|The Serpent and the Rainbow: The Zombie Movie That Got It Right

[Ambrose:] Okay, so picture this. You’re in Haiti, and it’s 1978. There’s a funeral procession going on. Torches, drums, everyone in white, you know the whole thing. And they’re carrying this man to be buried. The man is named Christophe. And he died in a French missionary clinic. So they lay him out. And then they put him in the ground. You know standard stuff. Tragic, but standard.

[Jessica:] Okay. I’m following you so far.

[Ambrose:] Except. We cut inside the coffin. And there's a tear. Just one. Rolling down Christophe's cheek.

[Jessica:] Okay wait a minute. At this point he is absolutely, definitely, already in the ground?

[Ambrose:] Oh yeah he’s definitely in the ground. Done. Buried. And the movie just... sits there for a second and lets you realize what it's showing you. This man is not dead. He is lying in a box underground, completely paralyzed, and completely conscious, and completely unable to scream. And the best part is nobody knows.

[Jessica:] That's it. That's the whole movie in one image.

[Ambrose:] Yup. That is the whole movie in one image. Right there in the first five minutes. Before we even know what we're watching. And I think that moment… that single tear…is genuinely one of the most effective setups in 80s horror. Because from that point forward, you are never comfortable. Every single scene that follows, you know what's possible. You know that this can happen to a person. And the movie just keeps building on that.

[Jessica:] And it doesn't let you forget it either.

[Ambrose:] Oh, it absolutely does not… Okay so. And I hope everyone's settled in for this one because it's a story — we are talking today about The Serpent and the Rainbow. The 1988. Wes Craven movie. And if you've never heard of it, well that's a crime, actually. A genuine crime.

[Jessica:] But, it’s one of those movies that just kind of fell through the cracks for a while.

[Ambrose:] Oh it really did. And I don't fully understand why, because this movie is doing something completely different from anything else happening in 1988 horror. Like, remember what else is going on at that moment? You've got your Freddy sequels cranking out. You've got slasher fatigue starting to set in. And the genre is kind of eating itself. And then here comes Wes Craven with a movie that is — and I mean this is one part Indiana Jones, one part political thriller, and one part genuine Haitian zombie horror rooted in real pharmacology.

[Jessica:] And this shouldn't work. Even on paper it really shouldn't work.

[Ambrose:] No, it shouldn't! And yet! Here we are!

[Jessica:] So, it kind of works?

[Ambrose:] Yeah. It kind of works a lot, actually. So here's the thing. The movie is based on a real book. You know a non-fiction book, written by a Harvard ethnobotanist named Wade Davis. And Davis went to Haiti in 1982 — for real, in real life — because there was this case. Of A man named Clairvius Narcisse who had been declared dead. Like clinically. In a hospital. Back in 1962. He was Buried. And then reappeared in his village eighteen years later.

[Jessica:] Wait, did you say eighteen years?

[Ambrose:] That’s exactly what I said. He just walks back into town. Like, hey guys. And Davis goes down there to figure out what actually happened. Was this a hoax? Was this a mistake? Was the guy actually never dead? And what he comes back with is this theory — and this is where it gets wild. Because his theory is that zombification isn't magic. It's chemistry.

[Jessica:] So, it’s a drug?

[Ambrose:] Yea. It’s a drug. Specifically, this powder that local bokors. If you don’t know that’s a Vodou sorcerer, you know the dark side of the religion and they've been using it to basically chemically induce death. 

[Ambrose:] Like, the body goes into such a deep paralysis that you register as dead. Okay you following along?

[Jessica:] I’m following so far.

[Ambrose:] Good because you have no pulse. No breath. And zero vital signs. And you get declared dead, you get buried, and the crazy part is they dig you up.

[Jessica:] And then you wake up underground.

[Ambrose:] Well, technically not underground because they just dug you up. Which in terms of things I would prefer not to ever experience, is pretty high on my list.

[Jessica:] Yeah count me on that list too.

[Ambrose:] So the core of this movie — and this is the thing we keep coming back to today — is that the most terrifying idea here isn't a monster. It's not a ghost, it's not a demon, it's not some guy with a knife. It's the loss of your own body. It's being a passenger in your own corpse. And the movie understands that. It really, really understands that. Even when it goes a little off the rails in the third act.

[Jessica:] Okay. But before we even get into the movie, we should talk about the book. Because the book is wild.

