(Roughly 54 minutes of the film)
Snake and Rainbow
Wes Craven has made various horror movies. About vile people (The Last House on the Left), about cannibals (The Hills Have Eyes), about maniacs (The Scream), about werewolves (Werewolf), about vampires (The Vampire in Brooklyn) and even about robots (Deadly Friend). Something worked, something didn't work. Everyone decides for themselves.
The main thing is that Craven loved horror very much, did not dwell on any one topic. And it's understandable that the old man couldn't get past the zombie movie. Snake and the Rainbow is Craven’s attempt to enter the territory of the living dead. In the film (of course) there are shortcomings, but I found more pros than cons for myself.
Snake and the Rainbow is different from standard zombie paintings. Craven was based on a book by Wade Davis. The main character of the film goes to Haiti, where the locals practice Voodoo, conduct strange rituals with the help of a special powder.
It turns out that “Snake and the Rainbow” makes a reverse in the direction of early zombie paintings (before Father Romero), which were similarly involved in various rituals (White zombies, I walked with zombies, etc.). Craven's work can be divided into two parts. The first is an adventure film. But in the second - Wes begins to add notes of horror. There are several eerie sketches (a snake from the dead man's mouth, for example).
I'll mark the antagonist, of course. Mr. Zackes Mokae (eternal memory) played a colorful villain, but Bill Pullman (on his background) looked pale, subjective. Rumor has it that Mel Gibson originally intended the role of Pullman, but somehow did not grow together. The film also has a good atmospheric soundtrack.
Are you interested in zombie horror (like me)? Turn it on. Snake and Rainbow will brighten up your evening. Just don't expect a movie of mad slaughter to devour people in packs and rip their brains out. Again, this is a slightly different movie. I like it. House by the road... 7 out of 10
One of the main representatives of the horror genre in the history of world cinema, the American director and screenwriter Wes Craven worked in various directions. On his account maniacs, mutants, werewolves and other wonderful characters. In this work, he touched on the subject of zombies, but not on the example of the classic dead, but using the motifs of religious voodoo practices characteristic of the third world, African and Central American continents. The picture did not win great popularity and serious box office, but over time it gained a cult status and is included in the classics of horror films.
The film was based on the book of the same name by the Australian ethnobotanist Wade Davis. This book tells about the influence of psychotropic substances on human consciousness, with the aim of turning him into an unconscious being. But this is just a framework for a completely fictional story. The genre direction of the tape is very diverse. First of all, it is a mystical horror film, but there are also elements of a political thriller and a detective with the investigation of mysterious phenomena.
Wes Craven managed to create a great atmosphere, as the action takes place in Haiti, which is one of the most unstable and dangerous places in the world, the tension is present everywhere. The picture conveys the national flavor of the tropical state with its folklore, culture and beliefs. It is very interesting to show the collision of the man of science with irrational manifestations of nature, which becomes an important test for the human psyche. The main character, an anthropologist by profession is forced not only to investigate, but also to save his life and mind.
Was the movie scary? Hard to say. It is unlikely that a sophisticated viewer will be scared, but if you watch at night and not distracted by external factors, you can feel the creepy atmosphere to the fullest. The tape keeps the intrigue to the very end, and the very development of events does not allow you to get bored. One of the main themes is faith. Belief in witchcraft and black magic is an important element, reflecting well the boundary between common sense and things beyond scientific interpretation.
The main role was played by Bill Pullman, whose appearance is very suitable for the image of a scientific botanist, a man of science who fell into the abyss of terrifying events. The other roles involve little-known actors, but each of them looks very good in his place. Especially came the local shaman with political ambitions performed by Zakes Mokae, a colorful and frightening villain turned out.
Snake and Rainbow is an atmospheric horror with elements of a mystical detective story about witchcraft, voodoo and zombies. These genre attributes are successfully woven into the national flavor of the Caribbean region, successfully using even the political context. Such a fusion of mysticism and politics looks original, and most importantly appropriate. An intense and non-trivial horror film that is perfect for fans of the genre. I would recommend watching.
When director and screenwriter Wes Craven turned 45, he saved New Line Cinema from ruin. It was then that Craven filmed his iconic Nightmare on Elm Street, earning more than $25 million in the U.S. alone (in 84 years it was a large sum, not what it is now). The name of the main antagonist of this film became a household name, and the director himself proved that horror films can be considered highly artistic, rather than sending them immediately to the so-called “B” category. For Craven, Nightmare was the sixth big-screen movie, but it seemed like it was beginning to make a big difference. Unfortunately, the Scream had to wait twelve years. And meanwhile, Craven continued to work in the genre of horror films and mysticism, shooting, for example, in 1988, a little atypical for himself picture “Snake and the Rainbow”.
