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Serpent in the Staglands should give you at least a good 40 hours of play time in the first trip, if not more. You can’t ask for anything better than that.
The MayaThe serpent, or, is one of the oldest and most widespread. The word is derived from Latin serpens, a crawling animal or snake. Snakes have been associated with some of the oldest rituals known to mankind and represent of.In some cultures, snakes were fertility symbols. For example, the people of performed an annual snake dance to celebrate the union of Snake Youth (a Sky spirit) and Snake Girl (an Underworld spirit) and to renew the of. During the dance, live snakes were handled and at the end of the dance the snakes were released into the fields to guarantee good crops. 'The snake dance is a prayer to the spirits of the clouds, the thunder and the lightning, that the rain may fall on the growing crops.'
In other culturessnakes symbolized the, joining all humans to. The often had snakes as her —sometimes twining around her sacred staff, as in —and they were worshiped as guardians of her of and regeneration. Contents.Symbolic values frequently assigned to serpents Fertility and rebirth Historically, serpents and snakes represent or a creative life force. As snakes shed their skin through, they are symbols of rebirth, transformation, immortality, and healing. The is a symbol of and continual renewal of life.In some, the serpent represents. According to some interpretations of the, the represents sexual passion. In, is a coiled serpent.
Guardianship. Meditating being shielded by the naga., 1150 to 1175Serpents are represented as potent guardians of temples and other sacred spaces.
This connection may be grounded in the observation that when threatened, some snakes (such as or ) frequently hold and defend their ground, first resorting to threatening display and then fighting, rather than retreat. Thus, they are natural guardians of treasures or sacred sites which cannot easily be moved out of harm's way.At in, numerous stone sculptures present hooded multi-headed as guardians of temples or other premises. A favorite motif of Angkorean sculptors from approximately the 12th century CE onward was that of the, sitting in the position of meditation, his weight supported by the coils of a multi-headed naga that also uses its flared hood to shield him from above.
This motif recalls the story of the Buddha and the serpent king: as the Buddha sat beneath a tree engrossed in meditation, Mucalinda came up from the roots of the tree to shield the Buddha from a tempest that was just beginning to arise.The of the American Revolution depicts a coiled up and poised to strike. Below the image of the snake is the legend, 'Don't tread on me.' The snake symbolized the dangerousness of colonists willing to fight for their rights and homeland. The motif is repeated in the of the US Navy.Poison and medicine Serpents are connected with poison and medicine. The snake's venom is associated with the chemicals of plants and fungi that have the power to either heal, poison or provide expanded consciousness (and even the and immortality) through divine intoxication. Because of its herbal knowledge and association the snake was often considered one of the wisest animals, being (close to the) divine.
Its divine aspect combined with its habitat in the earth between the roots of plants made it an animal with properties connected to the afterlife and immortality. The deified Greek physician, as god of and healing, carried with one serpent wrapped around it, which has become the symbol of modern medicine. Also had a replica of a serpent on a pole, the, mentioned in Numbers 21:8.Vengefulness and vindictiveness. — Genesis 3:15 NRSVThis connection also depends in part on the experience that venomous snakes often deliver deadly defensive bites without giving prior notice or warning to their unwitting victims. Although a snake is defending itself from the encroachment of its victim into the snake's immediate vicinity, the unannounced and deadly strike may seem unduly vengeful when measured against the unwitting victim's perceived lack of blameworthiness.' S famous short story ' invokes the image of the serpent as a symbol for petty vengefulness.
The story is told from the point of view of the vindictive Montresor, who hatches a secret plot to murder his rival Fortunato in order to avenge real or imagined insults. Before carrying out his scheme, Montresor reveals his family's coat-of-arms to the intended victim: 'A huge human foot d'or, in a field azure; the foot crushes a serpent rampant whose fangs are imbedded in the heel.' Fortunato, not suspecting that he has offended Montresor, fails to understand the symbolic import of the coat-of-arms and blunders onward into Montresor's trap.Mythology and religion. Important in and religionsIn Africa the chief centre of serpent worship was, but the cult of the python seems to have been of exotic origin, dating back to the first quarter of the 17th century. By the conquest of Whydah the Dahomeyans were brought in contact with a people of serpent worshipers, and ended by adopting from them the beliefs which they at first despised. At Whydah, the chief centre, there is a serpent temple, tenanted by some fifty snakes.
