When it comes to iconic and shocking movie posters from the 80’s, this one in particular had a special place in my heart since I came across it at the local movie rental shop when I was a kid and, back then, I remember thinking of it as truly scary so I sort of made sure to stay away from it as humanly possible. Until now.

But why until now, you ask? Because my scared little kid brain did not make an effort to remember the name of the movie so, decades later, when my love for Horror grew from mere hobby to unabashed passion as a dvd collector, my adult brain could not bring to memory the movie title because I never learned it, I just remembered the movie poster, so please try to imagine my excitement when two days ago I was browsing the Horror section at Amoeba Hollywood and this came across my path:

It turned out The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988) was the mysterious title of that one horror movie whose poster scared [and scarred] my little kid brain. Okay, honest opinion after having watched the film? I thought it was going to be better. Yes, it was obviously a great Wes Craven movie as per usual but it was not scary to me (yes, this is my adult brain talking now).

The movie tells the story of anthropologist Dennis Alan who gets hired by a pharmaceutical company to go to Haiti and search for an alleged black magic drug that supposedly brought people back from the dead and turned them into zombies. The basic storyline sounded good, particularly because it was made known to us that it was about a real—and fairly newly discovered—neurotoxin called Tetrodotoxin. [For a quick/fun explanation video of the chemical, click here.]

So why, my dear horror friend, why did a terrifying and dire scenario where a zombie-turning neurotoxin, one that I knew was an actual neurotoxin in real life, one that was used as a weapon against people, did not scare me? Was it Craven’s fault due to unsuccessful movie making, or was it mine due to my cynical and narrow-minded point of view? Actually, no, there is no need for anyone to answer that… anyhow, SNAKE!

Between us girls, my imagination and I are great companions. I can spend hours daydreaming and creating stories in my head. I can come up with characters and situations and details and make things grandiose because why not! I love that about me. But do you know what I don’t love about my imagination? That it sometimes can let me down when I come face to face with the reality of things, like with this movie for example, just hear me out…

Yes, the above iconic movie poster made an impact in my kid brain, but now, as an adult, when I finally got to watch the movie it turned out the whole thing was just meh as it lacked the truly terrifying aspect of seeing someone getting buried alive and struggling to escape while still underground (Dennis just got out of the coffin kind of quickly and anticlimactically). I wanted for it to take time and bathe in the bleakness of not being able to move or shout for help, I wanted to see fear and agony, I wanted to see fingernails bleeding and coming off from scratching, I wanted to hear visceral screams and choking sounds, I wanted to see real human terror, I WANTED TO BE SHOCKED!! But alas, I did not get any of that. Let’s just say that at least I was happy with the fact that I came full circle and are finally able to say that I watched that one scary-looking movie from my childhood. (Moral of the story? Don’t judge a book by its cover.)

In Love and Fear,

-Marath