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Originally Posted by Fraz33r Indeed Pan's labyrith was excellent. Somehow he has an edge for fantasy story telling and and I feel that he is/should be the most admired director/prod in this genre.
'The Serpent and the Rainbow' and Cronos next on my list! |
Cool! Let me know how you liked them.
Before you watch Serpent and the Rainbow, let me share with you, how I got to know about this movie. While travelling abroad, I got acquainted with a guy who was from Haiti. I would meet him on and off in the neighborhood where I was staying. During our casual chats I would ask him about his country and whether people really practised voodoo. This dude would tell me tales that were hard to believe. He would talk about sorcerors, murder by black magic, blood sacrifices and stuff that would shock you. He would always tell me to watch this movie called "the Serpent and The Rainbow" since it depicts realistically what goes on in Haiti. I always thought that he was probably spinning yarns since I am a huge horror buff and he was just telling me things that I wanted to hear.
One fine day I meet him at the local grocery store and this guy greets me excitedly, we exchange pleasantries and he tells me to walk outside since he wants to show me something. So I walked outside to the parking lot and he pulls out a photograph from his car. When I saw the photo, I exclaimed ***!!
The photo was a portrait of a person, not a live person though it was the photo of a dead guy. He was in a severe state of decomposition, there was hardly any flesh on the face, the eyes were gone with only empty sockets and there was still some hair on the scalp. The mouth was gaping wide open. The corpse was dressed in a black suit and was lying in a coffin as I could make out the lining of the inside of the coffin. I was excited and aghast at the same time.
Me: What the hell is this?
Haitian: That's my father
Me: Are you ******* serious? What happened to him?
Haitian: Nothing, he died a few months ago. I went back to Haiti and had to dig him out to retrieve something from his pocket.
Me: Why the heck would you do something like that?
Haitian: He was buried with something and I being the eldest son would have to dig him out and retrieve that thing because it will benefit me.
Me: And what is it that you retrieved?
Haitian: Sorry my friend, I'm forbidden to tell anyone about it.
Me: Is this some kind of voodoo rite?
Haitian: Yes.
I asked him a million questions about it and had several looks at the photo. I couldn't believe that I was actually looking at a photo of a corpse that was used in voodoo rites and the man who did it was standing in front of me. I never met him after that. Many days later I recalled the name of the movie that he recommended and bought it. That movie like I mentioned is "the Serpent and the Rainbow". Now I don't believe what the movie portrays could be true. However I do know that I stood face to face with this skinny bald Haitian man and shook his hand on several occasions. The same hand with which he had unearthed the corpse of his father from the graveyard in the middle of the night. There are a many more details to this than what he was allowed to share with me. I'm grateful and consider myself privileged to see and know details of something so private and forbidden. Was my friend a sorceror or a vooodoo priest? Or did he just participate in some rite that is common tradition in his country?
It's been more than seven years now, but I still think about the incident and wonder what he would have retrieved from the corpse. Even today I remember the face of the corpse from the photo quite vividly.