The Serpent and the Rainbow

Christophe dies mysteriously in a French missionary clinic as a voodoo parade passes by his window. A mysterious man in a suit who stood outside Christophe’s hospital window attends the Catholic funeral, and as the coffin is lowered, Christophe’s eyes open and tears roll down his cheeks.

Christophe is buried in a Catholic funeral the morning after his death. As the coffin is lowered, Christophe’s eyes open and tears roll down his cheeks, suggesting a supernatural thread linking the living and the dead; the suited man from earlier is present.

Seven years later, Harvard anthropologist Dennis Alan drinks a potion in the Amazon and hallucinates the suited man from Christophe's funeral, surrounded by corpses in a bottomless pit. The vision foreshadows the link between the zombie drug and Peytraud's power.

Back in Boston, a pharmaceutical company funds Alan to investigate a drug used in voodoo to create zombies, hoping to repurpose it as a 'super anesthetic.' They send him to Haiti, which is in the throes of revolution, to locate Christophe and the drug source.

Alan's expedition with Dr. Marielle Duchamp locates Christophe, who is alive after having been buried. Alan is taken into custody, and Captain Dargent Peytraud—the same man from the funeral—warns him to leave Haiti or face consequences.

Alan meets Mozart, who is rumored to know the zombie drug procedure. Mozart first sells him rat poison, then, after being publicly embarrassed, agrees to reveal the method for a fee of $1,000.

Alan is arrested again by the Tonton Macoutes, tortured with a nail driven through his scrotum, and dumped on a street with a warning to leave Haiti or die. He refuses to go and continues pursuing the drug with Mozart’s help.

Alan has a nightmare where Peytraud is revealed as a bokor who steals souls. He awakens beside Christophe's decapitated sister, and the Tonton Macoutes photograph the scene to frame him for murder.

Alan is put on a U.S.-bound plane, but Mozart secretly boards and hands him the zombie drug. He returns to Boston with his mission intact, while Mozart seeks international fame through his work.

At a celebration dinner, the wife of Alan's employer is possessed by Peytraud, who warns Alan of his own death. Alan returns to Haiti, where his ally Lucien Celine is killed and Mozart is beheaded as a sacrifice for Peytraud's power.

Alan is sprayed with the zombie powder and dies; Peytraud steals his body from the hospital. He is buried in a graveyard, but Christophe—a zombie himself—rescues him from the coffin and helps him escape.

Alan returns to the Tonton Macoute HQ and defeats Peytraud in a battle of wills, using Celine’s white magic to drive a nail into Peytraud’s groin and send his soul to hell. Marielle is rescued, the people celebrate the fall of Duvalier, and the nightmare is finally over.