Atypical it became due to the following reasons: firstly, from the start, the picture claims that it is based on real events, and, secondly, “Snake and the Rainbow” tells about the mystery of voodoo magic, quite rarely touched on topics in cinema. Perhaps the influence on Craven was made by the painting “Heart of an Angel”, released a year before “Snake and the Rainbow”, but “Heart...” we will return a little later. So, the plot tells how a skeptical researcher-pharmacist Dennis Alan goes into the wilds, where there are communities that believe in witches. There, he is under the influence of some hallucinations, but finds no evidence that voodoo wizards can turn the dead into zombies. He returns to his homeland, but again he is asked to go back to get a recipe for a witch potion that raises the dead from their graves, especially as more and more recorded data confirms that zombies really exist.
In fact, the beginning of “Snake and the Rainbow” (by the way, such a strange title of the film is also revealed at the beginning, but I will not describe what it means, if you want, you will learn yourself) carries the structure of the detective, a little framed by mysticism. There you can easily guess that the scientist was influenced by some natural drugs that cause hallucinations. But then the plot leads us to the most unknown, mysterious, mystical and we are already offered to believe inexplicably that voodoo wizards actually exist and can zombie people and even control them at a distance. Here, the emphasis is lost on the fact that “Snake and the Rainbow” is based on real events and you can feel like researcher Dennis Alan, that is, skeptical. And, to be honest, the visualistics of the mystical episodes of the film did not please, which was not expected from the creator of "Nightmare on Elm Street." And in general, the ending of the film ran galloping, as if Craven was tightened by deadlines, and this never goes to the benefit of making films.
As for the actors, the main role, as you understand Dennis Alan, was played by Bill Pullman, the future heroic president of the United States in Independence Day, but at the time of filming in Snake and the Rainbow, it was only the third film for him. The 35-year-old then plays well, confirming that he is “not a serial” actor, but still a full-length. As you know, the main character in such films should suddenly appear passion and it is played by Katie Tyson, who, in principle, looks harmonious in the picture. Together they have a good duet, but if you remember Mickey Rourke and Lisa Bonet from “Heart of Angel”, the latter is head over Pullman and Tyson. The rest of the ensemble “Snake and Rainbow” is selected based on the plot of the film, that is, the other characters are surprisingly similar to those who live in a third world country with an unconditional belief in the existence of sorcerers and zombies. Here, of course, the picture gives reason to believe that everything shown in it seems to be happening in fact.
Snake and the Rainbow was filmed for $7 million, but Craven’s classic Nightmare on Elm Street was funded by just over $1 million, and it looked much more impressive in the visual part. But for all the sins of “Snake and the Rainbow” personally, I still watched the picture with interest, because I love mysticism, because voodoo catches its mystery, because there are not enough films on this topic. So you decide for yourself whether to watch this old picture from the master of horror Wes Craven, and I will put, perhaps, subjective:
7 out of 10
P.S. After all, “voodoo” is a local religion, but “huddu” or “hudu” are superstitions based on witchcraft, and these concepts should not be confused, but the question is still controversial, of course.
Be careful, my friend. There are secrets in Haiti that we don’t even tell ourselves.
Wes Craven is a great director. And the point here is not even that this man gave the world two movie monsters, which are known even to those people who do not digest all sorts of horror stories. What makes Wes Craven great is that his films are scary, stylish, exciting, and at the same time this director never crosses the line. He does not savor the murders and does not make them too natural, perfectly realizing that a horror film is primarily an attraction, akin to a roller coaster, and therefore, the viewer must scream, scream, knock his feet, but at the end of which I want to say - I still want to! So Wes Craven realizes what horror movies really are and how to make the viewer remember what he saw for a long time after the final credits, and perhaps share his impressions with friends. That’s why I’m so fond of this man’s films, and perhaps that’s why Wes Craven has never disappointed me. And today we will talk about another creation of this talented director, which is based on real events. So this is "The Snake and the Rainbow."
The story is about a young man who loved to travel to exotic countries (and who doesn’t?) and along the way looking for a way to make the world a little better. Oh, no, the hero Bill Pullman is not going to kill businessmen and politicians, and then Dennis Alan is somewhat different. Dennis Alan works for a large pharmaceutical corporation and tries to find a more effective analogue of anesthesia and he finds it in Haiti. The land of superstition and black magic. The place is mysterious and frightening. A place where voodoo wizards are rumored to be able to wield the soul of people and force the dead to rise from their graves. Of course, the main character does not believe in such miracles, as he is a man of science. Of course, Dennis firmly believes that the dead simply can not get out of their graves and most likely it is a matter of some medicine, which causes clinical death in anyone who takes “magic pills”. And Dennis is partly right, but only partly right. Yes, magic powder exists, but to the trouble of the main character there is black magic, all the advantages of which are in a hurry to demonstrate the unfriendly wizard Voodoo, who does not like that the “American tourist” sticks his long nose out of his own business. Well, Dennis, it looks like only a miracle can save you now.