[Ambrose:] Oh the book is genuinely wild… So Wade Davis — the real guy — he writes about what zombie powder actually is. Like, he investigated the chemistry of it. And the key ingredient is pufferfish. Specifically the tetrodotoxin in pufferfish, which blocks sodium channels in your body and can drop your vital signs to the point where you register as clinically dead. Like, doctors check your pulse, check your breathing, and they say: yup, dead. And they're not wrong — by every measurable standard, you are dead.

[Jessica:] But you're not.

[Ambrose:] Right. You’re not. And then they bury you. And then they dig you up and they give you Datura — which is this plant called Jimson Weed, it's a powerful deliriant — and that's what keeps you compliant. You wake up in the ground and then someone digs you up and gives you a drug that scrambles your brain and makes you do what they say.

[Jessica:] It's like the world's worst pharmaceutical protocol.

[Ambrose:] It really is the worst. And the thing that Davis found — and this is what makes the book different from the movie — is that it's not random. Zombie powder isn't just used by crazy sorcerers. The Bizango societies, which are these secret fraternal organizations in Haiti, they allegedly used it as a kind of extrajudicial punishment. You committed a crime against the community, you refused to respect the social compact, you got the powder. You became a slave.

[Jessica:] So what your saying is justice through chemistry.

[Ambrose:] that’s exactly what I’m saying. Or just pure power through chemistry, depending on how you want to look at it. And Davis spent years being pretty controversial in the scientific community over this because a lot of researchers pushed back on whether the concentrations of tetrodotoxin in the powder were actually high enough to do what he claimed.

[Jessica:] So even the real-world version of this is contested.

[Ambrose:] it is highly contested! Which the movie sort of sidesteps by going full supernatural in the third act, but the book is this legitimately fascinating argument between ethnobotany and pharmacology that's never fully been resolved.

[Jessica:] And the screenwriter, Richard Maxwell — he went to Haiti to research this stuff himself.

[Ambrose:] Oh God, Richard Maxwell. Okay so Maxwell is co-writing the script and your right. He goes to Haiti to do research and he meets with a bokor. And after that meeting, he — and this is how it was reported — he had a complete psychotic break. He didn't recognize his own family. He was disoriented, confused, couldn't function. And he had to be flown back to the United States for treatment. He later said his soul had been tampered with.

[Jessica:] His soul had been tampered with?

[Ambrose:] Yeah. His soul had been tampered with! And look, there are rational explanations. Like stress, illness, the conditions in Haiti at the time were genuinely rough. But Maxwell himself believed something happened to him.

[Jessica:] And then the production itself is already cursed before they even start rolling.

[Ambrose:] Exactly. The production is already behind the eight ball spiritually speaking. And Bill Pullman had a fever on set — probably dysentery or malaria — and he hallucinated a green cow with television screens for eyes.

[Jessica:] Wait…A green cow?

[Ambrose:] Yup. A green cow with television screens for eyes. Which, honestly, I kind of want to see that movie. But it became a running joke on set that the conditions were so brutal that the lead actor was hallucinating farm animals. And there were crew members who claimed they were being watched by Vodou practitioners the whole time, that there were presences on set, that someone got visited by the spirit of a dead Haitian general on horseback who demanded a specific color of fabric—

[Jessica:] Now, that last one is a very specific request for a ghost.

[Ambrose:] That is a very specific ask from beyond the veil. And I respect the commitment to detail.

[Jessica:] What color was it?

[Ambrose:] Oh the research does not say and honestly I think that's scarier. Anyway — the point is that by the time they had to evacuate the country, the cast and crew were already kind of rattled. And I think you feel that on screen.

[Jessica:] You think…Just a little.

[Ambrose:] We'll get there.

[Jessica:] We'll definitely get there.

[Ambrose:] So the movie follows this character, Dr. Dennis Alan — played by Bill Pullman in his first horror lead, by the way — and Dennis is basically the Wade Davis stand-in. He's an ethnobotanist, he's kind of an adventurer, he's got a sense of humor about himself. He's not your typical horror protagonist. He's not running from something or trapped somewhere. He goes in on purpose. He is paid by a pharmaceutical company to go find the zombie drug and bring it back.

[Jessica:] Oh that’s classic. Corporate America sends a man to Haiti to steal zombie powder.

[Ambrose:] I know right. Anyways they want to use it as a surgical anesthetic. And look, I know that sounds absurd, but it's actually a really clever framing device because it puts this very Western, very capitalist motivation at the center of the story. These executives don't care about the magic, they don't care about the religion, they don't care about the people. They just want the molecule. They want to bottle it and sell it.