Every python of the danh-gbi kind must be treated with respect, and death is the penalty for killing one, even by accident. Danh-gbi has numerous wives, who until 1857 took part in a public procession from which the profane crowd was excluded; a python was carried round the town in a hammock, perhaps as a ceremony for the expulsion of evils. The rainbow-god of the Ashanti was also conceived to have the form of a snake. His messenger was said to be a small variety of boa, but only certain individuals, not the whole species, were sacred.
In many parts of Africa the serpent is looked upon as the incarnation of deceased relatives. Among the Amazulu, as among the of Madagascar, certain species are assigned as the abode of certain classes. The, on the other hand, regard each species as the habitat of a particular family of the tribe.Ancient Near East. The 'libation vase of ' with the dragon, dedicated to (twentieth century BCE ). The is interpreted as depicting the god himself.In, the messenger god of, was represented as a serpent on,. Representations of two intertwined serpents are common in and Neo-Sumerian artwork and still appear sporadically on and amulets until as late as the thirteenth century BCE. The horned viper ( ) appears in and kudurrus and is invoked in texts as a magical protective entity.
A dragon-like creature with horns, the body and neck of a snake, the forelegs of a lion, and the hind-legs of a bird appears in Mesopotamian art from the Akkadian Period until the (323 BCE–31 BCE). This creature, known in as the, meaning 'furious serpent', was used as a symbol for particular deities and also as a general protective emblem. It seems to have originally been the attendant of the Underworld god, but later became the attendant to the storm-god, as well as, later, Ninazu's son, the Babylonian, the scribal god, and the Assyrian national god Ashur.Snake cults were well established in in the, for archaeologists have uncovered serpent in Bronze Age strata at several pre-Israelite cities in Canaan: two at, one at, one in the sanctum sanctorum of the Area H temple at, and two at.In the surrounding region, serpent cult objects figured in other cultures. A late Bronze Age shrine in northern Syria contained a bronze statue of a god holding a serpent in one hand and a staff in the other.
In 6th-century, a pair of bronze serpents flanked each of the four doorways of the temple of. At the Babylonian New Year's festival, the priest was to commission from a woodworker, a metalworker and a goldsmith two images one of which 'shall hold in its left hand a snake of cedar, raising its right hand to the god '. At the tell of Tepe Gawra, at least seventeen Early Bronze Age bronze serpents were recovered. Ancient Iran.
Serpent on a jewelry box from Shahdad, Iran, 2700 BCSnakes are sacred and powerful in the thoughts of prehistoric. It seems that they have worshiped along with the, from fourth to first millennium BC.; We can detect their presence as mighty patrons and source of life and immortality in the art of, art, art, etc.
Serpents have pictured as patrons of fertility, water and wealth in the ancient objects of Iran.However, it seems that symbolic concept of serpent has reversed in the cultures of over time. In, the serpent represents sexual desire, as he lured Eve with the promise of forbidden knowledge in the Garden of Eden. Aryan religions call the serpents diabolic too; in is a scary serpent and in the is an infernal creature with two snakes on his shoulders. This replacement might be due to communicating between the inhabitants of Iran and believers in and beyond that the conversion of matriarchy into patriarchy, in the social structure of cultures.
United Arab Emirates. Snake decoration on pot from,Significant finds of pottery, bronze-ware and even gold depictions of snakes have been made throughout the. The and metallurgical centre of has yielded probably the richest trove of such objects, although finds have been made bearing snake symbols in Bronze Age sites at,. Most of the depictions of snakes are similar, with a consistent dotted decoration applied to them.Although the widespread depiction of snakes in sites across the UAE is thought by archaeologists to have a religious purpose, this remains conjecture. Christianity. Gnaws the roots of Yggdrasil in this illustration from a 17th-century Icelandic manuscript.Similarly (Nidhogg Nagar), the dragon of Norse mythology, eats from the roots of the, the World Tree.Under yet another Tree (the of Enlightenment), the sat in ecstatic meditation. When a storm arose, the mighty serpent king rose up from his place beneath the earth and enveloped the Buddha in seven coils for seven days, so as not to break his ecstatic state.The was also a symbol of rebirth in, with origins going back to earlier Maya conceptions, lying at the center of the world as the Mayans conceived it.