And it's worth saying that Wes Craven is a cunning man. Having received in his ravenous hands a script written on a book that is based on real events, the cunning director decided to somewhat modernize the plot and add a pinch of mysticism to the ongoing... no, not even a pinch, but a whole ladle. And first of all, it concerns the psychedelic visions of the protagonist, who sees the dead who are trying to kill him, the ever-memorable wizard Voodoo, who also tries to kill him, and the fact that Dennis tries to escape from the impending danger, but makes it worse. At the same time, I note that the visions are built in the same way as the dreams in “Nightmare on Elm Street”. In other words, visions are constant companions of the hero, while Wes Craven does not try to draw a line between reality and fiction, which leads not only the hero, but also the viewer astray. For example, the main character comes to the cemetery to find the alleged “zombie”, and he finds him, or rather her – a dried corpse in a wedding dress that pulls his hands to the hero. But it can’t really happen because the dead don’t walk on our land, but at the same time Dennis came to the cemetery with his girlfriend late at night and nothing contributed to the fact that all this nonsense of the inflamed consciousness of the hero. So you sit, reflecting on all this while the main character tries to crawl away from the evil mummy while declaring the district a good mat. And the longer the film lasts, the more such situations arise at the same time, whether Dennis’ enemies are a creature of flesh and blood or this is an illusion sent by the evil wizard Voodoo, the danger in both cases is quite real. And thanks to this circumstance, you look at what is happening with increasing interest.
The same interest is supported by the actors themselves, who demonstrate quite human feelings and emotions. Of course, the dialogues of the characters are not filled with deep meaning, but this is essentially unnecessary. In front of the audience appear the most ordinary people from the crowd in place which could be just as well as me and you. Separately, I remember the sorcerer Louis Mozart, who initially tried to deceive the hero in every possible way and shake the money out of the gullible American, but a little later he will become a good friend of Dennis and even come to the last to help in a difficult moment, although he will not miss the opportunity to release a couple of sly comments about the hero and his girlfriend.
Summing up, I want to say that with a rather modest budget, Wes Craven managed to shoot an exemplary horror film, which at the same time looks quite realistic, so you simply believe in what is happening. Add good actors, a good soundtrack and a spirit of adventure, which is impregnated with every frame of the picture and we will get a film that should appeal not only to horror fans, but also to those people who like movies such as “Indiana Jones” and “Roman with a Stone”. And if you belong to this category of people, then safely take up the viewing, you will not regret.
7 out of 10
Snake and the Rainbow is one of Craven’s best films of the 80s. It was with this tape that the director finally secured the place of one of the most talented horror makers of the last century. Zombie movies are the most specific part of horror cinema. Many aspire to the level of Romero's "Dawn," but can hardly reach Snyder's "Dead Men." A lot of subtleties associated with the movie about zombies: someone prefers to concentrate on makeup and murder, and someone tries to invest at least a bit of meaning and brain. Wes Craven made the film just like this, the second, with meaning and brains. Craven made a movie about humans, not zombies. He showed us what was happening on the other side of the globe, showed us other people - people we have no idea about. He gave us a different culture. As in 1984, the director looked inside us, watched our dreams, nightmares — and here in 1988 he went beyond one person and showed us another people.
The film is based on a book. That for Wes, however, is not a hindrance, because he knows how to work with different material, knows how to present it differently to the viewer. Craven is a vivid example of an author director working in the genre of horror. The ideas he puts into his films apply to many. They are easy to read: this once again confirms the universality of his work. This person is able to make such films as “Snake and Rainbow” without excessive bells and whistles of style, which are alien to adequate perception and come from the inability to present and interest. "Snake" is a movie about a lot. Including Voodoo. But recommending it only to fans of voodoo and zombies would be clumsy. “Snake” turned out to be Wes’ last great film of the 80s, “Electroshock” was much easier. The spirit of “Nightmare of Elm Street” touched this picture – at the beginning of the film we see a dream of a hero who was perfectly played by Bill Pullman.
They say that any horror maker is obliged to make a movie about zombies. Fortunately, Craven has a movie like this. This is "The Snake and the Rainbow."