[Jessica:] Which is kind of its own horror. If you think about it.

[Ambrose:] It really is. And Alan isn't much better at the start! He's going there for money. He's not naive enough to think he's a hero. But then Haiti happens to him.

[Jessica:] That's a great way to put it. Haiti happens to him.

[Ambrose:] Yea. Because the thing about this movie — and this is where I think it really earns its place — is that it takes Haiti seriously. It takes the politics seriously, it takes the religion seriously. Well. It tries to, anyway. For a good chunk of the runtime it genuinely tries.

[Jessica:] Right, right.

[Ambrose:] Okay so let's actually get into the movie. Bill Pullman shows up in Port-au-Prince and it is 1987. Which means Baby Doc Duvalier's regime is crumbling in real time. The crew wasn't shooting this on a backlot. No, they were shooting this in Haiti. On location. While there was a literal revolution happening outside.

[Jessica:] That is and I keep coming back to this… that’s insane.

[Ambrose:] And they lasted eleven days. Eleven. And then the government called the producers and said, hey, we cannot guarantee the safety of your crew anymore, and they had to charter a plane and get everyone out. The entire production fled the country.

[Jessica:] While filming a movie about the Tonton Macoute.

[Ambrose:] Indeed. Which was still an active organization! Like they were making a horror movie about the secret police while the secret police was right outside!

[Jessica:] And nobody thought that was a problem going in?

[Ambrose:] I mean, they obviously did not think it was going to become an evacuation situation. But here's the thing — even though most of the film ended up being shot in the Dominican Republic, what they captured in those eleven days gives the movie this texture. This grittiness. You can feel the heat, you can feel the tension, you can feel the smoke in the air. The city feels like a place that's about to explode.

[Jessica:] Oh I bet it does. And the first act in the city is genuinely uncomfortable in a way that's hard to fake.

[Ambrose:] Yeah, you can't recreate that on a soundstage. But okay. So — Alan arrives, he meets this woman, Dr. Marielle Duchamp, played by Cathy Tyson, who had just come off Mona Lisa and let’s just say she's incredible in this, by the way, she's not just a love interest, she's basically Alan's whole emotional anchor — and she takes him to an asylum to meet Christophe. The guy from the opening. The one who was buried. And Christophe is just... hollow. He's there but he's not there. His eyes are open but nobody's home.

[Jessica:] Which is one of the most genuinely disturbing images in the film. Just this empty person sitting in a room.

[Ambrose:] It's awful in the best way. Because it makes the whole concept concrete. And Alan can see it. He was skeptical, maybe. And now he's sitting across from proof. This is a real thing that happened to a real person.

[Jessica:] Okay and this is where I want to bring up Peytraud, because we can't wait too long on Peytraud.

[Ambrose:] We absolutely cannot. Zakes Mokae.

[Jessica:] Yes. Zakes Mokae.

[Ambrose:] South African stage legend. Tony Award winner. Anti-apartheid activist. Worked with Athol Fugard. This is a man who spent his career playing the oppressed, the persecuted, the voiceless. And Wes Craven casts him as — and I genuinely think this is an intentional irony — the embodiment of brutal authoritarian power.

[Jessica:] Which is either really smart casting or a really weird coincidence.

[Ambrose:] I think it's smart. Because Mokae brings this weight to it. He's not a ranting villain. He doesn't chew the scenery. He's terrifying because he's so calm. He smiles. He speaks softly. And the smile never reaches his eyes. The first time he and Pullman are in a scene together, Peytraud just kind of looks at him and goes, "you should leave." And somehow that's scarier than anything he does later with actual supernatural power.

[Jessica:] That’s because you know he meant it.

[Ambrose:] This is true. And Peytraud is the head of the Tonton Macoute. He's the enforcer of the Duvalier regime. But he's also a bokor. He uses Vodou not for healing, and not for community, but for control. For punishment. And the movie draws this really direct line between political power and spiritual terror. He doesn't separate them. They're the same thing to him.

[Jessica:] Right, and that's where the movie starts getting really interesting politically, because you realize Peytraud is not just a henchman. He's the whole system.

[Ambrose:] Yes. He is the system with a face. But, okay. So, Peytraud makes his presence very known very quickly and he starts messing with Alan in ways that are hard to describe as threats exactly. He just makes things happen. For instance symbols appear in Alan's hotel room. And he starts having these waking visions where Peytraud is there — not physically, but in his head. And the movie does this thing where it blurs the line between dream and reality so early that by the time the truly crazy stuff starts happening you're already not sure what's real.