'It is in the center axis atop the. Essentially the World Tree and the Vision Serpent, representing the king, created the center axis which communicates between the spiritual and the earthly worlds or planes. It is through ritual that the king could bring the center axis into existence in the temples and create a doorway to the spiritual world, and with it power'. (Schele and Friedel, 1990: 68). The Sumerian deity, is accompanied by two; it is the oldest known image of two snakes coiling around an axial rod, dating from before 2000 BCE.Sometimes the Tree of Life is represented (in a combination with similar concepts such as the World Tree and or 'World Axis') by a staff such as those used. Examples of such staffs featuring coiled snakes in mythology are the of, the, and the papyrus reeds and deity poles entwined by a single serpent, dating to earlier than 3000 BCE. The oldest known representation of two snakes entwined around a rod is that of the fertility god.
Ningizzida was sometimes depicted as a serpent with a human head, eventually becoming a god of healing and magic. It is the companion of (Tammuz), with whom it stood at the gate of heaven. In the, there is a famous green vase carved for King of (dated variously 2200–2025 BCE) with an inscription dedicated to Ningizzida.
Ningizzida was the ancestor of, who, according to the, dived to the bottom of the waters to retrieve the plant of life. But while he rested from his labor, a serpent came and ate the plant. The snake became immortal, and Gilgamesh was destined to die. Ancient North American serpent imagery often featured rattlesnakesNingizzida has been popularized in the 20th century by Raku Kei (a.k.a. 'The Way of the Fire Dragon'), where 'Nin Giz Zida' is believed to be a fire serpent of Tibetan rather than Sumerian origin.
'Nin Giz Zida' is another name for the ancient concept, a word meaning either 'coiled up' or 'coiling like a snake'. 'Kundalini' refers to the mothering intelligence behind yogic awakening and spiritual maturation leading to altered states of consciousness. There are a number of other translations of the term, usually emphasizing a more serpentine nature to the word—e.g.
'serpent power'. It has been suggested by that the symbol of snakes coiled around a staff is an ancient representation of Kundalini physiology. The staff represents the spinal column with the snake(s) being energy channels. In the case of two coiled snakes, they usually cross each other seven times, a possible reference to the seven energy centers called.In, where the earliest written cultural records exist, the serpent appears from the beginning to the end of their mythology. And ('he who completes or perfects') became the same god, Atum, the 'counter-Ra,' was associated with earth animals, including the serpent: ('he who harnesses the souls') was the two headed serpent deity who guarded the entrance to the underworld.
He is often seen as the son of the snake goddess. She often was confused with (and later was absorbed by) their primal snake goddess, the, who from the earliest of records was the patron and protector of the country, all other deities, and the pharaohs. Hers is the first known. She was depicted as the of Egypt, entwined around the staff of papyrus and the pole that indicated the status of all other deities, as well as having the all-seeing of wisdom and vengeance. She never lost her position in the Egyptian pantheon.The image of the serpent as the embodiment of the wisdom transmitted by was an emblem used by, especially those sects that the more orthodox characterized as ' ('Serpent People'). The chthonic serpent was one of the earth-animals associated with the cult of. The, the venomous 'king of serpents' with the glance that kills, was hatched by a serpent, and others thought, from the egg of a.Outside Eurasia, in, was another mythic regenerating serpent.The (also known as the Rainbow Snake) is a major being for people across, although the associated with it are best known from northern Australia.
In Fiji was a serpent god who ruled the underworld and made fruit trees bloom. In the Northern reigns, serpent who drank empty, refuges into the mountains, carving valleys and waterholes, earthquakes through snoring.Cosmic serpents. This section does not any. Unsourced material may be challenged and.Find sources: – ( July 2013) The serpent, when forming a ring with its tail in its mouth, is a clear and widespread symbol of the 'All-in-All', the totality of existence, infinity and the cyclic nature of the cosmos. The most well known version of this is the Aegypto-Greek.
