Serpent and the Rainbow, The
The Serpent and the Rainbow, released in 1988, was a Wes Craven horror film that starred Bill Pullman as Dennis Alan and Cathy Tyson as Marielle Duchamp. The script was loosely based on a non-fiction book that described one particular instance of a person being poisoned, presumed dead, buried, and then brought back to life later with another herbal concoction. The movie was not a huge success at the box office, but did more than double its budget. The movie received mixed reviews, although generally more positive than negative.
In this movie, Dennis Alan (Pullman) is a Harvard researcher who travels to Haiti to get his hands on some special potion on the behest of a large pharmaceutical corporation. The corporation wants to perfect the mix and turn it into a new medicine. This potion, when consumed, makes a person appear to be dead. During his investigation, the Haitian government tries to kick Dennis out of the country, but he manages to stay. Low and behold, as things begin to get interesting in the Haitian world of Voodoo, Pullman gets mixed up with an evil Voodoo person named Dargent Peytraud who intends to do him in. By the end of the movie, Dennis himself is given the potion, buried in the ground, and left to die. In the end, after escaping the Peytraud's trap, Dennis manages to defeat Peytraud and the Haitians celebrate.