[Jessica:] Oh yeah the dream logic is very Craven.

[Ambrose:] It’s totally Craven. And he had been doing this since Elm Street. The nightmare bleeding into the waking world. And it works here too, though I think it works for different reasons because in Elm Street it's stylized, it's lurid, it's surreal on purpose. But in Serpent it feels more like — psychological damage. Like Alan's brain is being rewritten.

[Jessica:] Which it kind of is.

[Ambrose:] Which it ABSOLUTELY is. Okay so Alan eventually connects with a local bokor named Mozart — played by Brent Jennings who is fantastic, just sweaty and manic and wonderful — and Mozart is this mercenary of magic. He'll sell you the powder for five hundred bucks, he doesn't care what you do with it, he's not aligned with anyone. He's just in business. And Alan starts getting close to actually having what he came for.

[Jessica:] And then.

[Ambrose:] Peytraud has him arrested and taken to the Citadel. Okay, so. We definitely have to talk about the scrotum scene.

[Jessica:] I was waiting for the scrotum scene.

[Ambrose:] Yeah, there's no way around it.

[Jessica:] Yeah. I don’t see anyway around it.

[Ambrose:] So, Peytraud straps Alan to a chair. And he’s not going to kill him. He’s not going to threaten him in any conventional way. No, he looks at him and says “I want to hear you scream.” And at that point he drives a long spike nail right through Alan’s scrotum. And it goes all the way through the chair.

[Jessica:] And the sound design in that scene.

[Ambrose:] Oh I can’t stress this enough. It’s deeply evil. But they don’t show you a lot. And they use this prosthetic. But, the real horror is that crunch and then Pullman’s face and THEN the scream. And the choice of that particular injury is so deliberate, right?

[Jessica:] Oh yeah.

[Ambrose:] Because it’s not just pain. It’s humiliation. It’s the stripping of power. And Peytraud is making a very specific statement about who has the control here and it works on every level.

[Jessica:] And I just want to say this. Pullman earns his paycheck in that scene.

[Ambrose:] Oh he earns his entire salary for the movie in that scene. And I really think that moment is very important structurally, because it’s the breaking point. Alan is not a tough guy, and he breaks him. Then he gets put on a plane. And they send him home.

[Jessica:] And then he runs.

[Ambrose:] Yes. And the movie lets him run! It doesn't play it heroically. He is a man who got in way over his head and then got a nail through his…well, you know. So, he leaves and we get this weird airport nightmare scene where Peytraud is still in his head and he realizes he can’t actually leave. Not because of some oath or some responsibility. But because he’s in love with Marielle and she’s still there.

[Jessica:] Which is kind of sweet and also kind of a mess as a plot point.

[Ambrose:] Yeah, it’s a little convenient. But it gets him back in the country. And when he comes back, everything is different. He's not there for the drug anymore. He's there for the fight.

[Jessica:] And then we get the burial.

[Ambrose:] Which is the centerpiece…the coffin scene. Okay so, Alan is ambushed and they blow zombie powder in his face. And we know this because we stay with him. The camera stays with him. And we watch them pronounce him dead. We watch them put him in a coffin. And we watch them nail the lid shut.

[Jessica:] And then they lower him into the ground.

[Ambrose:] And that whole sequence, we’re with Alan. We can hear everything. And HE can hear everything. He’s screaming inside of his own head. And that tagline of the movie, you know “ Don’t bury me, I’m not dead.” That’s what he’s thinking. That is literally the thought running through his mind as they fill in the dirt above him.

[Jessica:] Can you just imagine. And the spider.

[Ambrose:] Oh that spider is REAL. Let me be very clear about this. Bill Pullman is in a coffin, paralyzed, and there is an actual real tarantula walking across his face. Even the scene where it walks across his open eye. Yeah you heard that right. No prop. No CGI. A real tarantula. On his actual eyeball.

[Jessica:] Oh there is no way I could have done that.

[Ambrose:] Yeah, I would have just quit the movie right then and there. And  I would have just walked off the set, gone home and called it a day. But, the fact that Pullman did that. And held completely still…is one of the most impressive physical acting commitments I’ve seen in a horror movie.

[Jessica:] And it also works well because the whole thing about zombification is the fact that you are trapped inside your body. And watching a spider walk across his eye while he can’t even blink is just….it’s exactly just that. And it’s the most perfect embodiment of that whole concept.