It is believed to have been inspired by the, as some ancient texts refer to a serpent of light residing in the heavens. The Ancient Egyptians associated it with, one of their oldest deities as well as another aspect, Hathor. In the World Serpent (or Midgard serpent) known as encircled the world in the ocean's abyss biting its own tail. Resting on Ananta-Shesha, with massaging his 'lotus feet'In Lord is said to sleep while floating on the cosmic waters on the serpent. In the Shesha holds all the planets of the universe on his hoods and constantly sings the glories of Vishnu from all his mouths. He is sometimes referred to as 'Ananta-Shesha,' which means 'Endless Shesha'. In the chapter of the Puranas, Shesha loosens for it to be used as a churning rod by the and to churn the in the heavens in order to make (or ), the divine elixir of immortality.
As a churning rope another giant serpent called is used.In pre-Columbian Central America Quetzalcoatl was sometimes depicted as biting its own tail. The mother of Quetzalcoatl was the Aztec goddess ('the one with the skirt of serpents'), also known as Cihuacoatl ('The Lady of the serpent'). 's father was ('Cloud Serpent'). He was identified with the Milky Way, the stars and the heavens in several Mesoamerican cultures.The Aidophedo of the West African is also a serpent biting its own tail. In of in West Africa, the serpent that supports everything on its many coils was named Dan. In the of Benin and (a.k.a. Aida-Wedo, Aido Quedo, 'Rainbow-Serpent') is a spirit of fertility, rainbows and snakes, and a companion or wife to Dan, the father of all spirits.
As Vodou was exported to Haiti through the slave trade Dan became, Damballah or Damballah-Wedo. Because of his association with snakes, he is sometimes disguised as Moses, who carried a snake on his staff. He is also thought by many to be the same entity of, known as a snake banisher.The serpent is a star representing either the serpent thrown angrily into the sky by or the as defeated by for one of his Twelve Labors. The constellation represents a snake being tamed by the snake-handler, another constellation. The most probable interpretation is that Ophiuchus represents the healer Asclepius.Dragons. The at the of the as shown at the.
She wears a belt of intertwined snakes, a fertility symbol.The brandished a serpent in either hand, perhaps evoking her role as source of wisdom, rather than her role as Mistress of the Animals ( ), with a under each arm.Serpents figured prominently in archaic Greek myths. According to some sources, ('serpent', a.k.a. Ophioneus), ruled the world with Eurynome before the two of them were cast down by Cronus and Rhea.
The oracles of the Ancient Greeks were said to have been the continuation of the tradition begun with the worship of the Egyptian cobra goddess,.the enemy of the Olympian gods is described as a vast grisly monster with a hundred heads and a hundred serpents issuing from his thighs, who was conquered and cast into by, or confined beneath volcanic regions, where he is the cause of eruptions. Typhon is thus the chthonic figuration of volcanic forces. Serpent elements figure among his offspring; among his children by Echidna are: (a monstrous three-headed dog with a snake for a tail and a serpentine mane); the serpent-tailed; the serpent-like chthonic water beast; and the hundred-headed serpentine dragon. Both the Lernaean Hydra and Ladon were slain by.was the earth-dragon of, she always was represented in the vase-paintings and by sculptors as a serpent. Pytho was the chthonic enemy of, who slew her and remade her former home his own oracle, the most famous in Classical Greece. Statue ofand the other were vicious female monsters with sharp fangs and hair of living, venomous snakes whose origins predate the written myths of Greece and who were the protectors of the most ancient ritual secrets. The Gorgons wore a belt of two intertwined serpents in the same configuration of the.
The Gorgon was placed at the center, highest point of one of the pediments on the., the son of Apollo and Koronis, learned the secrets of keeping death at bay after observing one serpent bringing another (which Asclepius himself had fatally wounded) back to life with healing herbs. To prevent the entire human race from becoming immortal under Asclepius's care, Zeus killed him with a bolt of lightning. Asclepius' death at the hands of Zeus illustrates man's inability to challenge the natural order that separates mortal men from the gods. In honor of Asclepius, snakes were often used in healing rituals.
Non-poisonous snakes were left to crawl on the floor in dormitories where the sick and injured slept. The claimed that gave Asclepius a vial of blood from the Gorgons. Gorgon blood had magical properties: if taken from the left side of the Gorgon, it was a fatal poison; from the right side, the blood was capable of bringing the dead back to life. However, wrote in his tragedy that the Athenian queen Creusa had inherited this vial from her ancestor Erichthonios, who was a snake himself and had received the vial from Athena. In this version the blood of Medusa had the healing power while the lethal poison originated from Medusa's serpents., the mother of and a princess of the primitive land of, had the reputation of a snake-handler, and it was in serpent form that Zeus was said to have fathered Alexander upon her., the king of and father of the sorceress, possessed the.
