The Serpent and the Rainbow

The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988) is a voodoo horror film from Wes Craven, and you can watch it online on iFILM. A Haitian legend insists there is a powder that can drag a dead man out of his grave. Harvard anthropologist Dennis Alan flies to the island to track it down.

Bill Pullman plays the scientist who trusts only what he can measure — and slowly loses his footing. The deeper he digs into the rituals, the harder it gets to tell a drug-induced trance from genuine terror. A local officer played by Zakes Mokae greets the outsider with torture, and the line between dream, waking life and the grave dissolves. Cathy Tyson plays a doctor who knows the island far better than she lets on.

The story grew out of the field notes of ethnobotanist Wade Davis, who really did hunt for a "zombie" compound in Haiti, and Craven shot much of it on location there. It's the rare case of the Nightmare on Elm Street director trading the slasher for an ethnographic nightmare, with being buried alive as its central dread. Stream The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988) online on iFILM.