[Ambrose:] Oh my god, yes. It’s the whole thesis of the movie made literal in just that one image. There’s a spider on your open eye and you can’t even flinch. Now, that’s what it means to be a zombie in this film. And not the eat your brains kind of zombie either. It’s to lose dominion over yourself.

[Jessica:] Yeah.

[Ambrose:] And then the coffin starts to fill with blood in this nightmare sequence….of course it does. That’s because this movie doesn’t want you getting comfortable.

[Jessica:] And just when you thought it was safe to be buried alive.

[Ambrose:] Right. And before that there’s this whole sequence with the bride. Earlier in the film Alan has this hallucination where he sees this woman in a wedding dress. And she lifts her veil and this massive python launches out of her mouth.

[Jessica:] Yeah, that is definitely something that Craven would do.

[Ambrose:] Oh, that’s pure Craven nightmare logic right there. And it turns out the way they did it was this combination of a mechanical puppet head for the initial shot and then a real python for everything after. And I kind of think about that conversation they had on set where someone said “Okay, so for this next bit we’re going to need you to hold very still while a large snake jumps right at your face.” And whoever they were talking to just looked at them and said “Sure.”

[Jessica:] And that’s the thing. Because everyone on this production just kept saying “Sure.”

[Ambrose:] That’s because everyone on this production was either incredibly brave or had absolutely no self-preservation instincts. And I think it’s maybe a little of both…Okay, so. Alan digs himself out, with the help of Mozart and then he’s free in a country that’s tearing itself apart. And this is where the movie becomes something else for a while. Because the revolution is happening all around them. And people are in the streets and the movie kind of steps back and breathes in a way it hasn’t been allowed to before.

[Jessica:] And it feels like the city has been waiting for this the whole time.

[Ambrose:] That's exactly right. And I want to talk about why that matters. So at this point I want to step back because I think we should talk about what Craven is doing with all of this and what the movie is actually saying. Because there's a version of this film that's just a weird adventure movie. And I don't think that's what this is. I think this is a movie about what horror really means to people who are already living under oppression.

[Jessica:] Okay, I see where you’re going with this.

[Ambrose:] So, the Tonton Macoute was the real thing. And they were Duvalier’s private militia and they were terrifying because they operated outside any legal framework. They could show up at your door and make you just disappear, and nobody could do anything about it. And the zombie myth is actually a Haitian culture. Wade Davis actually writes about this. But the zombies aren’t feared as monsters. There feared as a state of being. And the worst possible thing they that can happen to you isn’t death. No, it’s being turned into a zombie. Because that meant you’ve been robbed of your soul, your self. And you’re enslaved. Your now someone else’s property.

[Jessica:] And the Tonton Macoute was doing that literally. And not just in the movie.

[Ambrose:] Exactly. They were literally doing that. And without the powder. They did it through fear and violence. They were stripping the population of their self, their voice, and self-determination. So, when the movie makes Peytraud both a Tonton Macoute captain AND a bokor who can zombify people, it’s not just a character detail. It’s saying the magic and the politics are the same thing. Because the oppression is the drug and the fear is the powder.

[Jessica:] That's actually really effective when you put it that way.

[Ambrose:] And it lands a lot better when you know the context. And I think this is why the movie works in a way that's hard to articulate if you just watch it as a monster movie. Because it's not really a monster movie. Peytraud isn't a monster. He's a collaborator. He's a man who chose power over people and then built a mythology around it to keep everyone afraid.

[Jessica:] And the revolution at the end is important because of that.

[Ambrose:] Oh it’s hugely important. And this is something that gets lost in the third act chaos…which we will get to, don’t worry. But the resolution of the film isn’t just Alan defeating Peytraud. No, it’s the Haitian people rising up and overthrowing Duvalier which is happening simultaneously. So, the magic wins and the revolution wins at the same time. Because they’re connected. That’s because Peytraud’s power only existed while the regime gave it meaning or power.

[Jessica:] So Alan's victory is kind of symbolic, and the real victory is the people.

[Ambrose:] Right. Alan is a catalyst, not a savior. He can’t actually fix Haiti. He’s just…well he’s just a disruption. He walks in, he breaks something loose, and then the thing that was already coming anyway finally comes.

[Jessica:] Now do we have to talk about the white savior thing?

[Ambrose:] Yes, we definitely have to talk about that.

[Jessica:] Because it is definitely there.