He guarded it with a massive serpent that never slept. Medea, who had fallen in love with of the, enchanted it to sleep so Jason could seize the Fleece. (See ).When not driven by horses, the chariot of the is described as being pulled by fiery draconic beings. The most notable instance of this is observed in the episode in which is given her grandfather's chariot, which is pulled by serpents through the sky.Jewish mythology. Main articles: andIn the the in the lured Eve with the promise of being like God, tempting her that despite God's warning, death would not be the result, that God was withholding knowledge from her. Although the serpent is identified as Satan in the, in Genesis the serpent is portrayed merely as a deceptive creature or, promoting as good what God had directly forbidden, and particularly cunning in its deception (Gen. 3:4–5 and 3:22).The staff of transformed into a snake and then back into a staff ( 4:2–4).
The 21:6–9 provides an origin for an by associating it with Moses. This copper snake according to the Biblical text is put on a pole and used for healing. Book of Numbers 21:9 'And Moses made a snake of copper, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a snake had bitten any man, when he beheld the snake of brass, he lived.'
When the reformer came to the throne of Judah in the late 8th century BCE, 'He removed the high places, broke the sacred pillars, smashed the idols, and broke into pieces the copper snake that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it. The features a Rod of AsclepiusSnakes entwined the staffs both of (the ) and of, where a single snake entwined the rough staff.
On Hermes' caduceus, the snakes were not merely duplicated for symmetry, they were paired opposites. (This motif is congruent with the.) The wings at the head of the staff identified it as belonging to the winged messenger, Hermes, the Roman Mercury, who was the god of magic, diplomacy and, of inventions and discoveries, the protector both of merchants and that allied occupation, to the mythographers' view, of thieves.
It is however Hermes' role as, the escort of newly deceased souls to the afterlife, that explains the origin of the snakes in the caduceus since this was also the role of the Sumerian entwined serpent god, with whom Hermes has sometimes been equated.In, as the arcane study of developed, Mercury was understood to be the protector of those arts too and of arcane or occult 'Hermetic' information in general. Chemistry and medicines linked the rod of Hermes with the staff of the healer Asclepius, which was wound with a serpent; it was conflated with Mercury's rod, and the modern medical symbol—which should simply be the rod of Asclepius—often became Mercury's wand of commerce. Another version is used in alchemy whereas the snake is crucified, known as 's caduceus.
Art historian Walter J. Friedlander, in The Golden Wand of Medicine: A History of the Caduceus Symbol in Medicine (1992) collected hundreds of examples of the caduceus and the rod of Asclepius and found that professional associations were just somewhat more likely to use the staff of Asclepius, while commercial organizations in the medical field were more likely to use the caduceus.Modern political propaganda Following the Christian context as a symbol for evil, serpents are sometimes featured in political. They were used to represent Jews in. Snakes were also used to represent the evil side of drugs in such films as Narcotic and Narcotics: Pit of Despair.
Depicted as an evil snake in a WWII propaganda posterEvolutionary origins The anthropologist Lynn Isbell has argued that, as primates, the serpent as a symbol of death is built into our unconscious minds because of our evolutionary history. Isbell argues that for millions of years snakes were the only significant predators of primates, and that this explains why fear of snakes is one of the most common phobias worldwide and why the symbol of the serpent is so prevalent in world mythology; the serpent is an innate image of danger and death.Furthermore, the psychoanalyst Joseph Lewis Henderson and the ethnologist Maude Oakes have argued that the serpent is a symbol of initiation and rebirth precisely because it is a symbol of death. See also.References Citations. Burston, Daniel: 1994, 'Freud, the Serpent & The Sexual Enlightenment of Children', International Forum of Psychoanalysis, vol. 3, pp. 205–219., Occidental Mythology: the Masks of God, 1964: Ch.
1, 'The Serpent's Bride.' .
John Bathurst Deane, London: J. Rivington, 1833., A History of Cambodia, 1992. Lewis Richard Farnell, The Cults of the Greek States, 1896., Python; a study of Delphic myth and its origins, 1959., Themis: A Study of the Social Origins of Greek Religion, 1912.
