Bound Horror! – WADE DAVIS: “The Serpent and the Rainbow” (1985)

Or: “How to Build a Better Zombie…”

Though Canadian anthropologist and researcher Wade Davis could never be labeled a horror writer, his controversial release “The Serpent and the Rainbow” posed a provocative and terrifying question. 

We all know from the collective works of folks like George A. Romero, Peter Jackson, and Lucio Fulci, zombies pop up at the damnedest times, but Wade’s non-fiction bestseller did a deep-dive into Haitian voodoo to find out if there was a pharmacological “recipe” for creating a zombie. 

The book presents the case of a modern Haitian man who spent two years as a ‘zombie’. The reason for this seemed to be a crash-up of culture, religion, and poisons, specifically the hallucinogenic datura and a potent homemade cocktail of tetrodotoxin, which contained such lovely ingredients as puffer fish, baby skulls, and various reptile bits. You can’t ever say those voodoo priests aren’t imaginative.

Naturally, the trance-like zombification Wade proposed attracted attention of supporters and detractors alike, but the science ultimately got lost in the sensationalism when Wes Craven unleashed the 1988 film adaptation of the same name. With its fiery rituals, nightmarish visuals, and enough behind-the-scenes strife to move the production from Haiti to the Dominican Republic less than two weeks into filming, Craven’s film ultimately eclipsed Davis’ original proposal. 

Offering up a intriguing and perplexing look at the possibility of the science of the living controlling the magic of the dead, “The Serpent and the Rainbow” still stands as required reading for zombie completists.

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