It's hard to believe a horror film being based on a true story, when so many horror films really stretch the imagination. Wes Craven's The Serpant and the Rainbow, is believe it or not, based on the true story of Wade Davis, an anthropoligst who made a trek to Haiti to uncover a wonder drug that reanimated the dead!. Given the film on offer, that's probably about the only truths that remain in this film, as there's all sorts of nasty goings on that are what you expect and hope only to see in a horror film.
Dr Dennis Adams (Bill Pullman) is approached by a large US Drug company to track down this wonder drug in Haiti, so makes a trip over, meeting up with an Haitian doctor Marielle Duchamp (Kathy Tyson). A former patient of the docs was pronounced dead, only to be alive and kicking several years later.
When Peytraud (Zakes Mokae, who could only be desribed as the VooDoo Mafia Boss) find out what the doc is after, his life is put in danger and so leads us into the world of black magic and voodoo.
The Doc gets to witness first hand voodoo curses and spells and is subject to many himself.
There is also a polital power struggle happening in Haiti and this is also severely threatened by Dennis' Presence.
Serpant takes a little too long to get to the point, and anyone expecting a good old voodoo cursed horror film probably won't get their thrills until the final third of this flawed, but rather curious outting. |
So how does this DVD Scrub Up?
Serpent's Anamorphic Widesreen Transfer is
quite similar to that of People under the Stairs.
Colour Saturation isn't too bad, but coupled with a softish picture and a picture that
isat times noisy, doesn't quite grab your attention the right way. Black level is okay but
doesn't reveal too much shadow detail. At least the encoding is of a good standard and the
image holds itself together well.
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The only track type available is Dolby Digital 2.0 track (in english and german). Fidelity isn't too bad but doesn't have a great deal of dynamics assocatied with it. Dialogue is clean and clear, but lacks any real cripsness (which goes for the soundtrack over all). Surround usage is quite prevalent and makes good use of effects and music. Brad Fiedel is the man responsible for this music score, and anyone on the ball will notice a striking resemblence to the T2 score, especially the closing credits! :)
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