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Wade Davis's 1985 Book - The Serpent + the Rainbow

posted 20 years ago by antimusick
11 replies | jump to latest

I think this is a great film, well made from the book The Serpent & the Rainbow, I mean it's not word for word from the book but the story is basically the same ... Harvard scientist is commissioned to look for the drugs (poison and antidote) for Zombification. He stumbles in to a secret Haitian voodoo society, while finding out about Zombis and Magic.

http://www.wade-davis.com

this is a Zombies true voodoo roots ... and it's not the same as those other Dead films, which I think are not Zombies but are a type of Ghoul.

[–] free2game365 20 years ago

"this is a Zombies true voodoo roots ... and it's not the same as those other Dead films, which I think are not Zombies but are a type of Ghoul."
I take it you have not seen day of land of the dead. they both go much deeper into zombies. but I am planning on reading this book pretty soon.

[–] philipadams_ 19 years ago

He means the term zombie's meaning about being mindless and what not. The ones in the dead movies created by Romero and eat people's flesh is different from the original Voodoo meaning of the word. That being said, I quite enjoy Romero's "zombie" creation.

[–] little5-1 19 years ago

I disagree. I think although this was a good stand-alone Wes Craven horror flick, I think it did more to promote the Hollywood stereotypes about Voodoo, which is completely antithetical to Dr. Davis' book. I think he tried to educate people about the true Voodoun religion, & I'm betting this movie pissed him off.

[–] ragreen259 19 years ago

It didn't piss him off, or it wouldn't have the same name as the book.

[–] little5-1 19 years ago

Tht's not true. How many Stephen King movies irritated SK? Dr. Davis had already given them the rights to the name; nothing he could do once the film was made.

"Dark have been my dreams of late" -Theodin of Rohan

[–] fiatlux-1 19 years ago

So the book is really good??
That's what I had come on the board to find out. :)
I had seen the film. If a film is good, I usually try to find out about the novel too.

"I offer you this rose...my heart, my soul, my love."
"Love?"
- Legend

[–] fugitive111 19 years ago

I loved all 3 of Davis' main books...

If he has a sense of humour (and i'm sure he does) then I doubt he'll bother too much with this film.

From a horror film fans point of view, I think the voodoo subject is an excellent subject to explore in that genre and this film has both its serious and tongue-in-cheek moments...one of the few horror movies that actually terrified me as a kid to be honest.

The book is well worth reading too and is fascinating, but obviously takes a more scientific view on the subject and provides an answer to an intriguing mystery :)

[–] chongo21 19 years ago

I'll start off by saying that I am closely related to Wade Davis and have spent a good deal of time with the guy.

I'm not going to say much but I will say that he does have an amazing sense of humor and is an extremely interesting person to talk to in general.

Also, I don't know the full extent of it but I know for a fact he wasn't thrilled with the movie adaptation.

Read his books – they’re amazing.

Just my two cents…

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] ungco 19 years ago

yes, go to barnes and noble and find them, but a good follow up is "Passage of Darkness: the ethnobiology of the haitian zombi"

[–] fugitive111 18 years ago

One River is a really good, detailed book about both his assignments in South America and also part biography of his mentor, the famous Richard Evan Schultes. Both legends of the ethnobotantical world.

Also, Shadows in the Sun is a very telling anthology of accounts concerning various places Wade has been to and also of the massive bio-destruction that the world is seeing. It is quite a sobering book towards the end and really drills home the message of mans destruction. Reminded me of E. O. Wilson's books in a way.

go to www.ted.com and find Wade Davis' 20 minute speach on there. Its truly fascinating, hes a very gifted public speaker :)