Guest Post: Anthony Renfro #WinterofZombie
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I do what I like to call Movie Review Haiku for my blog when I write-up movies I have watched. It keeps with the theme of my blog, which is mainly poetry based. Here is my post for The Serpent and the Rainbow.
First: The Haiku.
Strong Voodoo Magic
Humans turned into zombies
Dead come back to life
Second: The Review.
With the passing of Wes Craven back in September I lost one of my favorite writers and directors. A person who gave me my second favorite movie of all time in A Nightmare on Elm Street. I wanted to write-up something from him for this Zombie Guest Post and I thought what better movie to write about than The Serpent and the Rainbow. A powerful movie that centers on the world of voodoo. A movie that captures not only the dark side of this religion, but the good side as well.
Wes delivered a solid movie when he made this one. Each shot works to set the mood and scene, and allows the audience to be absorbed by what we are seeing. His direction helps the movie to move along at a very quick pace that never lags. It also has a very evil villain that is played with perfection by Zakes Mokae – tell me you wouldn’t want to scream when he decides to ask you to do it. The shots of his office with all the torture equipment is enough to make you squirmy. The movie also has a great lead in Bill Pullman, who pulled off the researcher role with relative ease. He made the character believable. The Serpent and the Rainbow also boasts some great practical effects (no CGI thank goodness) that will have you wiggling in your seat, a strong gripping story centered in Haiti, and multiple creepy atmospheric shots of graveyards.
It also has a strong score by Brad Fiedel, who’s worked on movies like The Terminator, Terminator 2, Fright Night, and one of my personal favorite Slasher Movies called “Just Before Dawn.” If you haven’t seen that one, you should seek it out. It has a creepy score (it will stay with you a while after you see it), evil twins, and the deep dark woods. All in all, a classic slasher movie from back in the Eighties when those movies seemed to drop every weekend.
I would give The Serpent and the Rainbow three and a half stars out of five. It delivers when it comes to horror movies and I would say if you haven’t seen it, you should. This movie does not disappoint.
As a sidebar:
This isn’t a traditional zombie flick. You know the norm when it comes to zombie movies – dead people get up and walk around while we humans try to survive against them. This movie goes beyond that by capturing a terrifying look at turning people into human zombies. Real or not, once in this trance like state there is nothing you can do but hope someone realizes you are not truly dead. If they don’t then you might just wind up six feet under struggling to find those final last breaths.
Anthony Renfro lives in North Carolina. He is a reader, writer, music lover (Jimmy Buffett and Heavy Metal mostly), husband, father, and stay at home dad-one of the toughest jobs anyone could ever do. He was born in Bristol, Tennessee, and is a graduate of UNC-Greensboro. You can find him blogging away on his website: awrenfro.com. His email door is always open and you can contact him there: atothewr@gmail.com.
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The stench of frozen flesh is in the air! Welcome to the Winter of Zombie Blog Tour 2015, with 40+ of the best zombie authors spreading the disease in the month of November.
Stop by the event page on Facebook so you don’t miss an interview, guest post or teaser…and pick up some great swag as well!
Giveaways galore from most of the authors as well as interaction with them!
#WinterofZombie is the hashtag for Twitter, too!
