39. The Serpent and the Rainbow

In a political environment in which racial and cultural stereotypes have been weaponized against our Haitian brothers and sisters, this movie hits a little different. However, it provides a good talking point about how Haiti is imagined in the US. Wes Craven's "The Serpent and the Rainbow," based on the book of the same name by "Wade Davis," hits on two of any of our worse fears, one, being buried alive, and two, losing control over our own bodies. Zombies have long been a metaphor for involuntary servitude, which had its worst expression in chattel slavery, so it is no wonder that Zombies are so closely associated with Haiti and its origins in the domination of the French plantation system over the lives of enslaved Africans. Voodoo is an African derived religion that can both liberate and/or captivate its adherents. It is paradoxically both a symbol of freedom in the Haitian revolution as well as of control from an outside force.

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