Chapter IX, p. 329 especially, on the slaying of the Python. Retrieved 2012-12-07. Retrieved 2012-12-07. Haycock, D. Manupod Press. Henderson, J.
L.; Oakes, M. Princeton University Press. Isbell, L.
Harvard University Press. Balaji Mundkur, The Cult of the Serpent: An Interdisciplinary Survey of Its Manifestations and Origins, Albany: State University Press 1983., available in an at literature.org., Blaise Daniel Staples & Clark Heinrich, The Apples of Apollo: Pagan and Christian Mysteries of the Eucharist, 2001.External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to. Minkel, J. (1 December 2006). Scientific American. Archived from on 11 October 2007. Retrieved 20 May 2018.
![Serpent in the staglands review Serpent in the staglands review](/uploads/1/2/5/5/125598182/619734900.jpg)
Jones, Tim (4 July 2012). Anthropology.net. Viegas, Jennifer (18 May 2007). ABC Science/Discovery News.
The Serpent and the Rainbow | |
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Directed by | Wes Craven |
Produced by |
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Written by | |
Based on | The Serpent and the Rainbow by Wade Davis |
Starring | |
Music by | Brad Fiedel |
Cinematography | John Lindley |
Edited by | Glenn Farr |
Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
| |
98 minutes[1] | |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $7 million |
Box office | $19.6 million |
The Serpent and the Rainbow is a 1988 American horror film directed by Wes Craven and starring Bill Pullman. The script by Richard Maxwell and Adam Rodman is loosely based on the non-fiction book of the same name by ethnobotanistWade Davis, wherein Davis recounted his experiences in Haiti investigating the story of Clairvius Narcisse, who was allegedly poisoned, buried alive, and revived with an herbal brew which produced what was called a zombie.
Plot[edit]
In 1978, a Haitian man named Christophe mysteriously dies in a French missionary clinic, while outside a voodoo parade marches past his window. The next morning, Christophe is buried in a traditional Catholic funeral. A mysterious man dressed in a suit who was outside Christophe's hospital window on the night he died is in attendance. As the coffin is lowered into the ground, Christophe's eyes open and tears roll down his cheeks.
Seven years later, Harvard anthropologist Dennis Alan is in the Amazon rainforest studying rare herbs and medicines with a local shaman. He drinks a potion and experiences a hallucination of the same black man from Christophe's funeral, surrounded by corpses in a bottomless pit.
Back in Boston, Alan is approached by a pharmaceutical company looking to investigate a drug used in Haitian Vodou to create zombies. The company wants Alan to acquire the drug for use as a 'super anesthetic'. The corporation provides Alan with funding and sends him to Haiti, which is in the middle of a revolution. Alan's exploration in Haiti, assisted by Doctor Marielle Duchamp, locates Christophe who is alive after having been buried seven years earlier. Alan is taken into custody, and the commander of the Tonton Macoute, Captain Dargent Peytraud–the same man from Christophe's funeral and Alan's vision in the Amazon–warns Alan to leave Haiti.
Continuing his investigation, Alan finds a local man, Mozart, who is reported to have knowledge of the procedure for creating the zombie drug. Alan pays Mozart for a sample, but Mozart sells him rat poison instead. After embarrassing Mozart in public, Alan convinces Mozart to show Alan how to produce the drug for a fee of $1,000. Alan is arrested again by the Tonton Macoutes, and tortured by having a nail driven through his scrotum, and then dumped on a street with the message that he must leave Haiti or be killed. Alan again refuses to leave and meets with Mozart to create the drug.
Alan has a nightmare of Peytraud, revealed to be a bokor who turns enemies into zombies and steals their souls. When Alan wakes up, he is lying next to Christophe's sister who has been decapitated. The Tonton Macoutes enter, take photos, and frame Alan for murder. Peytraud tells Alan to leave the country and never return, lest he be convicted of the murder, executed, and then his soul stolen by Peytraud. He puts Alan on a plane, but Mozart sneaks onboard and gives Alan the zombie drug. Mozart asks Alan to tell people about him, so that Mozart can achieve international fame. Alan agrees and returns to Boston with his mission apparently completed.