[Ambrose:] Oh it’s definitely there and I don’t think we can pretend otherwise. Because Alan is this white American who goes to Haiti and ends up in this magical battle with the chief villain, while the local characters either need saving or die or serve the plot. And then we have Marielle, who is brilliant, and strong. Who spends the whole movie proving she knows more than Alan and ends up as the reason he comes back.

[Jessica:] That makes sense.

[Ambrose:] And Cathy Tyson is so good in that role, that you almost don’t notice how thin it got in that last act. Trust me it gets thin. And then we have Wade Davis, who is the actual person this is all based on. And he hated the movie for a lot of reasons, but the biggest one is that it turned what was a complex story about a real religion and the real political crisis into a special effects show where an American punches a sorcerer.

[Jessica:] And to be fair to Davis, the original cut was reportedly like three hours.

[Ambrose:] Yeah, that original cut was reportedly around one hundred and eighty-four minutes. Which is a very different movie. It was much more like a political drama. With the romance, the anthropological detail. And the studio came in and said no, we need a horror movie, and they cut it down and mandated a supernatural ending.

[Jessica:] Which is…I mean, its own kind of zombification. They took the soul out of it and made it do what they wanted it to do.

[Ambrose:] Jessica.

[Jessica:] What? Too much?

[Ambrose:] No that's exactly right and I'm furious I didn't say it first.

[Ambrose:] That is literally what happened. The studio grabbed the movie, blew powder in its face, and made it dance… Okay so let's talk about the third act because I don't want to pretend it doesn't exist. Because it goes off the rails.

[Jessica:] It absolutely goes off the rails.

[Ambrose:] So, Alan digs himself out, the country is in a revolution, and he storms into the Tonton Macoute headquarters and has this confrontation with Peytraud that is…how do I put this…it’s a magical duel. There are fireballs. There is a pit of souls. And Alan channels his jaguar spirit. You know, that jaguar thing they established way back in the amazon sequence at the beginning of the movie. And talk about reversal  of fortune. He drives a large spike nail right into Peytraud’s crotch. Which mirrored his own torture. And then sends him to hell.

[Jessica:] Now that’s funny.

[Ambrose:] Which is actually kind of interesting thematically if you think about it. Because Alan wins, not because he was stronger, but by reflecting the violence back. But I will say this that execution is very much late-80s special effects magic battle territory.

[Jessica:] And let’s be very clear here it looks like a totally different movie from what they actually shot.

[Ambrose:] Well, it’s what the studio wanted. So we needed fifteen minutes of monster stuff added into the movie. And Craven did his best, but it absolutely feels tacked on. It’s not bad exactly, it’s just jarring after everything that came before it.

[Jessica:] Well, I guess that’s the price of admission, I think. Because you get two acts of genuinely smart, genuinely unsettling horror and then you get the wizard battle.

[Ambrose:] That's exactly what it is. And for me personally, the two acts are worth it. I will sit through a slightly silly climax to get everything else this movie gives me.

[Jessica:] Of course you would. That’s just not my cup of tea… Okay, survival check.

[Ambrose:] Okay. You’re in this movie. You’re a researcher going to Haiti. And you start poking around in things the secret police don’t want you poking around in…What do you think are your survival odds?

[Jessica:] Oh, that’s easy. I’m dead in the first twenty minutes.

[Ambrose:] Yeah right. You’re gone before you even check into the hotel.

[Jessica:] Oh that’s so true. I would land at the airport, see the vibe, and get right back on the plane and leave.

[Ambrose:] That’s actually smart. And that might be the only survival strategy in this movie… Just don’t go.

[Jessica:] Okay. What about you?

[Ambrose:] I’m….Okay, so I feel like my knowledge of horror movies gives me a slight edge in terms of recognizing what’s happening. But then again, Alan knows horror too and he still gets a nail in his…

[Jessica:] What? He’s a scientist, not a horror fan.

[Ambrose:] Alright. Fair point. Maybe film literacy helps. Maybe I'd be like, okay, the calm scary man is telling me to leave. And in horror movies you leave. So, I’m leaving.

[Jessica:] Or. you’d stay because you’d want to see what happens next.

[Ambrose:] You're completely right. I'd stay. I'd stay and I'd end up in the coffin. I'm definitely in the coffin.

[Jessica:] At least you'd know what the spider feels like on your face.

[Ambrose:] uhhhh. I don’t want to know what the spider feels like on my face… Okay. Listeners. If you are watching this movie and asking yourself, "could I survive this?" — the answer is: are you willing to get on the first plane home the second a Haitian government official smiles at you and says nothing? If yes, you might make it. If no, you're getting the powder.

