Publication Date: 03-02-2026

The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988) review

Dir. Wes Craven

By: Steve Pulaski

Rating: ★★½

Following the muted and mostly dismissive reaction to Deadly Friend, Wes Craven needed a hard pivot. The opportunity came when producer Rob Cohen (who would later go on to helm the Fast and the Furious franchise) presented him with adapting ethnobotanist Wade Davis‘ book The Serpent and the Rainbow. In the book, Davis chronicled his experimentation with Haitian Vodou and how a mysterious hallucinogenic plant known as Datura could effectively turn people into zombies.

The ensuing film doesn’t rank amongst Craven’s best — A Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream are beloved for his ability to fuse what makes us laugh with the primality of fear — but it’s a commendable departure and shows his range is underrated than most of the general public would believe. Bill Pullman plays Davis, known as Dr. Dennis Alan, who makes a work-trip to Haiti on behalf of his pharmaceutical company. They’re inquiring about a man named Christophe (Conrad Roberts), who died in the 1970s but is reported to be alive despite burial; voodoo is expected to be involved.

Tasked with sourcing whatever is responsible for the presumptive medical miracle and bringing it back to the States, Dr. Alan’s stint in Haiti is just getting started when he learns about the mysterious zombie powder that has the locals entranced, literally and figuratively. Despite threats from a paramilitary group, he manages to link up with a sorcerer (Zakes Mokae) who shows him the power of the medicine, which paralyzes its users and results in vivid, out-of-body experiences. Dr. Alan shares these experiences with Dr. Marielle Duchamp (Cathy Tyson), who helps him track down Christophe (Conrad Roberts).

Pullman is game from the jump, throwing himself into a role that challenges him physically and in which he’s tasked with having to disintegrate mentally.

The biggest problem with The Serpent and the Rainbow is its pacing. Once screenwriters Richard Maxwell and A.R. Simoun give a general overview of Haitian Voodoo, they plunge us into a bendy, shifty reality before we’ve had a chance to get acquainted with Haiti as a location. Wade Davis should’ve probably been the one to take a crack at writing the script. Even though the concept of voodoo is adopted with a rare, straight-laced poised, it’s still a bit difficult to understand the innerworkings. In lesser horror films, it wouldn’t matter as much, as the shock value would overtake any attempt at cultural accuracy. Being that this is a story based off of a scientist’s research and scholarly analysis, to see the finding descend into an arbitrary muddle of violence and conflict in the third act feels like a creative liberty from which Davis would’ve shied away. Visually speaking, Craven does this movie a lot of justice. It’s the writing that undoes a significant amount of it.

Starring: Bill Pullman, Cathy Tyson, Zakes Mokae, Conrad Roberts, Paul Winfield, and Brent Jennings. Directed by: Wes Craven.