The Serpent and the Rainbow

Offers a few good scares but gets bogged down in special effects.

Genuinely frightening.

Unfortunately, the political parallel between the ideological repression of Baby Doc's regime and the stultifying effects of the zombifying fluid is only sketchily developed, leaving us with a series of striking but isolated set pieces.

A lame documentary-flavored horror story.

The Serpent and the Rainbow has a screenplay that often breaks its spell.

Take a powerful, revealing nonfiction book, sift through it for its most cliche'd elements and turn it into a terror film and you've got The Serpent and the Rainbow.

...a mostly worthless piece of work that’s a strong contender for Craven’s very worst film.

The Serpent and the Rainbow still makes for a mostly satisfying horror-viewing experience...

Lethargic due to its incoherence, while the only thing that truly instills fear is Bill Pullman, the Apollonian protagonist with the worst acting I think I've ever seen in a professional film. [Full review in Spanish]

Between colorful folklore, romance, and political critique, the terrifying intrigue is at times interesting and at others surprising. [Full Review in Spanish]