[Jessica:] But, let’s be real here for a second. The powder gets us all eventually.

[Ambrose:] This is so true…Okay you know what time it is.

[Jessica:] Yessss. Ugh. It’s as place we need not speak of.

[Ambrose:] You are so dramatic…you know that?

[Jessica:] Yeah, I know. Ok Crypt boy lead the way.

[Ambrose:] Okay I need you to know that something has been dripping on my shoulder for the last ten minutes and I’ve decided to tell myself it just water. 

[Jessica:] That’s a good call. You definitely don’t want to go down that rabbit hole.

[Ambrose:] Yeah I know.

[Jessica:] So, the Serpent and the Rainbow, everyone. Are you ready to give your honest opinion on this movie?

[Ambrose:] Oh, I’m definitely ready to give my thoughts on this movie.

[Jessica:] Alrighty then. Let’s get into it.

[Ambrose:] Okay. Where do we even start with this one.

[Jessica:] I have a suggestion…how about the tear?

[Ambrose:] Oh right. The tear. That opening image. The one where Christophe is already in the coffin and in the ground. And that one singular tear rolling down his cheek. And the way the movie just…holds it. And doesn’t explain it. Doesn’t underscore it. It just lets you sit with what your seeing.

[Jessica:] And you know exactly what that means the second you see it.

[Ambrose:] And that’s the thing. Because you don’t need any setup. You don’t need any exposition. You just see it and your stomach just drops. And from that point forward the movie owns you completely. Every scene after that, you’re carrying that image with you.

[Jessica:] And that’s actually where I want to start off with…what works with this movie. Because the first two acts of this movie are doing something I genuinely did not expect. It’s not playing horror in the way you’d expect a 1988 horror movie to play. It’s slow and uncomfortable and political.

[Ambrose:] Wait…a horror movie that is political?

[Jessica:] Yes. And Zakes Mokae is a huge part on why that works.

[Ambrose:] Oh, Peytraud. Yes.

[Jessica:] And the crazy part about this is. He is so still. And that’s the thing. He doesn’t need to be anything. He just looks at Pullman and smiles and you are immediately afraid of him. And that first scene where he just goes “You should leave” and the smile doesn’t move.

[Ambrose:] I’m getting cold chills just thinking about that. It was so Ice Cold. Just absolutely ice cold. And you’re right, it’s the stillness that pulls that off. Because there’s no performance there. He’s not trying to scare you. He just IS scary. And that’s a completely different thing.

[Jessica:] Right, and it makes the whole political angle land even harder. Because he’s not cartoonish. He’s real. He feels like someone who could actually exist.

[Ambrose:] Which honestly makes him more horrifying than anything supernatural the movie throws at you later. And speaking of things that are genuinely horrifying…the coffin sequence. We need to talk about how effective that is?

[Jessica:] Oh my god. We definitely have to.

[Ambrose:] Okay. So, the camera stays with Alan through the whole thing. I’m talking the powder, the pronouncement, the nailing shut of the lid…and even the spider. Because as you know that was an actual tarantula walking across his actual real open eyeball.

[Jessica:] And the best part of that whole thing was that he held still for that.

[Ambrose:] Oh he held completely still for that. He didn’t even flinch an inch. And that’s the whole thesis of the movie right there in one image. You’re trapped inside yourself. You can’t blink. You can’t scream. You can’t move. And there’s an actual spider on your eye and there is nothing you can do about it….that’s zombification. And that’s what the movie has been building towards the whole time.

[Jessica:] It’s the perfect scene…I’ll give it that.

[Ambrose:] Okay. So tell me what DIDN’T work for you?

[Jessica:] do you have a few hours.

[Ambrose:] Here we go.

[Jessica:] Hey, you asked.

[Ambrose:] You are so dramatic.

[Jessica:] I’m not being dramatic.

[Ambrose:] Uh…yes you are.

[Jessica:] Whatever. For me it’s the ending.

[Jessica:] That third act is a completely different movie! We go from this genuinely smart, uncomfortable political horror film…and might I say it was working. And then suddenly there are fireballs. And what the hell is up with a pit of souls. And the grand finial of all fuck ups… Alan channeling his jaguar spirit and fighting a wizard. Like what the hell was that all about.

[Ambrose:] See dramatic…but I get it. 

[Jessica:] Do you? Because it’s a different vehicle entirely. And I know it’s was the studio doing this, and I know Craven didn’t want it, but I don’t care. I have to watch the movie that exists. And the movie that exists just abandons everything that made it interesting. 

