Behind the Horror by Lee Mellor

Author:Lee Mellor
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780744030914
Publisher: DK Publishing

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The Serpent and the Rainbow 1988

THE STRANGE TALE OF CLAIRVIUS NARCISSE

After the massive, unanticipated success of A Nightmare on Elm Street, director Wes Craven’s next foray into the horror genre, The Serpent and the Rainbow, moved away from the “slasher,” instead tackling zombies and the paranormal. Inspired by the book of the same name by Dr. Wade Davis, Craven’s movie exploited the torrid imagery of Haitian voodoo, with its zombies, rituals, and magic.

In The Serpent and the Rainbow, anthropologist Dr. Dennis Alan receives funding from a pharmaceutical company to travel to Haiti, in search of a drug rumored to be used in voodoo rituals for the creation of zombies. The company hopes to learn the chemical formula so that it can be repurposed as an anesthetic. Dr. Alan arrives to find Haiti in revolutionary turmoil, with protesters challenging the power of the notorious dictator “Papa Doc” Duvalier. Alan soon encounters zombies and voodoo priests, but is repeatedly urged to leave the island under threat of violence by Captain Dargent Peytraud of the Tonton Macoute—a special-ops branch of Duvalier’s paramilitary force. Following a bizarre dream, Alan comes to suspect that Peytraud is a practitioner of black magic, with the power to steal his enemies’ souls and transform them into zombies. Alan comes close to acquiring the zombie-creation drug from a man named Mozart, but is abducted, tortured, and framed for murder by the Tonton Macoute in an effort to make him return to America.

Eventually, the Tonton Macoute forcibly place Alan, unconscious, on an outbound plane. To his surprise, upon waking, he discovers Mozart has sneaked onto the aircraft. Mozart gives Alan the drug, on the condition that he spreads word of him in the US so that he can become famous. Upon returning to America, Alan is praised for his success by the pharmaceutical company, but Peytraud continues to inflict terror on him using black magic. Forced to journey back to Haiti to confront his foe, Alan is blasted with zombie powder, killed, and buried in an undead state in a graveyard. Rescued by an ally, Alan uses newfound magical abilities to defeat Peytraud at the central Tonton Macoute office and send him to hell. The film ends with the now-liberated people of Haiti celebrating the news that Duvalier has fled the country.

Craven’s film is loosely based on the highly controversial, non-fiction book The Serpent and the Rainbow: A Harvard Scientist’s Astonishing Journey into the Secret Societies of Haitian Voodoo, Zombies, and Magic by the Canadian ethnobotanist and anthropologist Dr. Wade Davis. Published in 1985, this bestseller details Davis’ adventurous research into voodoo and toxicology in Haiti.

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Wade Davis was pursuing his undergraduate studies at Harvard when he first caught the attention of his professors. The strapping Canadian anthropologist not only had a keen intellect, he was obviously intrepid—he had successfully traversed the Darién Gap, a 150-mile stretch of roadless, hazardous rainforest between Panama and Colombia. After graduating, Davis took a two-year break from studying, but returned to Harvard to pursue his master’s degree under Dr.

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