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The Serpent and the Rainbow

Rating:R
Genre:Horror
Release Date:February 1, 1988
Running time:98 minutes
Cast:Bill Pullman, Zakes Mokae, Cathy Tyson, Paul Winfield, Brent Jennings
Director:Wes Craven
Producer:Doug Claybourne, Robert Engelman, David Ladd
Writer:Wade Davis, Richard Maxwell
Distributor:MCA/Universal Pictures

Description: Horror maven Wes Craven attempted a slight change of pace from his usual slasher movie milieu with this chiller loosely based on a true story. Bill Pullman stars as Dennis Alan, a Harvard researcher sent to Haiti by a pharmaceutical company to investigate the zombie legend and any possible connection it might have to a rumored drug that could be used as a new breed of powerful anaesthetic. Once on the Caribbean isle, Alan is aided by a good voodoo priest or houngan (Paul Winfield) and his daughter (Cathy Tyson), who runs a local clinic. Alan's search also pits him against an evil houngan, Dargent Peytraud (Zakes Mokae). Peytraud also controls the Tonton Macoute (the Haitian secret police), who are involved with soon-to-be-deposed dictator Baby Doc Duvalier. The Serpent and the Rainbow was based on the book of the same name by Wade Davis, an ethnobotanist whose real-life hunt for the zombie drug was credited with cracking the medical mystery behind the myth.~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

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