapted the best selling true life account by Wade Davis into this creepy horror romp. When a Harvard researcher (Bill Pullman) travels to Haiti to find a mysterious voodoo powder which can put anyone whom it is given to in a state of perpetual death, he gets way, way in over his head as he tries to uncover the mysteries behind the black magic. Craven manages to play with the viewer's psychological fears (including arachnophobia and claustrophobia as Pullman is buried alive with a huge tarantula crawling all over him) while inducing a few visceral thrills as well, but The Serpent & The Rainbow is definitely one of Craven's best films thanks to the realistic touch given to the film and Pullman's superb performance. Just like Universal's recent horror DVD re-releases, The Serpent & The Rainbow is devoid of any extras whatsoever, not even a trailer.
Rating:
Summary: Great Craven romp
Review: Making an attempt to legitimize a horror film, Wes Craven adapted the best selling true life account by Wade Davis into this creepy horror romp. When a Harvard researcher (Bill Pullman) travels to Haiti to find a mysterious voodoo powder which can put anyone whom it is given to in a state of perpetual death, he gets way, way in over his head as he tries to uncover the mysteries behind the black magic. Craven manages to play with the viewer's psychological fears (including arachnophobia and claustrophobia as Pullman is buried alive with a huge tarantula crawling all over him) while inducing a few visceral thrills as well, but The Serpent & The Rainbow is definitely one of Craven's best films thanks to the realistic touch given to the film and Pullman's superb performance. Just like Universal's recent horror DVD re-releases, The Serpent & The Rainbow is devoid of any extras whatsoever, not even a trailer.
Rating:
Summary: Well Done
Review: Many horror films depend upon scantly-clad girls in their late teens to mid-twenties being slashed or chopped to death, even when it is a tongue-and-check poke at the genre. So this truly adventurous and intelligent horror film is a rarity. Granted the film is loosely based upon an anthropological book, but I was still impressed that a horror film could do such a good contexual job of representing Hati as a country in great turmoil as well as "voodoo" as a meaningful religion.The film's script also pays close attention to the smaller details. Like the main character, I am a social anthropologist, and while the personal situations in the film are exaggerated, it is grounded enough in the truth to strike many cords with me. I have never felt as distant from the people I know (who live in a different part of the world than Haiti) as when I have been at formal dinner parties and conference receptions back home. So it was with considerable glee that I watched what happened at a dinner in the film. I have also been interviewed by state security personal, though in my case, without event, despite my fears. So I had to also laugh when the anthropologist (played very convincingly throughout the film by Bill Pullman) tried not to react to the torture sounds during his visit to the police station. I have even had a scary nightmare of a dead person reaching out for me. I have not, however, been physically intimate with anyone helping me, or cause someone to lose their head, as in the film. But those situations protrayed in the film speak to the very real balancing act of friendship and responsibility. And who could not follow such a calling without the goodwill of others and luck or divine grace, as the film underscores?
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating story line and good plot; very unique.
Review: Not a lot of movies like it. Thoroughly enjoyable if you are interested in voodoo, zombification and other rather taboo subjects. Even if you don't it is definitely worth watching atleast once.
Rating:
Summary: Sensationalized, but with traces of accuracy
Review: Of course when Hollywood turns an anthropologist's treatise into a film, a few things are going to get tweaked here and there. This film is tweaked more than a little - but it's not bad, and a lot of the dialogue is lifted directly from Wade Davis' book. In the long run the book is more interesting - and probably harder to find since I suspect it's out of print - but the film's worth seeing, if only to learn that voodoo dolls are an American myth from the era of Manifest Destiny. END
Rating: 
Summary: Freaky
Review: One of the best newer zombie movies. And based on true facts. Becareful who you upset when you visit Haiti!
Rating:
Summary: Awsome Stuff For Horror Fans
Review: Only decent film about voodoo around. It gets a little silly towards the end, but for the most part, it gives the subject matter the respect it deserves. Highly stylistic, good acting by everyone. One of the best horrors to come out of the 80's.
Rating:
Summary: a great departure from the classic horror
Review: The film is in no ways perfect but is a great horror film, has elemnts of realism, and is a great balance between mental and visual horror. If your looking for something serious or factually driven look else where, like the library. If your looking for a great film then you have found it
Rating: 
Summary: Muy Estupido (Real Dumb)
Review: The movie version of "The Serpent and the Rainbow" was so stupid it's not even funny. It was basically a sensationalist version of a scientific treatise about the zombie-drug (a distillate of the pufferfish). Even the Weekly World News has more credibility. Read the book. END
Rating: 
Summary: read the book
Review: The movie's all right in and of itself -- but I wish they had stuck closer to the book, a great treatise on Hatitian culture. Wes Craven's depiction of the story is dark, fearsome, and destructive, while Wade Davis (whose name is changed in the movie) described a bright, vibrant, wholesome culture. Craven can't even keep straight who has the power of vodoun: in the book, the government fears and despises the making of zombis because they can't understand it, while in the movie its the government who controls the power and uses it as a form of political terror. Poetic lisence is fine, but please make sure your lies are straight.
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