[Ambrose:] I get that. And I don’t fully disagree with you. But my thing… and this is a smaller complaint…it’s Marielle. Cathy Tyson is so good. And she knows more than Alan in the entire movie. I got that, She’s his anchor, his context, and his whole reason for coming back. And then we get to the last twenty minutes. Where she is the thing he’s trying to save.

[Jessica:] Yes. She just disappears as a person.

[Ambrose:] Right. Just when the story needed her the most. And that’s frustrating because the setup was so strong.

[Jessica:] It really was.

[Ambrose:] And that was the only thing I can say I didn’t like about this movie.

[Jessica:] I only wish I could say the same for myself…Okay. So what are you going to rate this movie?

[Ambrose:] Okay, look. Those first two acts alone are worth Five coffins to me. That opening image, Peytraud, and the coffin sequence. The way the movie handles the politics. And I can see your point on that third act. But it didn’t pull me away in a negative way…So with that being said I’m going all in and giving it five out of five coffins.

[Jessica:] Five! Ambrose…Are you kidding me. Man I need to be smoking what your smoking.

[Ambrose:] Well, I’m not smoking anything. And yes Five. I’m sticking to it.

[Jessica:] Even after everything I just said about that ending?

[Ambrose:] You can be annoyed at the last act and still love the movie. Those aren’t mutually exclusive.

[Jessica:] Well, you can think that. But for me I’m giving it a three out of five coffins. 

[Ambrose:] Three!

[Jessica:] Yes. Three! And here’s why. I’m sorry that ending drags it down for me. I can’t help it. Because the promise of that first half is so strong and then it just collapses into something generic. And I keep thinking about the version of this movie that existed before the studio got to it. The one that was apparently three hours and actually let the politics breathe. And I’m grieving that movie a little.

[Ambrose:] Okay. I understand your grief. So I can say you wouldn’t recommend it to anyone then?

[Jessica:] No, I’d recommend it to everyone, but I’d also warn them about that last twenty minutes. Because it’s a great movie up to the last twenty minutes. 

[Ambrose:] And I’d tell you to watch it and accept the wizard battle. Because everything else is really, really good.

[Jessica:] I’ll give you that. You’re right about everything else being really, really good. But it just has a really, really bad ending.

[Ambrose:] That’s your opinion and you have a right to your own opinion. It’s a great movie even if you think it has a bad ending.

[Jessica:] Okay then. Can we just leave now? I think something just touched my ankle.

[Ambrose:] Yeah, my shoulder is completely soaked now. So, before whatever touched your ankle and my shoulder gets any wetter. I think we should just walk away.

[Jessica:] I’m already walking away.

[Ambrose:] Oh by the way…don’t breathe in anything on the way out.

[Jessica:] What?

[Ambrose:] You know, the powder.

[Jessica:] Oh my god. Get out of the crypt, Ambrose.

[Ambrose:] I’m going, I’m going already…jeesh.[Jessica:] You better…Now get Crypt Boy! 

[Ambrose:] Okay, sooo, we just did The Serpent and the Rainbow...

[Jessica:] And I have learned so much about voodoo that I'm now afraid of my own medicine cabinet.

[Ambrose:] Right? Like, I went in thinking this was just a zombie movie and I came out genuinely questioning what's in my NyQuil.

[Jessica:] And that powder, man. That powder. I will never look at a stranger handing me something the same way again.

[Ambrose:] I’m with you on that one. But okay — here's the thing that's been living in my head since we wrapped. Because this movie kind of asks you a question without ever answering it.

[Jessica:] Yeah, it does.

[Ambrose:] Like — Wes Craven leaves a lot up to interpretation. So we want to know your take. When Dennis Alan finally wakes up at the end... do you think he actually beat it? Or is he still trapped and just doesn't know it?

[Jessica:] Because there's an argument for both and it genuinely bothers me that I can't decide.

[Ambrose:] So go find us on Facebook at TheTHINGaboutFilms, and tell us what you think. Start the conversation. And while your there follow us.

[Jessica:] oh that’s so smooth. Asking total strangers to follow us…what a novel idea. Hahahahaha

[Ambrose:] Sure, yeah, respectfully. [pause, then normally] Anyway — don't die, don't let anyone put you in a coffin while you're still alive, and maybe just... don't go to Haiti in the '80s for a pharmaceutical company. And we’ll see you next week.

[Jessica:] All solid life advice honestly. Okay, bye!

[Ambrose:] Byeeee!