At a celebration dinner, the wife of Alan's employer is possessed by Peytraud, who warns Alan of his own imminent death. Alan returns to Haiti, where his only ally, a houngan named Lucien Celine, is killed by Peytraud and Mozart is beheaded as a sacrifice for Peytraud's power. Alan is then sprayed with the zombie powder and dies; later, Peytraud steals Alan's body from a medical clinic before the death can be reported to the US Embassy. Peytraud takes Alan to a graveyard where, helpless in his coffin, Alan sees that Peytraud has captured Marielle and will sacrifice her. Peytraud shows Alan Celine's soul in a canari. Alan is then buried alive with a tarantula to 'keep him company'. Waking up in his coffin a few hours later, Alan is rescued by Christophe who was also turned into a zombie by Peytraud.
Having escaped Peytraud's trap, Alan returns to the Tonton Macoute headquarters looking for Marielle. There, Alan defeats Peytraud through a battles of wills, using Celine's white magic to drive a nail into Peytraud's groin, and sends his soul to hell. As the Haitian people celebrate the downfall of Jean-Claude Duvalier, Marielle proclaims 'The nightmare is over'.
Cast[edit]
- Bill Pullman as Dennis Alan
- Michael Gough as Schoonbacher
- Paul Guilfoyle as Andrew Cassedy
- Dey Young as Deborah Cassedy
- Francis Guinan as American Doctor
- Cathy Tyson as Marielle Duchamp
- Zakes Mokae as Dargent Peytraud
- Paul Winfield as Lucien Celine
- Brent Jennings as Louis Mozart
- Conrad Roberts as Christophe Durand
- Aleta Mitchell as Celestine
- Badja Djola as Gaston
- Philogen Thomas as Priest
- Evencio Mosquera Slaco as Old Shaman
![Serpent Serpent](/uploads/1/2/5/5/125598182/360165955.png)
Production[edit]
The Serpent and the Rainbow was filmed in Boston, Massachusetts, Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, and in Haiti.[2] During production in Haiti, the local government informed the cast and crew that they could not guarantee their safety for the remainder of the film's shoot because of the political strife and civil turmoil that was occurring during that time; as a result, production was relocated to the Dominican Republic for the remainder of the shoot.
Release[edit]
Rating[edit]
In an interview, Craven stated that unlike his previous films that had problems with the Motion Picture Association of America, the first cut got an R rating without any problems. According to an article from Fangoria #71, the original cut was three hours long but Craven felt that it was too long and talky so it was cut down to 98 minutes. It was then test screened to the audience and their reactions were favorable.
Box office[edit]
The Serpent and the Rainbow was released theatrically in the United States by Universal Pictures on February 5, 1988. It grossed $19,595,031 at the box office.[3]
Critical reception[edit]
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, The Serpent and the Rainbow holds an approval rating of 65%, based on 34 reviews, and an average rating of 5.8/10. It's consensus reads, 'Although it's occasionally overwhelmed by excessive special effects, The Serpent and the Rainbow draws on a chilling atmosphere to deliver a intelligent, politically informed story.'[4] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 64 out of 100, based on 13 critics, indicating 'generally favorable reviews'.[5]
Home media[edit]
The film was first released on DVD by Image Entertainment in 1998,[6] though this version is now out of print. It was subsequently re-released by Universal Studios in 2003 and in 2016 on Blu-ray from Scream Factory.[7]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^'The Serpent and the Rainbow (18)'. British Board of Film Classification. March 22, 1988. Retrieved September 1, 2016.
- ^'The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988) - Filming Locations'. IMDb.com. IMDb.com. Retrieved August 12, 2014.
- ^'The Serpent and the Rainbow'. boxofficemojo.com. Retrieved April 13, 2011.
- ^'The Serpent and the Rainbow (1987) – Rotten Tomatoes'. Rotten Tomatoes.com. Fandango Media. Retrieved December 24, 2019.
- ^'The Serpent and the Rainbow reviews'. Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved December 24, 2019.
- ^'The Serpent and the Rainbow (DVD)'. dvdempire.com. Retrieved April 13, 2011.
- ^'The Serpent and the Rainbow (DVD)'. dvdempire.com. Retrieved April 13, 2011.
External links[edit]
- The Serpent and the Rainbow on IMDb
- The Serpent and the Rainbow at AllMovie
- The Serpent and the Rainbow at Rotten Tomatoes
- The Serpent and the Rainbow at Box Office Mojo
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Serpent_and_the_Rainbow_(film)&oldid=950031576'
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